When the Navy dedicates a $27 million barracks Friday in memory of those who were killed aboard the USS Cole, a sailor who survived the blast that blew a hole in the vessel will be a guest of honor.
First Class Petty Officer David Rueckert was standing in a mess line on the destroyer’s main deck Oct. 12, 2000, when a small boat rigged with explosives detonated, ripping a hole in the destroyer as it prepared to refuel in a Yemen port.
“I was two minutes from no longer being here,” said Rueckert, 40, of Beaver Dam, Wis., who is stationed at Great Lakes Naval Training Center near North Chicago.
The blast killed 17 of his shipmates.
The mess hall was all but destroyed, yet Rueckert escaped with just a few cuts and bruises. He helped organize an evacuation.
The new barracks at Great Lakes will be called “Determined Warrior,” the call sign for the USS Cole.
Navy officials describe the barracks as the first of its kind and part of an effort to attract and retain sailors by providing a better living environment.
Capt. Jerry Hart, commanding officer of the training center, said he remembers when sailors lived in conditions that offered no privacy, sleeping in rows of bunks in an open barracks and living out of lockers. The Determined Warrior will give sailors a dormlike setting, with apartments shared by four people and private sleeping compartments for two.
“It’s quite a stark contrast, but it symbolizes the Navy’s commitment to attracting and retaining the best and the brightest this country has to offer,” Hart said.
Besides Rueckert, eight other sailors who were on the Cole during the attack are stationed at the base.
“It’s a great honor to see that the Navy still remembers the men and women who lost their lives on the Cole,” Rueckert said. “It’s important to remember, particularly for fellow Navy personnel coming through the base, the risks undertaken by those who serve our country.”
The six-story barracks is part of the base’s technical service training center.
Under a $1 billion renovation plan, the Navy plans to replace its entire barracks at the training center, most of which were built in the 1960s, officials said. The glass-and-brick barracks to be dedicated Friday will house 660 sailors, 10 percent of the student population, while they undergo advanced and basic service training, Navy officials said.
Within its 158,000 square feet are 165 dormlike apartments with kitchenettes and bathrooms.
Each floor has a laundry and TV room, officials said. The ground floor has a mailroom, a learning center with computers and a library, an exercise facility, and a recreation room.
“We want to show our sailors that we are committed to them by emphasizing the quality of service and providing the best possible living conditions,” Hart said.
By naming the new barracks after the Cole’s call name, the Navy hopes to “memorialize the ship and what it represents to this country,” Hart said. “It’s an indication of the seriousness of the business we are about and signifies an investment in our nation’s defense.”
Also Friday, Katherine L’Amour, widow of Louis L’Amour, a prolific author best known for his Western novels, will present a signed copy of one of her husband’s best sellers to the top boot camp graduate after graduation, Navy officials said.
L’Amour and Bantam Dell Publishing Group will donate 56,000 of his books to the base. Similar donations have been made to other branches of the armed forces, officials said.
In World War II, L’Amour served in the Army as an officer in tank-destroying and transportation units in Germany and France, Navy officials said.
