On December 12, USS Cole (DDG-67), once a powerful symbol of U.S. military might, limped home aboard the Norwegian transport ship M/V Blue Marlin for repairs to a gaping hole left by a bomb attack in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors. The destroyer, unable to sail under its own steam, was carried into a cold & choppy Pascagoula Bay by the heavy-lift vessel Blue Marlin after a 6 week voyage from Yemen.

The warship returned to the Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding facility in Pascagoula, where it was built in 1995. Litton Ingalls is a unit of Litton Industries Inc., a defense contractor based in Woodland Hills, California.

The U.S. Navy said the Cole would be given a temporary 40-ton patch, unloaded from the Blue Marlin and taken to a nearby Naval station for cleanup and weapons removal. FIRST ENVIRONMENTAL Nationwide, Inc. served as the response and clean up contractor for the USS Cole.