Cole Back Home From Mission

NORFOLK, Va. —  The U.S. destroyer Cole came home Thursday from six months in the Mediterranean Sea -- its first overseas deployment since terrorists bombed it in Yemen’s port of Aden in October 2000, killing 17 sailors.

The guided-missile destroyer was repaired and upgraded after the attack, and only five sailors who were aboard that day remained with it. They did not want to talk to reporters, the Navy said.

Other members of the crew of more than 350 acknowledged that the attack was an inescapable part of the ship’s history. “It’s always going to be the Cole,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Ellis, 34, of Moyock, N.C.

“You can’t go down to the mess decks every day and walk on the 17 stars without thinking about it,” Cmdr. Christopher W. Grady, the Cole’s commanding officer, said of the attack.

Grady was referring to the ship’s “Hall of Heroes” with stars on the floor in honor of the sailors killed when suicide bombers pulled an explosive-packed boat alongside the ship, tearing a large hole in the Cole’s side. The bombing was blamed on the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

Saved by the surviving crew from sinking, the $1-billion ship underwent $250 million in repairs at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.

For the deployment, the Cole left Norfolk Naval Station on Nov. 29 as part of an independent three-ship strike group that was under the Enterprise carrier strike group.