USS Cole (DDG-67)

USS Cole (DDG-67)

USS Cole underway in August 2002.
History
United States
Name:	USS Cole
Namesake:	Darrell S. Cole
Ordered:	16 January 1991
Builder:	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	28 February 1994
Launched:	10 February 1995
Commissioned:	8 June 1996
Identification:	DDG-67
Motto:	Gloria Merces Virtutis "Glory is the Reward of Valor"
Status:	in active service
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Displacement:	Light: approx. 6,800 long tons (6,900 t) Full: approx. 8,900 long tons (9,000 t)
Length:	505 ft (154 m)
Beam:	66 ft (20 m)
Draft:	31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion:	4 General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, two shafts, 100,000 total shaft horsepower (75 MW)
Speed:	>30 knots (56 km/h)
Range:	4,400 nautical miles at 20 knots (8,100 km at 37 km/h)
Complement:	33 commissioned officers 38 chief petty officers 210 enlisted personnel
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPY-1D 3D Radar AN/SPS-67(V)2 Surface Search Radar AN/SPS-73(V)12 Surface Search Radar AN/SPG-62 Fire Control Radar AN/SQS-53C Sonar Array AN/SQR-19 Tactical Towed Array Sonar AN/SQQ-28 LAMPS III Shipboard System
Electronic warfare & decoys:	AN/SLQ-32(V)2 Electronic Warfare System AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures MK 36 MOD 12 Decoy Launching System AN/SLQ-39 CHAFF Buoys
Armament:	1 × 29 cell, 1 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launching systems with 90 × RIM-156 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-ASROC missiles 2 x Mk 141 Harpoon Missile Launcher SSM 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:	2 Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters can be embarked

USS Cole (DDG-67) is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer homeported 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 utilized the 5-inch/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 the target of an attack carried out by al-Qaeda in the Yemeni port of Aden, when two suicide bombers detonated explosives carried in a small boat near the warship, 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 homeport of Norfolk, Virginia, on 27 May 2004 without incident.

Cole was launched on 10 February 1995 and commissioned on 8 June 1996.Cole was in continual service for the United States Navy for several years after being commissioned. However, an al-Qaeda terrorist attack in 2000, allegedly plotted by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would heavily damage the ship, requiring extensive repairs, although still capable of eventually returning to service.