USS Cole (DDG-67)

History

USS Cole (DDG-67) is an Arleigh Burke-class (Flight I) Aegis guided missile destroyer home-ported in Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Cole 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. Cole is one of 62 authorized Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, and one of 21 members of the Flight I-class that used the 5 in(127 mm)/54 caliber gun mounts found on the earliest of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and was delivered to the Navy on 11 March 1996.

On 12 October 2000, Cole was bombed in a suicide attack carried out by the militant organization al-Qaeda in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 sailors, injuring 39 others, and damaging the ship. On 29 November 2003, Cole engaged in her first overseas deployment after the bombing and subsequently returned to her home port of Norfolk, Virginia, on 27 May 2004 without incident.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Cole (DDG-67), CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1995
   Cole was launched on 10 February 1995 and commissioned on 8 June 1996 in Port Everglades, Florida.
2. 2000
   On 12 October 2000, while at anchor in Aden for refueling, Cole was attacked by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, who sailed a small boat near the destroyer and detonated explosive charges.
3. 2001
   On 14 September 2001, Cole was moved from drydock into the water once again.
4. 2002
   On 4 November 2002, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, a suspected al-Qaeda operative who is believed to have planned the Cole attack, was killed in Yemen by the Central Intelligence Agency using an AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from a General Atomics MQ-1 Predator drone.
5. 2003
   On 20 August 2003, Cole got underway with the Argentine destroyer Sarandí for a short group sail.
6. 2003
   On 29 November 2003 Cole deployed for her first overseas deployment after the bombing.
7. 2006
   On 21 August 2006, the Associated Press reported that Cole's commanding officer at the time of the bombing, Commander Kirk Lippold, had been denied promotion to the rank of captain.
8. 2017
   On 3 February 2017, a U.S. defense official told Fox News, "The Navy sent USS Cole to the Gulf of Aden following an attack earlier this week [30 January] on a Saudi warship off Yemen by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels". Both Iran and the Houthis have denied they are collaborating with each other.
9. 2024
   On 1 October 2024, Cole was involved in the interception of missiles employing SM-3 and SM-6 missiles during the October 2024 Iranian strikes on Israel.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Cole (DDG-67)”

More history

• Wikipedia: USS Cole (DDG-67)