Sailors plan to remember 2000 terrorist attack on destroyer Cole

By

The Associated Press

Layered photos of sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer Cole appear behind a photo of the Arleigh Burke-class warship while underway in the Mediterranean Sea, approximately one month before being attacked. In the early morning hours of October 12, 2000, while refueling in the Yemen port city of Aden, the Cole was attacked by al-Qaida suicide bombers. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Brianna K. Green/Navy)

NORFOLK, Va. — The U.S. Navy in Virginia is holding a remembrance of the deadly attack on the guided-missile destroyer Cole.

Current and former crew members as well as friends and family plan to gather Friday in an auditorium at Naval Station Norfolk.

The Cole was attacked Oct. 12, 2000, in a port in Yemen by al-Qaida. A boat posing as a trash barge motored to the ship and blasted a massive hole.

The suicide attack killed 17 sailors and injured 37.

The commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Adm. Christopher Grady, will be Friday’s keynote speaker. He served as the Cole’s commanding officer in 2003 and 2004.

The Cole recently returned from a successful deployment to the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of operation, which includes the site of the attack.