USS COLE DDG 67 a United States Navy Arleigh Burke Class guided missile destroyer homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, during World War II. The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and was delivered to the Navy on 11 March 1996.
Above images – Entering Valletta a month before on the 4th September 2000
On Thursday 12th October 2000, USS COLE DDG 67 was the target of an attack carried out by Al Qaeda in the Yemeni port of Aden, when two suicide bombers detonated explosives carried in a small boat near the warship, killing 17 sailors, injuring 39 others, and damaging the ship. She was under the command of 41 year old Commander Kirk Lippold.
Eleven seriously injured sailors (2 women and 9 men), were evacuated to various hospitals in Aden by French Air Force C-160 Transalls from the French Forces of Djibouti. French forces were mobilized to treat the wounded. They were evacuated by a USAF McDonnell Douglas C-9 thereafter.
HALL OF HEROES aboard the destroyer to all remembered during the attack.
USS COLE DDG 67 was returned to the United States aboard the Dutch semi submersible heavy lift vessel BLUE MARLIN owned by Dockwise of the Netherlands. The ship was discharged on 13th December 2000 in a pre dredged deep water facility at the Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Ingalls Operations. On 14th January 2001, USS COLE was moved from the floating dry dock at Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding to the land facility in order to fully begin its restoration process. Her movement over land was accomplished by a system of electrically powered cars that travelled over rails where she was moved to a construction bay near where the ship was originally built five years before. On 1st July 2001, still under repair she was transferred to Carrier Group 2, led by the aircraft carrier USS HARRY S. TRUMAN CVN 75.
On 29th November 2003 she engaged in her first overseas deployment after the bombing and subsequently returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia, on 27th May 2004.
On 28th February 2008 USS COLE DDG 67 was sent to take station off Lebanon’s coast, of which she called twice to Valletta that year first 9th February –
And second on the 22nd February –
Photos by Capt. Lawrence Dalli. Do not use these images without my permission. © All rights reserved. Malta Ship Photos & Action Photos – www.maltashipphotos.com
Published – Wednesday 16th October 2019
