NORFOLK (October 5, 2020) Interview with Cmdr. Edward Pledger, commanding officer of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67), speaks about the modern Cole crew and the professionalism of Senior Chief Damage Controlman William Merchen, a ‘Cole hero’ and inspector at Afloat Training Group (ATG) Atlantic. The explosive bomb created a 40-by-60 foot hole on the port side of the ship, and the Cole’s Sailors fought fires and flooding for the following 96 hours to keep the ship afloat. Commemoration events are scheduled to remember and honor the 20th anniversary of the 17 Sailors who were lost, the 37 that were injured and the Gold Star families.

Transcript

Commander Ted Pledger. And I’m the Commanding Officer USS Cole. So there’re really kind of two things they come to mind when we talk about how The Cole influences our crew today. And the first thing is, every sailor is acutely aware of, the history of Cole and what happened here 20 years ago. And there’s a lot of pride in that. And there’s a lot of pride and not wanting to let down the Cole heroes and the 17 sailors and the Gold Star families. So today’s crew really carries that on, and they know that they’re part of the legacy. And they wanna make sure everybody, those who’ve gone before us are proud of what we are today. The other thing, something that I tell all of our new sailors who check in with me is, we do our best, we give our absolute very best in everything that we do. And we don’t do that just ’cause we’re the Cole. We do that because it’s necessary. And we need to have our very best every single time we go underway. And one one of these days, we’re gonna go downrange and deploy into harm’s way. And we have to be ready for that. And there’s no more visceral reminder than when you walk past that hallway heroes and see those 17 stars every single day. So we have to be ready, we have to be at our best. Slating of a Commanding Officer to a ship, you kind of tell the Detailers what you wanna do. But then, they call them orders. So I got a call one day and said, “Hey, you’ve been selected to go to USS Cole.” And that was just, I was floored, humbled. It’s just it’s a huge privilege. And I never thought I would find myself in this position today. Being Commanding Officer of a Warship, is just, it’s a humbling experience to begin with. Then to be able to be the Commanding Officer, USS Cole, and have this privilege is just words can’t even express how I feel about that. Yeah, so there’s, there’s this extreme sense of ownership. And we’re the caretakers of the legacy of the USS Cole and the 17 sailors and the Cole Heroes and they’ve built that legacy and the Damage Control efforts that they fought to save their ship. It’s it’s just, it’s a important piece of our history. And what they did for 96 hours to save this ship, is one of the more impressive damage control efforts in the history United States Navy. And now we’re the caretakers of that legacy. And to be the CEO of the crew that continues on that legacy is just, it’s so humbling. And like I said, I just, it’s hard to articulate how that feels. But it’s just this extreme sense of honor and pride that I have. It’s really for the sailors because I see it every single day, how hard they work. And they really do carry on that determined warrior spirit. And I remember it like it was yesterday, it was in October of 2000. And I was a brand new Ensign. I’d been commissioned in May and I was in Newport, Rhode Island going through Division Officer course in Rhode Island. And I was in class when we got word that the Cole had been attacked in Aden. And then the news reports started to roll in. And I went home that day and I turned the news on with my roommates and we watched the news reports and got the updates of what had happened. And really it just, it hit home on how serious and how dangerous this job is. And that there’re people out there that, they wanna do as harm and they’re ready to attack us. And that really kicked off the war on terror attacking a US Warship. And it really put things in perspective for me just as an Ensign. I always thought I’d have a career in the Navy. It’s all, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do ever since I was in high school, but seeing the attack on Cole and then the subsequent war on terror and the 911 attacks, it just, it showed that we’re a nation at war and we have a lot of fighting to do. And as I continued on in my career, I realized these are people I wanna serve with. And this is what I wanna do is wear the cloth of my nation. And we are, we’re, we continue to be engaged against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Yeah, so there are a couple things, that we’re doing or have done. One is our last underway, we conducted a Wreath Laying Ceremony in honor of the 17 sailors that were killed. The ship was underway during the time and we executed this Wreath