USS COLE RETURNS!
NORFOLK, Va. -- The USS Cole is heading to the Middle East for the first time since a terrorist bomb killed 17 sailors aboard the Navy ship in Yemen's port of Aden nearly six years ago.
The Norfolk-based guided missile destroyer is one of seven ships with 6,000 sailors and Marines leaving the East Coast next week to conduct security operations in support of the war on terrorism, the Navy announced Friday. They'll be gone six months.
Some ships will leave Tuesday, while others, including the Cole, will depart Thursday, said Lt. Mike Kafka, a spokesman for the Navy's Second Fleet, in Norfolk.
The ships will deploy to the Fifth Fleet's area of responsibility, which includes the Persian Gulf, Kafka said. He said he could not give details about where the ships will go, for security reasons.