“Before 9/11, there was 10/12.”
That’s a mantra repeated by former USS Cole shipmates and family members in recalling the 17 sailors killed in the Oct. 12, 2000, bombing of the Navy destroyer in Yemen’s Aden harbor. The waterborne suicide attack by al Qaeda proved a morbid warning of the terror group’s potency less than a year before it hijacked planes and killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001, all on American soil.
Many issues related to the attack remain unresolved. The suspected mastermind, Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 54, still hasn’t been tried for his role. Former crew members and victims’ families are frustrated with the slow pace of justice in military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held for over a decade.
The USS Cole’s commanding officer the day of the attack, Kirk Lippold, 60, said it was “absolutely inexcusable” that the legal process had been allowed to be dragged out by defense attorneys.
“What we are probably most frustrated with is that we are 19 years after the attack, and the Navy has essentially set it aside and doesn’t want to discuss it. The American people have moved on with their lives and as a nation, and we still have not seen justice for that attack,” Lippold told the Washington Examiner. “We’re now into our third administration where justice for the victims of terrorism is not happening.”
Mona Gunn, president of American Gold Star Mothers and mother of Seaman Cherone Gunn, killed in the attack at age 22, is also frustrated.
Gunn, 68, cites an April federal appeals court ruling she considers a setback for the case, under which years of orders made by the presiding judge, Air Force Col. Vance Spath, must be thrown out due to his undisclosed conflicts of interest.
“I don’t know how effective military commissions are, I just know it’s not working, and I say it’s not working because nothing has been done,” Gunn said. “Three years of work has all been trash canned and we need to start all over again.”
Beyond the legal machinations, Lippold and Gunn stressed they want the American public to remember the sacrifices made by the ship’s crew.
“When we pulled in that morning, one of the things that we were totally unaware of was that the intelligence community had completely underestimated the threat of al Qaeda operating in that port,” Lippold said. “In fact, they had been there for over a year.”
The USS Cole had been ordered to refuel in the harbor. Lippold, as commander, agreed to let the Yemenis who ran the port send out a sewage barge and a couple small trash boats while the ship refueled.
“The two boats left and were halfway across the harbor; a third boat was racing across the harbor, it slowed down, it came by the bow, turned, came down the side of the ship, came to the middle of the ship, and detonated,” Lippold said. “The crew just responded magnificently. In those initial seconds after the blast, there was no chain of command, but the crew fell back on their training and did exactly what they were supposed to do.”
Lippold said the crew split into three groups: One kept the ship from sinking, a second carried out triage to save their shipmates, and the final one secured the ship topside to make sure there wasn’t a secondary attack.
“That first day, as a testament to how well the crew did, we would evacuate 33 wounded off the ship in about 99 minutes, and of those 33, 32 would survive,” Lippold said.
Gunn’s son was among the 17 who died. She described Cherone as “a child born on Valentine’s Day” and said “everybody loved him.” She said her son “decided to follow his dad’s footsteps” in joining the Navy but ultimately wanted to become a law enforcement officer.
“He would say to me, ‘Mom, you’re gonna miss me.’ And I would say, ‘Yes, I’m going to miss you, but you’ll be back because your daddy deployed plenty of times and always came back.’ And unfortunately, Cherone’s career in the Navy was only nine months,” Gunn said. “He graduated in January, the ship left in August, and the attack happened in October.”
Gunn joined American Gold Star Mothers in 2004 and became its president this summer. She said the group gives her a sense of comfort, as it provides support for other Gold Star families and advocates for veterans. Gunn said the families of the 17 sailors who lost their lives on the USS Cole consider themselves a family, and she feels a duty to keep her son’s memory alive.
“We often say a person dies twice. Once, when they take their last breath. And again when their name is not spoken anymore,” Gunn said. “So as much as we can get out there and speak their name, we know that their memory stays alive.”
Shipmates and family members are set to gather in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday for an annual remembrance ceremony.
“At the end of the day my crew distinguished themselves as heroes, and I want the Navy and the nation to remember them every year on Oct. 12,” Lippold said.