Laying Ceremony while we were at sea. Something else that we’re preparing for is a ceremony that we’re gonna hold on October 12, here at the ship. And that’s a ceremony of remembrance of the 17 sailors that were killed and honoring those that helped save the ship as well and that’s Cole Heroes. And as well as the Gold Star families. A lot of work is going into that make that a very special and memorable ceremony. Additionally, we’re very busy right now as a crew. We are preparing for our next appointment. We’re in the basic phase. So we are doing a lot of training and getting ready for that and we’re very, very busy. But this opportunity to do these types of events and do these ceremonies. It’s very important to allow us to pause and to remember and to reflect and to mourn the loss of our shipmates and those who’ve gone before us. So Senior Chief Merchant, Damage Control Senior Chief Merchant. He’s the lead trainer for the team, ATG team that came over and trained us in our damage control. So as we go through the basic phase, one of the warfare areas we have to certify is Damage Control. It’s a very important warfare area. So Senior Chief Merchant, he came over here with his team early on, got us up to speed until we were certified, and proficient in Damage Control that we can be certified in that work area. And I do have to say, Senior Chief merchant, he’s a professional. So I talked about Cole Heroes, and just the honor of being able to meet any of them, he’s a Cole Hero, and having him on our ship, and training us is very special to have that opportunity. I had to tell the story. One of the visit, training visits, he came on board with this team, they trained us for a week, and we finished up that week of training. And we sat in my cabin, and he kind of gave me a debrief on how things went. And it was not good. We were not where we needed to be and Senior Chief Merchant, he let me know that our team was not ready, and that we had some work to do. And it was very humbling experience hearing that from a Cole Hero. And, I have to say that our team really took that feedback to heart. And two weeks later when he came back, it was a completely different story. And Senior Chief Merchant told me that, it was quite a turnaround, successful story, and that by the end of the week, we have certified almost all of our drills ahead of schedule. And I really attribute that to Senior Chief and his team and the free training that they brought. And then the, great, honest feedback that he gave us. But the team had a lot of pride. And didn’t wanna let him down or anyone else. Everybody understands the importance of Damage Control. And in the US Navy, that’s something that we all understand. It’s critical to how we operate and the survivability of our ships. And that’s a core competency. And in Senior Chief Merchants case, I think he, he has a very unique perspective. And he understands probably more than anybody else, the importance of Damage Control because, he along with his shipmates fought to save this ship. And he has real world experience, and he’s able to bring that to bear. And when he speaks, our sailors Listen, because they know this isn’t somebody who just has been teaching it and practicing it, this is somebody who has done it in real life and understands that if you don’t do it right, people could die or you could lose your ship. Yeah, so Anti-Terrorism and force protection, it’s critically important to what we do. There’re terrorists and people out there, that wanna do us harm and attack our ships and attack our infrastructure and attack our sailors. So we have to get it right. And that’s something that we work so hard at. So in our basic phase, one of the things that we have to do is we have to certify the Anti-Terrorism warfare area. And just like Damage Control, it’s one of our core competencies, and one of the fundamental things that we train and we drill constantly, because the risk is very real. And now as seen with the, with the attack on Cole, and in the last 20 years as something that is a force we have gotten a lot better at. The only thing I would add is, I was asked recently, what’s my most proud moment as Commanding Officer? And it’s really, it’s hard to pinpoint one singular event. Because every day I walk around this ship and I see sailors out there working hard, whether it’s training a Damage Control, whether it’s chipping paint, whether it’s cleaning their gear, doing corrective maintenance, and they work so hard at what they do. And Cole continues to be a great ship, because of the hard work that they do. And I’m just so proud of that. We’re constantly put in challenging situations and challenging circumstances and I see how the crew performs. And I’ve no doubt that if they were faced with the challenges the determine warriors 20 years ago, we’re faced with, they would perform at the same level as they did 20 years ago.