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USS Cole bombing, the story

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charlesoakwood:

USS Cole Commander Kirk Lippold,  has written a book about the bombing of the Cole.
It is titled “Front Burner: Al Qaeda’s Attack on the USS Cole”  and will be released April 10.
The Daily Caller published part of an interview in it's article.  This is a snippet.

“At the moment of the explosion, the entire ship is lifted up into the air, and within seconds I knew we’d been attacked,”

“I was sitting in my cabin working at my desk. I went back and opened the safe where I kept the keys to the missiles and the torpedoes and the guns, and I pulled out a 9mm pistol, took a deep breath and went outside on the ship.”

“I didn’t know if we were going to be boarded. … All I knew was I had chambered a round, I had two clips of ammunition. … The only thing I could think of [was] I might be facing my destiny, but I’m not leaving a single round in the chamber. The only two things that mattered to me in the moment were protecting my crew and protecting my ship.”
...
“There was no announcing system to tell them what had happened because it had failed. There were no alarm systems on the ship because the system had failed. So without anyone telling the crew what to do, what had happened, where to go, they fell back on their training and immediately set about saving the ship and saving their shipmates,” he said. “We got the ship stable within a couple hours, to where it wasn’t sinking. To tell you how well the crew did in saving their shipmates —that first day we evacuated 33 wounded off the ship, in 99 minutes, and of those 33, 32 would survive.”


http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/06/twelve-years-later-uss-cole-commander-recalls-deadly-attack/

S0N_of_trapeze:
This goes to show the value of military training and discipline. I love stories of military men and women reacting to potentially devastating attacks and, by pure instinct, saving lives and equipment. Makes me proud to share that Flag on my right shoulder with them. God bless those sailors

AlanS:

--- Quote from: S0N_of_trapeze on April 08, 2012, 07:21:21 PM ---This goes to show the value of military training and discipline.
--- End quote ---

Amen. And I know they train vigorously.

And thank you for your service. ::USA::

Libertas:
I cannot tell you how boring and routine all the shipboard drills were in my day, but there is a method to the madness even if one is merely going through the motions...if anything does happen you know where you are supposed to be and what you should be doing...and strangely enough people react accordingly under stress, training basically creates a new default setting in people.  It doesn't mean all people react the same under stressful circumstances, the the vast majority do, and as we see in the case of the Cole they responded well.

"American Bad Ass", heh, feisty crew, eh?!

 ::thumbsup::

 ::USA::

21stCenturyThinker:

--- Quote from: Libertas on April 09, 2012, 07:04:32 AM ---...and strangely enough people react accordingly under stress, training basically creates a new default setting in people.  It doesn't mean all people react the same under stressful circumstances, the the vast majority do, and as we see in the case of the Cole they responded well.

Funny thing about instinct... it causes some people to run toward danger while it causes others to run away from it. That's where the training comes in. Lots of credit should be given to the entire chain of command on the Cole for training effectively to make sure that instinct was either augmented or overcome depending upon the personality of each sailor.
--- End quote ---

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