Posted on:
Friday, October 13, 2000
10:20 AM
Rockport, Kingsville sailors now presumed dead in USS Cole attack
By Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP): Sailors from Rockport and Kingsville are among 10 presumed dead in the attack on the USS Cole.
Seven others already have been confirmed dead.
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Cate Mueller said today that families of the 10 missing sailors - including 26-year-old Gary Swenchonis Jr. of Rockport and 22-year-old Ronchester Santiago of Kingsville - are being notified that they are presumed to have died in the explosion.
Mueller said efforts to recover their remains are continuing.
In addition to the seven confirmed dead and 10 presumed dead, about 35 were injured in the blast Thursday.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Ronchester Santiago, 22, of Kingsville, Texas, had been in the Navy since graduating in 1996 from H.M. King High School. He was scheduled to get out of service in December and planned to study electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. ``He was attracted to the adventure in the Navy,'' said his father, Rogelio Santiago, a retired Navy Petty Officer 1st Class. ``He wanted to see the world. He just wanted the experience.''
Navy officials also said explosives experts who examined the ship's damaged hull have concluded that the blast came from an external source, adding to the evidence that the attack was a deliberate act, officials said.
Mueller said the Navy would release the names of the casualties when all families have been notified.
A death toll of 17 would be the highest for a terrorist attack on the American military since the bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia in 1996, which killed 17 Air Force troops.
Mueller said a team of Navy explosive ordnance disposal experts examined the damaged hull of the USS Cole and determined conclusively that the explosion was caused by an external source. It is believed to have come from a small boat that pulled up alongside the warship Thursday in the port of Aden and set off a high-explosive charge.
The conclusion reached by the explosives experts strengthens the belief that the incident was a terrorist act, officials said.
The divers who examined the hull now estimate that the hole created by the blast is 30 feet high and 40 feet wide, Mueller said. The initial estimate was 20 feet high and 40 feet wide.
