Attack Stalls ex-Cole Skipper's Career

The Modesto Bee ^ | 24 April 2006 | James Rosen - Bee Washington Bureau

[Diver Dave]

Once on fast track to be captain, Kirk Lippold now works at a desk. Last in a two-part series. WASHINGTON -- For 5½ years, the Washington military and political establishment has not known quite what to do with Kirk Lippold.

Cmdr. Lippold was the skipper of the USS Cole when al-Qaida terrorists committed a suicide bombing in the Yemen port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000.

The attack, from a small barge that pulled alongside the Cole, blew a 40-by-40-foot hole in the guided-missile destroyer. Seventeen sailors died and 42 were wounded.

After he led an intense three-week effort to prevent the Cole from sinking, the Navy gave Lippold a medal for having saved the $1 billion ship, prevented further loss of life and maintained the moral of his traumatized crew.

[freema]

I learned after the first part of this story, that darlin' clintonista General Zinni who's out there rounding up former Generals against Bush was the f'up in the Cole bombing and even admitted.

[ScubieNuc]

"The Navy benches skippers for scraping the paint on their command. "

Unfortunately, I believe that is true today. I remember reading, though, that Nimitz grounded his first ship he commanded on a sand bar. In todays Navy, he would have not advanced.

That's one of the negative side effects of trying to create a "zero defect" Navy. People make mistakes. So when the desire to advance is great, a great potential exists to cover up or ignore "bad marks" in your record.

This man has more then earned his right to advance. IMHO.

Sincerely

[maica]

Once on fast track to be captain, Kirk Lippold now works at a desk. Last in a two-part series. WASHINGTON -- For 5½ years, the Washington military and political establishment has not known quite what to do with Kirk Lippold.

####

My uncle was the skipper of the USS MADDOX in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964. His next assignment was to head up NROTC at Rice University! Lippold is not the first (or last) commanding officer to be sidelined.

[Tallguy]

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in October 2000, a week after the Cole attack, the then-recently retired Zinni said: "I pass that buck on to nobody."

Empty rhetoric. Part of "taking responsibility" is making sure your junior officers are protected (from unjust punishment). Zinni apparently did not follow through.

[maica]

"A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, was in Peshawar the day before the attack to meet with Pakistani officials.

&&&

The learning never ends here: See #28

[Coldwater Creek]

Yea and Ronnie did nothing to avenge our Marine's. For that I will never forgive him.

[george76]

Zinni talks out both sides of his mouth. He knows that the old media will protect him and not report what he use to say...

---

In early 2000, Former Clinton CENTCOM commander, Anthony Zinni told Congress "Iraq remains the most significant near-term threat to U.S. interests in the Arabian Gulf region," adding, "Iraq probably is continuing clandestine nuclear research, [and] retains stocks of chemical and biological munitions ...

Even if Baghdad reversed its course and surrendered all WMD capabilities, it retains scientific, technical, and industrial infrastructure to replace agents and munitions within weeks or months."

[Candor7]

I do not subscribe to the idea that Kirk Lippold was derelict in his duty. Rather he was a victim of the peace corps mentality that was being promoted throughout the Gulf Command,not to offend the natives. The ROE for the deck watch was not to fire first without permission.Obviously this was not appropriate in view of the terrorist activity that had already ocurred at the time.

Perhaps if Kirk had the mind of Chesty Puller, he would have found a way to open up on any craft within a hundred meters failing to answer a hail. In retrospect that was what was needed, not Clintons lax posture in the region, which was as much responsible as anything for the USS Cole tragedy.

The deck watch should have been locked and loaded with full ammo racks, with permission to initiate fire, as any warship should have.

[maica]

From this article:

What rankles Lippold's supporters is that his punishment doesn't mesh with the government's timid response to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, or with the lack of accountability for faulty pre-war assessments of Iraq's weaponry and the absence of adequate war planning.

All roads lead to Abu Ghraib for the drive-by media.

"With all the issues related to de- tainee abuse, there has been an abject lack of accountability in the way the war on terror has been executed," said John Hutson, a former Navy judge advocate general and dean of the Franklin Pierce Law School in Concord, N.H.

"The CIA director who failed to prevent 9-11 also got us into Iraq on false pretenses," Hutson said. "(Defense Secretary Donald H.) Rumsfeld fired [A LIE] Shinseki (retired Gen. Erik Shinseki, former Army chief of staff) for being right about the troop strength we needed in Iraq. Rumsfeld said Abu Ghraib was about a few bad apples, and now we have a dozen cases where people in U.S. custody were tortured to death."

