On 12 October 2000 while refueling in Aden, Yeman, the USS Cole was attacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists. At 11:18 am Yemeni time a boat believed by sailors to be a garbage scow pulled alongside their ship and detonated a powerful bomb. Seventeen sailors were killed and thirty-nine were injured in the attack.
The sailors represented America, read their cruise book memorials here. Below is the tombstone of HT3 Kenneth Clodfelter of Mechanicsville, Virginia. He was a Boy Scout and member of the National Order of the Arrow (Scouting's honor society). He joined the Navy after high school, had married his high school sweetheart and had one son. Petty Officer Clodfelter had planned to make the Navy a career.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the USS Cole, and America is no longer asleep while terrorists plot. May our armed forces, CIA and FBI continue their hard work to make us safe.
Watch coverage of today's ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia, the USS Cole's home port, in the video below.
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