Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Journal Photo / Frieda Squires

Navy Petty Officer Tim Freeman, of Charlotte, N.C., is the topside security rover on the deck of the Navy destroyer Cole, which is visiting Newport this week.

NEWPORT -- The guided-missile destroyer Cole, the victim of a deadly suicide bombing in Yemen in 2000, visited Naval Station Newport for four days this week.

The visit, which wraps up today, is part of a routine program of bringing Navy ships to the base for naval students to tour, according to spokeswoman Lisa Rama. Soon, they'll be crew members aboard one.

The Cole, however, is no ordinary ship, Rama said.

"She's a special ship because of the fact that sailors lives [were] lost on that vessel. It's a sentimental visit," she said.

Eight years ago, terrorists aboard an explosives-laden barge crashed into the Cole while the destroyer was at anchor, blasting an enormous hole in the side of the ship and killing 17 sailors. Another 39 were injured.

The 506-foot Cole tied up Monday at Pier 2, the next pier over from the mothballed aircraft carriers Saratoga and Forrestal. Among the crew was a Rhode Island sailor, Petty Officer Troy Borcuk, a 22-year-old graduate of Toll Gate High School, in Warwick.
"I joined the Navy to get away from Rhode Island and see the world," he joked.

The Cole just completed a six-month mission that took it to the Middle East and India. While here, members of the crew had plans to volunteer at Belcourt Castle, the Bellevue Avenue estate, and the James L. Maher Center, which serves people with developmental disabilities.

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