1 29 cell 1 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems with 90 RIM-156 SM-2 BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc missiles 1 Mark 45 5/54 in (127/54 mm) 2 25 mm chain gun 4 .50 caliber (12.7 mm) guns 2 20 mm Phalanx CIWS 2 Mk 32 triple torpedo tubes Aircraft carried: 1 SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter can be embarked Motto: Gloria Merces Virtutis "Glory is the Reward of Valor" Badge:

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 during World War II. The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and was delivered to the Navy on 11 March 1996.

On 12 October 2000 the Cole was the target of a suicide attack carried out by Al-Qaeda in the Yemeni port of Aden; seventeen sailors were killed and thirty-nine were injured and the ship was damaged.1 On 29 November 2003 Cole deployed for her first overseas deployment after the bombing and subsequently returned to her homeport of Norfolk Virginia on 27 May 2004 without incident. Contents 1 Construction 2 History 3 Upgrade 4 Jesse Neal 5 See also 6 References 7 External links Construction

Cole is one of 62 authorized Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers and one of 21 members of the Flight I-class that utilized the 5"/54 caliber gun mounts found on the earliest of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. In addition to her guns Cole carries nearly 100 missiles of various types aboard two separate Mk 41 VLS magazines. Her superstructure features the AN/SPY-1 radar indicative of the Aegis combat system which allows the destroyer to track over 100 targets simultaneously.2 She also has two Phalanx CIWS gun mounts located aft and stern which are intended to protect Cole against enemy missiles that manage to evade the ship's anti-missile missiles. Cole was launched on 10 February 1995 and commissioned on 8 June 1996.3 History For more details on this topic see USS Cole bombing.

On 12 October 2000 while at anchor in Aden the Cole was attacked by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers who sailed a small boat near the destroyer and detonated explosive charges.1 The blast created a hole in the port side of the ship about 40 feet (12 m) in diameter killing 17 crewmembers and injuring 39.4 The ship was under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold.

Cole was returned to the United States aboard the Norwegian heavy-lift vessel 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.

The U.S. government offered a reward of up to US$5 million for information leading to the arrest of people who committed or aided in the attack on Cole. Al-Qaeda was suspected of targeting Cole because of the failure of a 3 January 2000 attack on USS The Sullivans one of the 2000 millennium attack plots. On 4 November 2002 Ali Qaed Sinan al-Harthi a suspected al-Qaida operative who is believed to have planned the Cole attack was killed by the CIA using an AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator drone.

On 29 November 2003 Cole deployed for her first overseas deployment after the bombing and subsequently returned to her homeport of Norfolk Virginia on 27 May 2004 without incident. In 2005 Cole participated in BALTOPS 05 with the Baltic Nations. Cole returned to the US in early July and was able to attend Fourth of July Celebrations in Philadelphia. The Cole being carried by the MV Blue Marlin.

The Cole deployed to the Middle East on 8 June 2006 for the first time since the bombing. While passing the port city of Aden the crew manned the rails to honor the crewmembers killed in the bombing. She returned to her homeport of Norfolk on 6 December 2006 without incident. On 21 August 2006 the 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.5 On 28 February 2008 the Cole was sent to take station off Lebanon's coast the first of an anticipated three-ship flotilla.6 Upgrade On November 12 2009 the Missile Defense Agency announced that the Cole would be upgraded during fiscal 2013 to RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) capability in order to function as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.7 Jesse Neal Jesse Neal served in the United States Navy from 1998 to 2002 reaching the rank of a petty officer and was on board USS Cole when it was suicide bombed on October 12 2000.Neal has a tattoo on his right forearm of the initials of his best friend who was killed in the attack. After the attack Neal was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder and spent over a year on shore duty before finishing his four year stint with the Navy in 2002. See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to: USS Cole (DDG-67) USS Samuel B. Roberts References a b Yemeni pair charged in USS Cole bombing Owing to the presence of the Aegis system Cole and her sisters are sometimes incorrectly referred to as Aegis class ships. http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/01067.htm http://www.al-bab.com/yemen/cole1.htm military.com "Cole Skipper Off Promotion List" USS Cole off Lebanon Coast; Show of Support to Whom 29 February 2008 "MDA announces next 6 BMD ships" Navy Times 12 November 2009. External links Rewards for Justice Site Official website of USS Cole navsource.org: USS Cole USS Cole Association Official Department of Defense FOIA files on the USS Cole 1 2 3 USS Cole Redeploys Maritimequest USS Cole DDG-67 Photo Gallery v d eArleigh Burke-class destroyer Flight I ships Arleigh Burke  Barry  John Paul Jones  Curtis Wilbur  Stout  John S. McCain  Mitscher  Laboon  Russell  Paul Hamilton  Ramage  Fitzgerald  Stethem  Carney  Benfold  Gonzalez  Cole  The Sullivans  Milius  Hopper  Ross Flight II ships Mahan  Decatur  McFaul  Donald Cook  Higgins  O'Kane  Porter Flight IIA ships 5"/54 variant: Oscar Austin  Roosevelt 5"/62 variant: Winston S. Churchill  Lassen  Howard  Bulkeley  McCampbell  Shoup  Mason  Preble  Mustin  Chafee  Pinckney  Momsen  Chung-Hoon  Nitze  James E. Williams  Bainbridge  Halsey  Forrest Sherman  Farragut  Kidd  Gridley  Sampson  Truxtun  Sterett  Dewey  Stockdale  Gravely  Wayne E. Meyer  Jason Dunham  William P. Lawrence  Spruance  Michael Murphy List of destroyers of the United States Navy  List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy