While the 20-year anniversary might make more headlines, Lippold said it's no more important than any of the previous years. The example set by the Cole Sailors is clear: A well-trained crew, even after a devastating blow, can rise to the occasion and save their ship." Mike Gilday said in a message to the fleet. "Twenty years later, it is important to recognize how these acts of bravery and heroism were nothing short of extraordinary," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. local time Monday to remember those killed or injured in the blast two decades ago. Navy personnel across the fleet will pause at 11:18 a.m. They would get through it, the former CO added, but had to do it together. "'It's your mind processing through this attack and the aftermath of what's happened in the fact that we're prying our shipmates out of the wreckage and giving them honors departures, ceremonies, or carrying them off in body bags.'" "'It's OK,'" he recalled telling the crew. It was imperative, he said, that his crew understood that the anger, anxiety, agitation, lethargy and sleeplessness they were dealing with were normal responses. Lippold, the son of a psychologist who at one point specialized in stress management, recognized the likely struggle ahead. Joseph Gagliano is piped ashore during a change of command ceremony at Naval Station Rota, Spain, on Aug. "It was something of a foreign concept to us at the time, so I was grateful that he introduced it," Gagliano said.Ĭapt. After two decades of war overseas, he said the Navy is much more educated on post-traumatic stress than it was in October 2000. Joseph Gagliano, Destroyer Squadron 60's commodore, agrees. "For him to come out and tell us explicitly that we should expect to need help and need to talk to people, and that none of us were immune to the stresses that we were going through and were going to be going through, was incredibly powerful," said Trinque, now the assistant commander for career management with Navy Personnel Command.Ĭapt. For two now-senior Navy officers who were aboard the Cole when that blast hit, Lippold's candor about the emotional effects it would have on the crew left a mark.īefore post-traumatic stress and resiliency training were part of every service member's lexicon, Lippold gathered his crew to tell them, "It's normal for you to feel this way." Much has been written about what the crew did in the hours and days following the attack, resulting in numerous awards and commendations. The Cole, because of their actions, was saved. launched the military into years of sustained conflict, they reacted. In an age when sailors weren't expecting an act of war to hit their vessel nearly a year before the 2001 terror strikes in the U.S.
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