Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Area sailors are on damaged USS Cole's roster

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Friday, October 13, 2000

Navy ship blast kills 6
Area sailors are on damaged USS Cole's roster
By Deborah Martínez
Caller-Times

Associated Press

The U.S. Navy released this view of damage on the side of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Cole after a suspected terrorist bomb exploded during a refueling operation in Aden, Yemen.

An apparent terrorist bomb attack against a U.S. Navy destroyer in Yemen Thursday killed at least six sailors, injured 35 others and left 11 others missing, including a 22-year-old Kingsville man.
   The Navy said it will not release the names of any of the dead or injured until today, but Channel 6 News reported that Ronchester Santiago was one of those missing.
   Santiago, a 1996 H.M. King High School graduate, and Esther Arriaga Hood, a 19-year-old 1999 Miller High School graduate, were among the estimated 350 crew members aboard the USS Cole, when a small boat alongside the ship exploded, ripping a huge hole in the ship.
   "As a Navy man myself, I have my fears about what might have happened to him but I'm trying to think positive about it, hoping that some way, somehow, that he'll be safe and that he survived," Ronchester's father, Rogelio Santiago, told the Caller-Times.

Associated Press

An unidentified American patient injured in the explosion is treated in an Aden hospital.

   Rogelio Santiago said he first heard his son was missing through national news. Navy officers knocked on his door around 5 p.m. Thursday to confirm the news, said the retired petty officer first class with 20 years of Navy service.
   Hood's family said she was alive, but hadn't gotten word if she was among those injured.
   Santiago and his wife, Simeona, sat vigilantly in front of their television, prayed with their three other children and waited for the telephone to ring.
   "It's been really hard for us because we have no exact word about what happened or what the status is, but we are still hoping that he'll be accounted for," he said.
   Petty Officer Third Class Ronchester Santiago has been in the Navy since he graduated from high school. He is set to get out of service in December and is looking forward to going to the University of Texas where he plans to study electrical engineering, his father said.

Associated Press

Madeline Albright is determined to take ‘appropriate steps’ to avenge the attack.

   The last time the father and son spoke was several weeks ago when Ronchester was in Spain. Most of what Ronchester talked about was finishing his commitment in December and going to college, Rogelio Santiago said.
   "He was attracted to the adventure in the Navy," he said. "He wanted to see the world. He just wanted the experience."
   'She is alive'
   Roberto R. Arriaga and his wife, Sylvia, of Corpus Christi heard from their son-in-law early Thursday evening about their daughter, Esther Arriaga Hood.

Associated Press

Adm. Vern Clark (right), chief of naval operations, addresses a question at the Pentagon.

   "They didn't have any knowledge of how she was or where she was, or the extent of her injuries but my son-in-law called about 6:30 and said she was alive . . . praise the Lord, she is alive and that's all that matters," her mother said.
   Hood and her husband, Justin Hood, were high school sweethearts at Miller, marrying weeks after graduation in 1999 and joining the Navy that July. Both are assigned to ships homeported in Norfolk, Va.

Associated Press

   "We were really in the dark until Justin called," Sylvia Arriaga said. "He called me about 8 or 9 in the morning and told me they had notified him that there had been an accident. I said 'Oh my God.' It was horrible. I was very upset."
   Hood has been assigned to the Cole for 1¤ years, her mother said. She was a Navy Junior ROTC member at Miller.
   "She fell in love with the Navy because she had such a good experience in the NJROTC at Miller," her mother said. "She knew what she was getting into."
   'I just burst into tears'
   In Austin, Navy officials called Marc and Michelle Poston with news that their daughter - 19-year-old Keisha Stidham - had been injured.
   That's all the Pentagon knew. And Stidham's mother and stepfather panicked, not knowing the extent.

Santiago

   Then, a photographer with the Austin American-Statesman showed the couple a photo of an injured woman in a Yemen hospital.
   The woman in the photo - which was broadcast on Yemeni television and picked up by wire services - happened to be Stidham. Her face was covered with bandages, but she was very recognizable, family members said.
   "I just burst into tears again because of the joy," Michelle Poston said.
   The explosion
   The Cole had passed through the Suez Canal on Monday and sailed down the Red Sea before arriving in Aden on the Gulf of Aden for a refueling stop that would take four to six hours, Navy officials said.
   Instead of being alongside a pier, the 8,600-ton U.S. destroyer was mooring to several buoys in the middle of the harbor, where it was attached to a fueling craft. Small harbor boats normally approach a ship moored in this way to assist with the lines.
   At about 12:15 p.m. local time (5:15 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time), one of the boats that took a mooring line to a buoy returned alongside the ship. A massive explosion suddenly ripped a 20-foot by 40-foot hole in the forward left half of the ship along the waterline.
   A preliminary investigation showed the explosion came from outside the Cole, said Lt. Cmdr. Daren Pelkie, information officer for the Navy's Fifth Fleet, based in Manama, Bahrain. The flooding was contained relatively quickly because the damage was above the waterline, he said.
   'Despicable and cowardly act'
   Throughout Thursday, President Clinton directed the Pentagon, the FBI and the State Department to send investigators to Yemen, where the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer had stopped at the port of Aden to refuel.
   A small boat manned by two men assisted the destroyer with its mooring lines and then exploded, defense officials said.
   The flooding of the Cole was contained, and the ship was in no danger of sinking, U.S. officials said. The explosion was so powerful it rattled windows in buildings along the harbor.
   "If, as it now appears, this was an act of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act," Clinton said. "We will find out who was responsible and hold them accountable.
   "If their intention was to deter us from our mission of promoting peace and security in the Middle East, they will fail utterly," he said.
   There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.
   "I have no reason to think this was anything but a senseless act of terrorism," said Adm. Vernon Clark, U.S. chief of naval operations, at a news conference.
   'My heart just sank'
   Four Mine Warfare Command ships permanently deployed to nearby Bahrain, along the Persian Gulf, are currently at sea and expected to remain under way and on alert, said Lt. Marc Boyd, spokesman for Mine Warfare Command at Naval Station Ingleside. The USS Ardent, USS Dextrous, USS Cardinal and USS Raven can be refueled at sea.
   The Cardinal and Raven left Ingleside for their permanent deployment in July. The Ardent and Dextrous have been in the Persian Gulf since 1996.
   Kim Jacobs, whose husband, Lt. Cmdr. Aaron Jacobs, is the commanding officer of the USS Defender, homeported at Naval Station Ingleside, said when she heard about the USS Cole explosion all she could think about was the families and their fears.
   "When I heard at work my heart just sank totally," Kim Jacobs said. "I just can't imagine. I don't even know what I would do if my husband was there and I was here at home waiting. I started saying prayers for these people and their family members. Every day, even when he just goes out to sea for one day, I pray. You never know what could happen."
   'Very quiet ... very upset'
   In worry and uncertainty, more than 100 spouses and children waited together through the day on Thursday at Naval Station Norfolk for some official word on precisely who perished and who survived in the apparent terrorist attack upon the destroyer Cole.
   "There are some people very quiet, some people very upset, but everybody is just waiting," said Catherine M. Stokoe, director of the base's family service center, as the anxious vigil continued hours after the lethal attack.
   The Navy emphasized it was taking time to carefully prepare the casualty tally to avoid the release of painful misinformation.
   The Norfolk base itself was tightly battened down to most visitors under what was described as a "Threat Con Alpha" state of heightened security. Navy officials said this extra level of caution was ordered for all coastal bases after the Cole was attacked.



Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Staff writer Deborah Martínez can be reached at 886-3618 or by e-mail martinezd@caller.com

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