Remember the Cole! Remember the Cole?

Saved by the Cole

Remember the USS Cole? It is the American destroyer that was hit by an al Qaeda bomb in Yemen in October 2000, killing 17. Damaged but not destroyed, the Cole returned to service in December 2003. Columnist Michael Smerconish writes in the Philadelphia Daily News about the Cole's most recent mission:

Before arriving in Philadelphia, the Cole participated in the annual Baltic Sea operations, a joint exercise of 11 nations. But the Cole took an unexpected detour on the way here, for reasons that offer a symbolic story about the U.S. military, one which hasn't been told until now. Here is the way [Cmdr. Brian] Solo spelled out the itinerary in an e-mail to me:

"At 2300 hours on 27 June, COLE received word via the Coast Guard regarding a medical emergency aboard a civilian sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean... more than 300 [nautical miles] to the southeast of COLE's position. The patient was initially reported to have appendicitis. Due in Philadelphia, COLE nevertheless turned and headed, at best speed (30+ knots) towards the position of the sailboat. Simultaneously, the merchant vessel CHIQUITA NEDERLAND, who was in the vicinity of the sailing vessel, took the patient, a 16-year-old French national, on board, and then headed at best speed to the northwest to meet COLE."

Yes, one of the Navy's finest--in the midst of the war on terror--changed course to save a French teenager. (This isn't a picture of the military the mainstream media is anxious to portray. It's far too sympathetic.)

Hey France, de rien.
(Thanks to Best of the Web Today.)