USS COLE Bombing
12 OCTOBER 2000
USS COLE BOMBING
On January 3rd, 2000, the destroyer THE SULLIVANS (DDG-68) moored in the port of Aden, Yemen, for refueling. While her crew worked, unseen Al-Queda operatives pushed a small boat loaded with explosives into the harbor. But the boat was overloaded and sank. US Navy ships called on Aden 3-4 times each month for refueling, so the operatives bided their time, awaiting the next of Osama bin Laden’s year 2000 millennium strikes.
On this day 25 years ago, USS COLE (DDG-67) entered Aden harbor for refueling after transiting the Suez Canal and Red Sea. She approached a fueling dolphin in the center of the harbor about 600 meters from land. By 0930 she was moored, and at 10:30 she began what was expected to be a 4-hour fueling evolution. Fishing boats and other small craft crisscrossed the harbor observed by COLE’s lookouts, who stood with unloaded guns and orders not to shoot unless fired upon. About a quarter after eleven an inflatable open boat approached the fueling destroyer. The deck watch stiffened, but the boat’s two occupants respectfully came to attention as their boat approached. Suddenly, at 1118, the boat sped up and crashed into COLE’s port side, amidships. Six hundred to 1000 pounds of high explosives crudely shaped to stove-in COLE’s hull detonated.
The explosion ripped a 40′ X 60′ gash in the hull, opening the mess deck to the sea. Hungry sailors lining up for chow were blasted, seventeen in all were killed. CDR Kirk Lippold’s damage controlmen struggled to keep the destroyer afloat as the ship’s IDC, HMC James Parlier, made his way to the deck. On the way he came across a critically injured shipmate with several others standing by helplessly. Parlier had a hatch taken off its hinges to transport the sailor to the deck and started CPR. But shortly another Chief stopped him, saying there are many others worth saving who needed his help. Parlier left the critically injured sailor to tend to the 39 other wounded. The shipmate died.
DONALD COOK (DDG-75) and HAWES (FFG-53) were shortly on the scene to provide assistance and security. Over the next few days the wounded were medevaced to Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany. The Norwegian semi-submersible heavy lift ship Blue Marlin was retained to transport COLE back to Mississippi, where she arrived on Christmas Eve. Her repairs totaled $240 million, nearly a quarter of her original cost. A JAGMAN investigation concluded that CDR Lippold acted responsibly and could not have prevented the attack. Despite this he was passed over for promotion in subsequent years, and retired from the Navy at the grade of CDR in 2007.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 18 OCT 25
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
McMichael, William H., “10 Years after the COLE Bombing, a Different Navy,” Navy Times, 11 October 2010.
Piszkiewicz, Dennis. Terrorism’s War with America: A History. Westport, CT: Praeger Pub., 2003, pp. 122-23.
Polmar, Norman. The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 18th ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2005, p. 151.
Schogol, Jeff. “Memories Strong Five Years after COLE Blast.” Stars and Stripes, 12 October 2005.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 305.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Linkage of this attack to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Queda terrorist group was later established, although technically, under US law “terrorism” cannot be charged when perpetrated against a military target. Subsequent investigation determined that Sudan had materially aided Al-Queda’s plot to bomb a US warship in Aden harbor, and US Courts found the Sudan liable for $8 million in damages to the families of COLE’s deceased. The Sudanese government is appealing this decision.
As a result of this incident the rules of engagement have been revised to allow more forceful actions against apparent terrorists, even if no “shooting” has occurred.
USS COLE remembers SGT Darrell S. Cole, USMC, who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for actions on Iwo Jima during WWII. Cole’s MOS was bugler but never endorsed that rating. He fought at Guadalcanal, Tinian, Saipan, and Iwo Jima as a machine gunner.
