Back in the water for you navy types

alledan

Damaged USS Cole back in the water--U.S. Navy Friday September 14, 7:40 PM EDT SEATTLE, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy said on Friday that the warship USS Cole, crippled by a bombing in Yemen that killed 17 sailors, was relaunched into the water at a Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) plant in Pascagoula, Mississippi.The Aegis destroyer had been given a $105.5 million repair job completed on September 4 by Northrop subsidiary Ingalls Shipbuilding, a unit of Litton Industries, which Northrop bought earlier this year.Realignment and testing work will continue on systems, machinery and logistics on the ship, which was on schedule to return to Navy service by next April. Total repairs and improvements to the ship are estimated to cost $240 million.The USS Cole was badly damaged in October, 2000 when a boat filled with explosives was detonated alongside its hull while it was docked in Aden, Yemen, for refueling.U.S. investigators believe the blast, which ripped a hole in the side of the ship, was carried out by Islamic militants, perhaps linked to exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.U.S. officials have also implicated bin Laden in Tuesday's hijacking and crashing of four U.S. jetliners which destroyed the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York and blasted a huge hole in the side of the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. c2001 Reuters Limited. If we are going to operate our naval vessels in the Persian gulf we had better find more friendly and more secure ports to dock them.[This message has been edited by alledan (edited 09-16-2001).]

idsman75

Just for the sake of poetic justice, I think the first bit of naval gunfire should be initiated by the Cole.

bfair

I hope we don't have to wait for the Cole DDG-67to fire the first shot.She was just re-launched from the floating drydock at Ingalls. It wil be next year before she is back in service[This message has been edited by bfair (edited 09-16-2001).]