On this day in history, October 12, 2000, terror attack on USS Cole kills 17 American sailors, wounds dozens
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The USS Cole was attacked by al Qaeda at port in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000, killing 17 sailors and wounding dozens of others. It proved a portent of the 9/11 attacks 11 months later.
"I see reflections of the Cole heroes in today’s sailors." — Admiral Christopher W. Grady "The world was shocked out of its complacency 11 months after the USS Cole attack, on Sept. 11, 2001." Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.
"Sadly, it took the grievous attack on 9/11 for us to collectively realize that al Qaeda presented a truly consequential threat to America’s security," Admiral Christopher W. Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation's second-highest ranking military officer, wrote during a 20th-anniversary retrospective of the attack.