Sailors Plan To Remember 2000 Terrorist Attack On USS Cole

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

Current and former crew members as well as friends and family plan to gather Friday in an auditorium on 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.