Sailors greeted with tears and cheers as USS Cole returns to home port ahead of Christmas – WTOP News

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Hundreds of sailors and their loved ones got an early Christmas present when the USS Cole docked at its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, after seven months at sea.

The ship was greeted at Naval Station Norfolk on Monday with cheering from a crowd bundled in coats and blankets. They shed tears of gratitude and shared long embraces as sailors hugged beaming children. Some held flower bouquets and signs bearing family members’ names and photos.

“Welcome home,” one read. “We are so proud of you.”

The USS Cole, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, deployed for 224 days to the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Gulf, providing protection and defense to U.S. allies and partners in Europe and Africa, according to a press release from the U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

USS Cole Cmdr. Matthew Faulkenberry said it’s not often that a ship returns to its home right before the holidays.

“No one expects it — our return homeport so close to Christmas,” he told WVEC-TV. “So back just in time.”

The USS Cole was attacked in 2000 by boat-borne al-Qaida suicide bombers during a refueling stop in Yemen’s port city of Aden, killing 17 on board.

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