Jump to content

USS Cole (DDG-67)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by SemperFideliS81 (talk | contribs) at 12:55, 29 August 2007 (→Bombing: assertion of affiliation requires citation, especially when presented as fact rather than theory). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

USS Cole (DDG 67) underway
Career USN Jack
Ordered: 16 January 1991
Laid down: 28 February 1994
Launched: 10 February 1995
Commissioned: 8 June 1996
Decommissioned:
Status: Template:Ship fate box active in service
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement: 8,315 tons (8,448 t)
Length: 505 ft (153.9 m)
Beam: 66 ft (20.1 m)
Draught: 31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion: 4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW)
Speed: 30+ knots (56+ km/h)
Range:
Complement: 337 officers and enlisted
Armament: 1 × 29 cell, 1 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems, 90 × RIM-67 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc, missiles
1 × 5/54 in (127/54 mm), 2 × 25 mm, 4 × 12.7 mm guns, 2 × Phalanx CIWS
2 × Mk 46 triple torpedo tubes
Aircraft: 1 SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter can be refueled and rearmed. Flight IIA DDG-79 and following can embark helicopters
Motto: Gloria Merces Virtutis
"Glory is the Reward
of Valor"

The second USS Cole (DDG 67) is an Arleigh Burke class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer homeported in NS Norfolk, Virginia. The Cole is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945.

File:USS Cole Coat of Arms.jpg
Cole Coat of Arms

She was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and delivered to the Navy on 11 March 1996.

History

The Cole deployed to the Middle East on June 8, 2006 for the first time since the bombing.

In 21 August, 2006, Associated Press reported that the Cole's Commanding Officer at the time of the bombing, Commander Kirk Lippold was denied promotion to the rank of Captain.[1]

Bombing

Further information: USS Cole bombing

On 12 October 2000, while under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold, the Cole was attacked from a small boat by Al-Qaida[citation needed] suicide bombers, while she was harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 were injured. The U.S. government offered a reward of up to US$5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of those persons who committed or aided in the attack on Cole. On 4 November 2002, Ali Qaed Sinan al-Harthi, who is believed to have planned the attack, was killed by the CIA using an AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator unmanned drone.

Cole was returned to the United States aboard the Norwegian semi-submersible heavy-lift MV Blue Marlin owned by Offshore Heavy Transport of Oslo, Norway. The ship was off-loaded 13 December 2000, from Blue Marlin in a pre-dredged deep-water facility at the Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Ingalls Operations. After 14 months of repair, Cole departed on 19 April 2002, and returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia. Cole left Norfolk on 29 November 2003 on the destroyer's first overseas deployment since it was bombed in the year 2000.

Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group, probably targeted Cole because an earlier attempt to attack USS The Sullivans on January 3, 2000 had failed. This was one of the 2000 millennium attack plots.

The Cole being carried by the MV Blue Marlin.

It was reported in March 2007 that the families of the 17 sailors killed in the blast are heading to court to try to prove the attack could not have happened without the help of Sudan's government. "Sudan's material support ... including continuous flow of funding, money, weapons, logistical support, diplomatic passports and religious blessing, was crucial in enabling the attack on the USS Cole," lawyers for the families said in court papers outlining their case. [2] On March 14, 2007 it was reported that U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar said, "There is substantial evidence in this case presented by the expert testimony that the government of Sudan induced the particular bombing of the Cole by virtue of prior actions of the government of Sudan." [3]

On 25th July 2007, a US court led by Doumar ordered Sudan to pay $8m compensation to the families of the 17 marines who died. He calculated the amount they should receive by multiplying the salary of the sailors by the number of years they would have continued to work.[4]

See Also

References

  1. ^ military.com "Cole Skipper Off Promotion List"
  2. ^ USS Cole Lawsuit Trial Begins in Virginia. March 13, 2007.
  3. ^ Judge: Sudan Responsible for Bombing of USS Cole. March 14, 2007.
  4. ^ Sudan must pay USS Cole victims. July 25, 2007.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=USS_Cole_(DDG-67)&oldid=154377140"