EVENT DESCRIPTION
At 11:18 local time on Thursday, 12 October 2000, the USS COLE was refueling in the port of Aden, Yemen when a small boat came alongside. The occupants of the boat waved to the sailors then detonated a bomb blowing a large hole in the side of the ship. The fire ball rose along the outside of the ship destroying the port aft AEGIS radar screen. The fireball raised inside through spaces inside the ship killing 17 sailors and injuring many more. Within minutes that backup generator came online restoring power so the crew could fight to save the ship.
At 07:15 EST, the phone rang in a conference room at NAVSEA. The Captain answering the phone leaned over to me and said, “We have to leave here and go to SEA 400, AEGIS type desk. A US warship has just been attacked. They needed advice on how to proceed. An hour later, I was back in the conference room discussing actions to be taken. Many of the same players from the earlier meeting were there but subject mater experts for a combatant ship had replaced those for the other ship type.
Four days later, I flew to Olsa, Norway to met with a heavy lift contractor, OHT, to discuss design details to rescue the ship. Two days later, I flew to Dubai where the MV Blue Marlin has just offloaded cargo. Five days later, we departed under escort for Aden, Yemen where the US Navy occupied 5 square miles of the Indian Ocean. Arriving onsite, USS COLE was picked up immediately on arrival. Six days later the heavy lift ship departed for the US. On Christmas Eve, the ship was offloaded and turned over to the shipyard for repairs.
This is the story of how this rescue was accomplished.
SPEAKER/PRESENTER
Robert (Bob) Wasalaski
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and Aerospace Engineer from University of Michigan. Master’s degree in engineering administration from George Washington.
US Navy as Damage Control Officer, Electronic Warfare Officer. Became an Engineering Duty Officer and Salvage Officer. Retired as a Captain. Ingalls Shipbuilding as a Docking, Stability and Seakeeping engineer for DD-963, LHA-1 and CG-47. Assisted in salvage of Ingalls Launch Pontoon. Rewrote shipyard dry dock procedure still in use today. Wrote shipyard capability study that was used for the most recent update to the shipyard.
NAVSEA Stability and Docking Expert on all classes of ships, submarines, and craft. Ship Design Manager delivered TAGS 60, TAGOS 23, AOE 1-10, TAO 201 double hull series and USS Ronald Reagan. I sailed USS Constitution, Old Ironsides. NAVSEA field rept. to Hampton Roads. For 30 years, I was the go-to guy to support special incidents on ships.
Marine Consultant with Gibbs and Cox on Australian Air Warfare Destroyer. With Maersk container ships, tankers and RORO ships repairs and modifications.
Bob has rewritten sections of NSTM 997 on Dry Docking and Mil-Std-1625D on certifying dry docks. The paper of TAO 201 lead to new IMO rules for stability of double hull tankers. Supervised heavy lift rescues on USS Samuel B. Roberts and USS Cole. Drafted Chapter 8 to USN Tow Manual on Heavy Lift. Co-Editor of SNAME Technical Bulletin 8-1. Guide to Marine Forensic Investigations. SNAME paper on Probable Causes of Loss of Containers from Container Ships.
Awards and certificates: One Civilian Superior Service Award, Two Civilian Meritorious Service Awards, Two USN Meritorious Service Medals, One USN Accommodations Medal
DAWIA Level III in Program Management and Systems Engineering.
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