Received this from a 2000 Annapolis graduate.

Shipmates, All of us have Navy background or Navy in
our families. Thought you'd find this first hand account
from the Cole sobering. Keep them in your
prayers!

It is from someone on board during the explosion. This
story is yet another example of the sacrafices people make
to fly our flag. Unfortunately some made the ultimate
sacrafice. Please keep them in your thoughts and
prayers..Please keep these Men and Women along with their

families in your prayers

This is very gaphic and is definetly a
wake up call. Most of you already know that Kyle Turner
(28th co, class of 99) was on the Cole when this occured,
luckily he did not appear on any of the KIA or MIA
lists, so we are assuming he is fine. The Cole is now on
her way home, due to the valiant efforts of her crew. I
think this e-mail was written very soon after the
incident, but it only made it's way to me this weekend.

I beleive that the govenment will eventually make an arrest
in this matter, but I will not take much comfort in it. The public will
want some one to blame, and the government will do whatever it can to
supply some one.

As long as we remain the world's police force there will be
men willing to give their lives to harm us.

.
The author is NC1 (SW/AW) Christina Huber, USN,
career counselor aboard USS COLE.

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Hello Everyone,

First let me start by saying I appreciate the show of
support I have received from all of you. The way the email is working
on one of the other ships that have arrived here (the Hawes) is
letting us save emails on disk and then they take them back to their ship and send
them, they are also bringing emails to us a couple times a day. The problem
is, we don't always have power and we only have two offices on the
ship with working computers, one being mine and we can't use it because
the FBI is using my office and we're not allowed in there.

Okay, so what has been happening here. They may screen
this so I don't know if all of it will make it to you. This also may be
more than some of you may want to read about, I need to express exactly
what I saw.

We had stopped in Yemen to gas up the ship. It was
approximately 1115 and Steve had just stopped in my office to see if I was
ready to go to lunch. We were standing there talking when out of the
blue we heard and felt this tremendous explosion. We took off running to go to
General Quarters, but we didn't get the alarm and no one was saying anything
on the 1MC.

People were running everywhere wondering what in the
world had happened.

The ship was listing to the port side (the side my office is
on). Someone yelled that we couldn't get to my Repair Locker (where I go for
GQ). So we started running up and to the starboard side. There
were people covered in blood, covered in this black stuff like oil or
something. Only one person was screaming. The place filled up with smoke
immediately. We were trying to get organized, wondering where to go, what to
do and trying to calm people and task them with something to do. We still
didn't know what happened. We thought it may have been an explosion
having to do with the refueling. Then people started coming out from the
mess decks, injured.

We had a hard time breathing. We were trying to get the
injured into some areas out of the way and to administer first aid. The
hardest part for me was not knowing what to do medically, all I could do
was comfort and give oxygen. People had feet barely hanging on, legs
mangled to really weird positions, internal injuries, amputations, broken
jaws, cuts and bruises and so on.

In the meantime, we're flooding and DIW (dead in the water or no power at all).
Later, I went with several others to the galley area to apply AFFF (Aqueous Film Forming Foam) into the
cavernous area because we were also losing our fuel and we didn't want a fire. How we avoided one to begin
with is a mystery to everyone. I have never seen such a horrible sight.

Everything was blown towards the starboard side and mangled. There were people pinned against
the walls, body parts in and under metal, legs and torsos hanging from the rafters. Very few people have cried. Lots of people
have been snapping at each other. That night we had to attempt to sleep out on the filthy, bumpy flight deck, most people couldn't sleep. Some electrical power has come on and off. The engineers have been working non-stop to try and
keep our one generator that is left, running.

So, I haven't slept in my rack. If something gives way
we have more

flooding. We only had the one toilet that is out on
the refueling pier,

we couldn't take showers, I did get to take a cold one
this morning and
it was wonderful. We also have a few toilets working
right now. Just pray
it stays that way until they decide to take us off the
ship. Last night
they sent some people to another ship to clean up and
spend the night, we
have some cots now, but not enough.
I could keep going but someone else wants to send an
email.

Oh yes, myself and several others have dysentery(?)
now and we have
started meds for malaria. A few people are sunburnt, but
I brought

sunscreen so I don't have that problem. The temp is in
the 100s.

The other ships that have pulled in have shown us
tremendous support.
They took some of our laundry today and they have been
bringing us food so

we're eating well and staying hydrated with lots of
warm bottled water.

