Kirk Lippold, former commanding officer of USS Cole, and author of Front Burner: Al Qaeda's Attack on the USS Cole to speak at Maine Maritime Museum

On Oct. 12, 2000, eleven months before the 9/11 attacks, suicide bombers sent by Osama bin Laden blew a huge hole in a U.S. Navy destroyer that had stopped to refuel in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors died and 39 were wounded. In hindsight, it was a harbinger of a far deadlier day to come.

Yet, unlike the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. mainland the attack on Cole has been mostly forgotten, an event, according to the ship's commanding officer at the time, that "The Navy was perfectly content to allow... to drift into obscurity."

Now, as the alleged mastermind behind the Cole attack faces a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold is telling his story in a new book, Front Burner: Al Qaeda's Attack on the USS Cole.

 "Suddenly, at 1118, there was a thunderous explosion.  Eight thousand four hundred tons of guided missile destroyer thrust quickly and violently upward and to the right.  Tiles from the false ceiling in my cabin popped out and landed on the floor.  The coffee and water on my small round table tipped over, spilling onto the dark blue carpet.  Everything that was not bolted down lifted off my desk and seemed to float twelve inches in the air for a split second before slamming back down with a dull thud." - Chapter 4: Attacked

In this gripping first-person narrative, Lippold reveals the details of his harrowing experience leading a crew of valiant sailors through the deadliest terrorist attack on an American warship in history. He’ll also explain how bureaucrats and politicians reacted to the attack, ignored the dangerous warning signs it foretold, and avoided responsibility before the event was overshadowed by 9/11. An essential recounting of a critical moment in America’s battle against al Qaeda, Front Burner details a crucial story that had, until now, been lost in the fog of the war on terror. 

Copies of Front Burner:Al Qaeda's Attack on the USS Cole will be availabel for sale and signing following the lecture.