USS Cole (DDG-67)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career	Image:Naval Jack of the United States.svg

Ordered:	16 January 1991
Laid down:	28 February 1994
Launched:	10 February 1995
Commissioned:	8 June 1996
Decommissioned:
Status:	Active in service as of 2006.
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.

Cole Coat of Arms

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

1 History
- 1.1 Bombing
2 See Also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

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

On 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.<ref>military.com "Cole Skipper Off Promotion List"</ref>

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

[edit] Bombing

For more details on this topic, see USS Cole bombing.

On 12 October 2000, while under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold, the Cole was attacked from a small boat by 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.