I'm not allowed to eat today but I'm drinking plenty.

Well, you all take care.

Love, Chris

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-------
Hello everyone,

Myself and 29 other people were sent over to another
ship to take a hot

shower and spend the night. They are trying to rotate
30 of us every day

now. The support from the other ships has been great.
They are helping
try to do some repairs, supplying some food and now
this. I got here just
in

time this evening to see the memorial service. It got
a little
emotional at the end when they showed their pictures at
the end. I want to
try and

answer a few questions that I have been asked and
share with you a
little of what has gone on. I could go on for pages but
we're not allowed
to
go into a lot of detail and some of the details you
probably don't want to

hear about.

First, we are sailors, not soldiers. I realize some of
you don't know
the difference so that is just to let you know. Yes, I
did know everyone
who perished. Some of them were my friends. There were
only 320 personnel
onboard including officers. Being in a confined space
and having to
work, train and live with people in that kind of
environment, you get to
know
everyone. I was working packages (cases) on several of
them. There are

still a few of them left in the blast area. They
retrieved a couple
yesterday and a couple today. We have a ritual that we
are doing when
they take them off the ship. It is the first time that
anyone has really
shown any emotion. There are still a lot who haven't
shown any. We are
staying

too busy, too scared, and are too shocked. I finally
started breaking
down yesterday and tonight. How do I try to talk these
kids into staying in
the Navy after this? I don't want to do that. It's
definitely something I'm

going to have to work through.

The smell has been horrible. Last night was my first
night to sleep in
my rack. My berthing has potable water (not drinkable),
so we can take cold

showers and flush the toilets and it has air
conditioning now. Until
then, we were sleeping on the flight deck on non-skid,
then they brought in
50

cots (for 240 people). We were sharing one toilet that
was on the pier

with our crew and another 100 or so people from FBI to
divers, etc.

Everything external is covered with black explosive
powder and fiber

glass.

I ended up with dysentery. Some people refuse to sleep
inside the ship
and some refuse to sleep in their rack (they're 3 high).
The hole goes
almost all the way down to the keel and goes almost all
the way through
to the starboard side.

They knew what they were doing. It was lunch time
and we were refueling. Thank God we didn't have fire. It
was devastation,

smoke and flooding. We lost the galley, CMC's office,
chief's mess, Main

engine room 1, the general workshop, I could go on. To
give you an idea

how quick it happened, there were people standing in
line for their food

and part of the ship wall flew back and pinned them
against an inner
wall and they never knew what hit them. Three people
were in the oil lab,
one

was blown to pieces, two were blown out of the ship
and one of them is

covered with 2nd degree burns all over her body. All
of the deceased
left in the ship were blown apart. They called them
missing because they

couldn't get through the wreckage until certain teams
came and did their
investigations and so on first. That area is very unsafe
to say the least.
A
Dayton Daily News reporter emailed me. That's the last
thing I feel like
doing. Dr. Debard

and his wife emailed me. For those of you who don't
know, that is the

doctor who delivered me.

Don't know exactly when we'll be home. Don't know what
they're going to
do with us. I would hope we would get some leave. I
can't wait to see my

boys and not let go of them. I can't wait to see all
of you. I can't

receive cards through email. The way the email works
is: one of the
ships brings over some disks and we type out our
letters, then they take it
back to their ship and send them. We get email from you
all printed out
from

them. Tonight they gave us an account here on the ship
so we could send
a regular email. We have no phones on the ship. Twice
they brought a

phone on, we stood in line for hours and got a three
minute call.

All we are concerned about right now is surviving.
We have definitely
learned to appreciate the simplest of simple things in
life. There is
definitely some bickering going on. We have two groups
of people, those
who go non-stop and those who have completely stopped
working or
helping. Most of those who stopped were the ones who
were hard to get
motivated

before-hand.

I received birthday boxes from my parents. Everyone
was in

heaven as we passed around the things that smelled
good and clean. Thank
you so much. Some people have wanted to send care
packages, we don't
have anywhere to store anything right now. Most people
are asking for

sunscreen, batteries, pillows and cases, Copenhagen
Snuff, cigarettes,

socks, underwear, tee shirts, navy blue coveralls and
safety boots. I

know there's a couple more things, I just can't think
of what at the

moment. I appreciate all the emails and concern from
all of you.

Well, I am going to close. I get to make a phone
call and so I want
to

call the boys.

Everyone take care.

Bunches of love to you all.
Chris