Navy Releases Names of Cole Casualties
Oct. 13 -- The Navy today released the names of the seven Americans killed and 10 others missing and presumed dead after the explosion on the USS Cole in Yemen on Thursday.
Two of the victims were women, making it the first timea female sailor has been killed in hostile action aboard a U.S.combat ship since women began serving aboard them in 1994.
The deceased and several injured arrived today at the U.S. military facility at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, while three others remained at a hospital in the East African republic of Djibouti, said Adm. Robert Natter of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
Coffins draped with American flags and carried by an honor guard, were being removed from military aircraft during a solemn ceremony this afternoon.
In Norfolk today, the Navy said it had reached everyone who was directly related to the dead and wounded. But calls were still flooding the Norfolk Naval Air Station.
“We have 14 telephone lines being answered right now,” said Catherine Stokoe, director of family services at the base. “They’ve been very busy. Yesterday we had over 1,000 calls.”
The sailors remaining on the ship have been urged to contact their own relatives as soon as possible, Natter said.
“If they are well enough to return home, they will do that. If they are well enough to return to duty, they will do that. If others have to remain in Ramstein for further treatment, we will be working with the families, loved ones, for their transportation over to join them,” Natter said at a morning news conference at the Cole’s home port of Norfolk, Va.
Casualties of Terrorism
Among those killed was Craig Wibberley of Williamsport, Md., a 19-year-old who had enlisted in the Navy three months before graduating from high school. He had been in the habit of sending daily e-mails to his parents from the ship, his mother, Patty, told their local paper, The Herald-Mail in Hagerstown, Md.
Mrs. Wibberley said her son wasn’t sure he wanted to do with his life until he enlisted, and then he looked forward to studying radio electronics. He bought a laptop computer and was teaching himself Spanish, she told the paper. On board the ship, his job was lowering the destroyer’s small anchor.
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