Thursday, February 19, 2009

Six Degrees of Darrell S. Cole

Lat 24 47 N
Lon 141 19 E

Iwo Jima

KIA on D-1 Medal of Honor Winner Sgt. Darrell Samuel Cole, USMCR. Sgt.
Cole’s heroism on 19Feb1945 was memorialized by the Navy with the June 1995 commissioning of DDG-67 USS COLE an Arliegh Burke Class Guided Missile Destroyer.

USS COLE was attacked by al Qaeda terrorists in Aden Yemen on Oct 12, 2000.

Corpsman John Bradley, one of the 3 men in Rosenthal’s picture to survive the battle - said it best “We’re not heros, the heros are the ones who didn’t come home.”

My six degrees:
1) Sgt. D. S. Cole dies at Iwo Jima winning the congressional Medal of Honor
2) US Navy names DDG-67 in honor of Sgt. Cole
3) I was assigned to the Commissioning crew.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"USS COLE was attacked by al Qaeda terrorists in Aden Yemen on Oct 12, 2000"

Um, you're being overly modest. Last I checked, you were ON the Cole when it got hit.

tigger23505 said...

Sometimes I think of that mode as being ironic. To be honest I was following Doc Bradley's principle - I'm not a hero -- The hero's from 12 OCT 2000 are at Arlington (5); Antietam (2); various private, non-military cemeteries, and buried at sea.

Yes, I was there - one of the few commissioning crew left at the time. Since I left we've had 2 or 3 return for a second tour.