Free Front Burner by Kirk S. Lippold Page B

were well below our 50 percent minimum for fuel, and messages from Naval Forces Central Command informed us that they were very anxious for us to get in and out of port as quickly as possible. Nothing from the staff or the stack of routine intelligence messages indicated that Cole should expect anything out of the ordinary.

3
    A “Routine” Refueling Stop
    B EEP. BEEP. BEEP. October 12, 0415. I reached over and shut off the incessant noise from my alarm clock after only a few hours of sleep. Taking a deep breath to clear my head, I sat upright, stretched, and rolled out of bed. In my Night Orders to the officer of the deck, I had directed him to awaken me at 0500, the same time as reveille for the crew, but I preferred to be shaved, showered, and ready for the day before the call.
    I called down to radio central and asked for the daily stack of messages transmitted to the ship overnight to be delivered to the bridge. Just sitting in my chair drinking hot coffee as the boatswain’s mate piped reveille for the crew was the perfect way to start the day, and it promised to be a spectacular one. The temperature at sunrise was already in the eighties and climbing fast. A puff or two of cloud could be seen in the sky and outside Aden’s harbor entrance the water was calm.
    It was the first port the Cole would enter under Threat Condition Bravo. During the navigation brief the night before, and as part of our procedures for entering port, we had covered every aspect of our arrival, knowing we would have to adjust a number of procedures, from refueling requirements to force protection, during the first hours after our arrival
as soon as the port authorities filled in the many unknowns the embassy and Fifth Fleet had left us with.
    We were not scheduled to meet the harbor pilot until 0800, but I wanted to get into port early. From my perspective, if the refueling was going to last six to eight hours, the sooner we entered port and moored the ship, the sooner we could start and finish refueling. It would be easier and safer to get the ship underway again during daylight since we did not know the reliability of the harbor’s navigation aids. I also wanted to minimize our vulnerability.
    At 0549, the boatswain’s mate of the watch announced, “Station the sea and anchor detail,” which signaled the crew to take up their watch stations for entering port. We had received confirmation of diplomatic clearance to enter the port and steamed toward the harbor at 10 knots. The outermost buoy marking the harbor entrance was also the point where the harbor pilot was expected to board the ship and help navigate it into port. As we steamed toward it, the communications officer on the bridge pressed the transmit button on the bridge-to-bridge radio:
    â€œAden Port Control, this is U.S. Navy warship USS Cole , channel one-six, over.”
    There was no response. He tried again and again and got nothing. After twenty minutes and several more calls, finally he heard, “This is Aden Port Control. What time are you scheduled to come in?”
    â€œAden Port Control, we were originally scheduled to come in to port around 0730. We have arrived early. Would it be possible for the pilot to meet us early? We would like to come in and get moored as soon as possible to start refueling. Over.”
    After considerable delay—suddenly, they told us, our transmissions were garbled—they said, “The pilot is not here. You are going to have to wait. We’ll get back to you, over.”
    It was frustrating for the watch team. They had been on watch now for almost two hours and the officer of the deck had to slow the ship to less than 5 knots, waiting for the Yemenis to get their act together so we could enter port. Finally, over an hour after the first contact the radio
crackled to life with: “Navy warship Cole , request you enter the harbor channel. The pilot will meet you with two tugs in the channel and