USS Cole's lessons

Clearly Mr Wiley has never been held totally accountable for anything, has never been a Commanding Officer of a warship and has no idea of how or why the Cole incident occured. The rules in place for the Cole visit, determined by commanders far above the mere captain of the Cole, precluded taking the actions Mr Wiley suggests. The CO had no way to know that the small boat approaching his ship was going to attack it. In every port of the world, this scenario is acted out daily, small boats approach US Navy ships. Too bad some emotionally attached but insensitive and uniformed antagonists have to keep bringing this up.

Who is John L Wiley? Just what are his qualifications to be a boorish jerk?

I was in Yemen when these terrorists attempted to attack my ship, USS The Sullivans - only finding out 10 months later that the skif was over-laden with explosives and sunk on its way to our location. We were aware of the heightened security concerns. Our Captain made significant strides to ensure our ship was protected. We weren't even technically pierside, but at a floating pier to further ensure our security. During a refueling evolution, as alluded to by "Been in Command 4x", small boats are approaching the ship regularly. The men who attacked the USS Cole were waving at the security teams as though they were coming alongside for logistics purposes. There was no threatening posture by the small boat that attacked that would have justified USS Cole security teams in "protecting" the ship.
As far as explaining the reasons the USS Cole was in Aden, Yemen, the background on the intelligence and security posture, and the protective and escalatory measures in place, I would be happy to direct Mr. Wiley to the appropriate resources, although he should have had the wherewithall to do this research on his own.
My Captain did everything in his power to protect our ship - as did CDR Lippold and his crew. To say that CDR Lippold failed the United States clearly indicates that he is speaking from an emotional and uninformed viewpoint. That ship was saved through the monumental damage control efforts of that crew. CDR Lippold stood accountable for everything that happened and paid dearly -both personally and professionally - for an occurrence that should have made him and his crew hero's. If you don't agree, perhaps you would like to hold our patrol teams in Iraq and Afghanistan accountable for IED attacks. Clearly they shouldn't be in an area known for significant security risk without taking appropriate protective measures??
Mr. Wiley - you are certainly entitled to your opinion. However, the responsibility also falls upon your shoulders to know and research the facts before you place blame.

Mr. Wiley, take some time to show the officers and crew of the COLE that endured the attack some respect. Your shallow, poorly researched "letter-to-the-editor " serves only to misinform those who know little about the event and enrage the professionals who do understand what happened and why.

I commanded the COLE before the man who lead that crew through their ordeal. I had the honor to know many of those that were killed and injured. You dishonor them and embarrass yourself by your inane effort.

CAPT R. Nolan USN, Ret

Honor, Courage, and Committment. Words that I believe Mr. Wiley does not comprehend.
I had the pleasure of working with a PO1 while stationed at FT George G. Meade, MD., whose brother paid the ultimate sacrifice onboard the USS Cole that day.
I remember very well the pride that she had in our Navy, our nation, and her family's service to this great nation. I'm quite sure that she would consider Mr. Wiley's remarks nothing more than a blatant slap in the face -- something that she'd no doubt hesitate, and yearn to return in kind.
A few pointers for Mr. Wiley:
1) Educate yourself before you put pen to paper, and when you do,
2) Remember that one can broach sensitive matters with a bit of reverence and respect despite their personal opinion.
BZ to all who responded here. Will be interesting to see if this matter draws any type of editorial reply.
Be sure to check out the my dear friend, and fellow shipmates posting on the USNI Blog site at: http://blog.usni.org/...
Regards to all except one...
CTMCM(SW) JW Warrick, USN (Ret)

Correction to my previous posting...

"...a blatant slap in the face -- something that she would not hesitate, but actually yearn, to return in kind."

Sorry...changed my wording in mid thought...

The writer obviously has no idea what he is talking about. This is like me writing an article about astro-physics. Preposperous!

There is so many things in this article that are not researched, misleading, and flat out wrong I find myself wondering how this ever got published.

Mr. Wiley,
You show poor judgement and a lack of taste. You clearly have no idea of the events surrounding the Cole bombing and, furthermore, a drastic lack of knowledge about how Rules of Engagement work.

Furthermore, I guarentee your slap in the face to the members of Cole's crew is completely unnecessary. I would hazard to guess that CO lays down every night thinking about that day, as do the other members who lost friends and shipmates.

You should be ashamed for this half-brained excuse for an article.

My first reaction to the post was a strong desire to rant about my personal estimation of Mr. Wiley's worth as a human being. My second reaction, and the one I'm going with, is a rant on the worth of the Daily Press for posting this. Yes, the first amendment guarentees everyone's right to speak. But private enterprise forums such as the Daily Press aren't required to post insults like this article. It isn't done for journalistic integrity or freedom of speech or any of the noble causes organziations like this normally espouse. It's because conflict increases traffic and does nice things for their bottom line. So, Mr. Wiley, I hope you live a long miserable life with your pitiable impressions of your fellow man. Daily Press - I respectfully suggest that your entire editorial board get bent.

Obviously, sir, you did not read the report from the Cole commission that although there were some lessons learned, the commission found Captain and crew of the Cole acted professionally and with great heroism, and that any mistakes made did not warrant "punitive action." Pray we never forget!

Just another Sailor has it about right. I might understand if this was a lone wolf ranting on some esoteric internet site...but for a group that fancies itself a newspaper editorial board, publishing this drivel is inexplicable. And you would ask me to subscribe to your "product"? Shame on you.
CDR Guy Maiden, USN (Ret)