Cole Guards Told Not to Fire First Shot

Nov. 15, 2000 -- Amid reports that sailors on sentry duty aboard the USS Cole when it was attacked last month did not have ammunition in their guns, the father of one of the sailors killed lamented that lessons would be learned from the tragedy.

“It’s easy to sit back and criticize, but I don’t think it’s right to do that,” the father of a sailor killed in the attack on the destroyer told ABCNEWS.com.

“I don’t know what the situation was there, but I just hope we all learn from this experience,” said Thomas Wibberley, father of Craig Wibberley, a 19-year-old seaman apprentice.

Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 injured when a small boat laden with explosives drew up alongside the destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden last month and blew up, leaving a gaping hole in the destroyer’s side.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that 20 crewmembers of the USS Cole told the newspaper their “rules of engagement” prevented them from firing without obtaining permission from the ship’s captain or another officer.

Petty Officer John Washak said he was manning an M-60 machine gun shortly after the Cole was hit. Washak said he pointed the machine gun directly at an approaching boat to warn it off. But, he recalled, a senior chief petty officer ordered him to turn the gun away.

The Rules of Engagement

Washak protested, fearing the ship was still under attack. But even in the aftermath of the bombing, “with blood still on my face,” he said he was told: “That’s the rules of engagement, no shooting unless we’re shot at.”

Petty Officer Jennifer Kudrick, a sonar technician aboard the USS Cole, also reported being frustrated with the existing rules of engagement.

“If we had shot those people, we’d have gotten in trouble for it,” said Kudrick. “That’s what’s frustrating about it. We would have gotten in more trouble for shooting two foreigners than losing 17 American sailors.”

As investigations into the attack continue, the U.S. Defense Department and congressional committees are searching for lessons about how to better protect U.S. Navy ships on duty abroad.

And it is those lessons that Wibberley hopes are learned so others don’t die like his son.

Speaking from his home in Williamsport, Md., Wibberley said he was loathe to cast blame. A Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, Wibberley believes some lessons have been learned. “Apparently U.S. ships in the region are now on a higher state of alert,” he said. “That’s a lesson learned.”

Ships in the region are currently at the heightened state of alert known as Threat Condition Delta.

Threat Con Bravo

Kevin Benoit, a gunner’s mate who issued weapons for the security patrol during the refueling operation under way at the time of the blast, confirmed the guns were not loaded. “You can’t fire unless fired upon,” he said.

Navy officials told ABCNEWS.com the rules of operation were standard operating procedure based on the conditions prevalent at the time of the attack.

Rules of engagement aboard a U.S. warship are set by its captain following Navy guidelines. Senior Navy officers have said in congressional testimony that the ship filed a detailed security plan, which they believe was followed.

When the USS Cole sailed into the port of Aden, the ship was operating under “Threat Condition Bravo.”

The second-lowest on a scale of five threat levels, “Threat Condition Bravo” is by definition in operation when there is an increased and more predictable threat of terrorist activity even though no particular target has been identified. (See below.)

Under this threat level, crewmembers have no authority to shoot unless they receive permission from the captain or other designated officers. Navy officials note that individual seamen never have the authority to shoot when at “Threat Condition Bravo”.

Navy officials said they did not know if the deck watch at the time was equipped with sidearms and M-16s.

The USS Cole had sidearms and M-16 rifles aboard.

Standard procedure under “Threat Con Bravo” determines that crewmembers can only have ammunition in their belts or their pockets and that their weapons should have safety catches on.

At the time of the Cole bombing there were no indications of imminent danger, in which case individual sailors would have been able to override standing orders and use their weapons without direct orders from superiors.

Harbor Workers Acted Suspiciously

The FBI also has been questioning crewmembers about the behavior of the Yemeni pilot who guided the Cole into port; some of whom described him as “agitated.”

Some crewmembers also said that in retrospect, they thought it was suspicious that Yemeni workers were conducting the refueling with unusual speed.

“They were pumping a whole lot faster than they had for the last ship,” Petty Officer Kathy Lopez reportedly told The Post. In fact, she added, “They were pumping a lot faster than we thought they were capable of pumping.”

Crewmembers also said their ship may have been looked over by Islamic militants as it passed through the Suez Canal on the way to Yemen.

While in the canal, the ship followed the Navy tradition of bringing Egyptian vendors aboard to sell souvenirs, they said.

Paul Riddle, an operations specialist who worked in the Cole’s combat information center, said FBI investigators told him “they think the Egyptians might have been doing a reconnaissance on us.”

Navy officials would not confirm whether vendors had boarded the ship as it passed the Suez Canal.

ABCNEWS.com’s Leela Jacinto in New York; ABCNEWS’ Barbara Starr in Washington and The Associated Press contributed to this report.