No mention of who was Secretary of Defense in October 2000!

[Daus]

I'm in the middle of Lt. General Mike DeLong's Inside CentCom book and he covers this pretty well. I don't have it in front of me, but apparently the standard ROE was to fire warning shots, but there was supposed to be a specific CentCom ROE for that area which would have allowed them to shoot to kill right away. The crew fired the warning shots per the first ROE and the enemy closed the gap before they could fire again.

[george76]

Zinni was Director of Operations for Somolia for Clinton...Black Hawk Down...

He wants to Sec. of Defense for Hillary.

[Centurion2000]

And I guess the moral is if a boat load of Muslims is coming toward you, shoot first.

His superiors would have crucified him for provoking an international incident if he did that. I feel bad for the guy since he was in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

[Candor7]

Zinni is a Clinton synchophant who left his junior officers out to dry on the USS COle incident. He allowed his command to be traduced by Clinton's Peace Corps image campaign in the region, even after it was plain that terrorists were on the move. As far as I am concerned the buck stops with him on Cole, as he himself said, but later provided zero details. With him as Sec. Def., Billory will be micromanaging American forces into a tolerant, pro gay, it takes a village corps, underbudgeted, weakening the nation. Compared to her, Jimmy Carter would appear to be Alexander the Great.

Even after 5 years in office, Dubyah is still wrestling with these Clinton synchophants who are in the CIA and the military. Witness the staged revolt of the generals last week. They have NO business saying anything and may be committing a crime against their nation.

[Candor7]

We have had soldiers in our history who would have made sure the men fired first and asked questions later.

Chesty Puller, Vinegar Joe Stillwell, and Patton come to mind. Our soldiers are warriors and should be stood to duty as warriors, not as peace corps staff.

[Rebelbase]

" The deck watch on the USS Cole did not have ammo in its guns to do its job, and was correspondingly slack."

Reminds me of Reagan and 241 Marines in Lebannon.

[SittinYonder]

I was less making a suggestion and more commenting on the fact that the reporter confused "moral" for "morale." I understand the limitations Commander Lippold faced.

However, in the future, if you see a boatload of Muslims coming toward you, it might be a good idea to shoot.

[rlmorel]

Hmm. That's news to me. I had no idea, and I cannot find any reference to that for the US Navy. When I was in, I never heard of it.

You sound like you know of what you speak, so...I will accept it as truth!

Anyway, that wasn't the focus of the thread, I just saw that and it bugged me...it is just something that irritates me to no end. Liberal publications cannot be bothered to be accurate about military designations, units and hardware. For example, I have seen a newspaper call a destroyer a battleship, and an A-6 Intruder a Tomcat. They don't care enough to have a knowlegable person proofread it.

But thanks...I do appreciate that info...learn something every day!

[rlmorel]

Thanks to you both...I just got off on a semi-unrelated rant.

Kind of like the occasional spelling nazis you see on FR...:)

[Tallguy]

The situation with media inaccuracy in military matters bugs me too. There are darn few reporters who have any experience in the military. A single hitch would at least familiarize them with the jargon, customs, and general attention-to-detail. Instead we get conclusions drawn from ignorance, if not outright antipathy.

[ExSoldier]

Yea and Ronnie did nothing to avenge our Marine's. For that I will never forgive him.

Welllll not in public. We don't know for sure what orders were handed out in private...and what deeds were done to mete out justice. Reagan wasn't meek about stuff like that. Remember when he initially won over Carter, the hostages were released at the precise moment that he put his hand on the Bible for the Oath of Office. The Iranians absolutely KNEW the 82nd Airborne was about to land in their laps and turn Teheran into a parking lot. Maybe one that glows....

I once knew a guy who was a SEAL sniper in Beirut. He told me that his ROEs were pretty loose. He was not reprimanded for instance when he let it slip onto the streets in front of his position that he was rolling his match .308 rounds in bacon fat so that any true believer so unfortunate to catch a round would not only die at the hands of an infidel, but go straight to that VERY hot place instantly. He said his sector was the quietest of his team's tour.

OTOH, SEALs are known to be legendary BS'ers when it comes to somebody outside their unique little community and I am most certainly NOT a SpecOps type. But it makes a great story. I tend to believe this guy -- he's a pretty wild character.