The USS Cole suffered a surprise attack by al Qaeda suicide bombers while at port in Yemen — killing 17 American sailors and wounding about three dozen others, on this day in history, Oct.
12, 2000. It proved an ill-heeded harbinger of much more terrifying al-Qaeda attacks on the United States' homeland 11 months later. "Sadly, it took the grievous attack on 9/11 for us to collectively realize that al Qaeda presented a truly consequential threat to America’s security," Admiral Christopher W.
Grady, now vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation's second-highest ranking military officer, wrote during a 20th anniversary retrospective of the attack.
Grady commanded the USS Cole from 2003 to 2004. The U.S Navy guided-missile destroyer was in the port of Aden to refuel when two men pulled up alongside the vessel in a motorboat, reportedly making friendly gestures to the American warship.
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