DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997                 TAG: 9704040665

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY,STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   61 lines

NEW DESTROYER RETURNS TO NORFOLK TODAY THE COLE HAS BEEN FINE-TUNING ITS 327-MAN CREW AND WEAPONS SYSTEMS.

The new guided missile destroyer Cole returns home today, weary from 10 weeks of shakedown tests of its hardware and crew but convinced it lives up to its nickname - ``Determined Warrior.''

``The crew has done fantastic, meeting all our goals and doing their jobs well,'' said the Cole's captain, Cmdr. Stewart O'Bryan, talking by satellite telephone as the ship plowed through the Atlantic.

Norfolk's newest Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is scheduled to return to Pier 25 of the Norfolk Naval Station at 8:30 a.m. today.

The Cole has been in and out of Norfolk for the past six months, fine-tuning its 327-man crew and its various weapons systems, O'Bryan said, and is close to entering the fleet as an full-time player.

Its latest trip, to the Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard where it was built, was for a ``10,000-mile checkup,'' akin to an auto dealership's check of a recently bought car. The builders checked their work and upgraded weapons systems, communications gear, high-tech water-making equipment and other gadgetry.

``After we finished our shakedown and post-delivery tests and trials, we shot 10 missiles and tested all our weapons systems,'' said O'Bryan. ``Everything went well.''

As one of the newest assets in the fleet, the Cole is a guinea pig for new Navy ideas on shipboard systems. One that has excited particular interest aboard Cole is a test of new living quarters for some of its crew.

``We are a test platform for the Navy's new ``Sit-up Berths,'' said O'Bryan. ``We're the first ship to get it.''

The Navy installed nine of the new beds in the ship, which give sailors room to sit up in bed to read or write. The units also provide each sailor with more storage space.

``We thought there'd be a fight over who got assigned to them,'' O'Bryan said. Those with seniority and those with both large and small frames got to test the units first.

``The crew is quite happy with them,'' said Command Master Chief William Russell. ``They give the sailors a chance to sit up and read in privacy, something there's not a lot of aboard a ship. There's a fold-down desk and a lot more storage.''

Following more tests and some refinements suggested by the crew, the Navy is expected to adopt the new bunks for installation on all of its new ships.

The Cole's homecoming won't last long. It heads to sea again April 15, this time with Destroyer Squadron 22. The squadron's four ships will join warships from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium in a Caribbean Sea exercise to test their cooperative NATO capabilities.

The 504-foot destroyer is scheduled for its first overseas deployment in February.

Commissioned June 8 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., it is the 17th Arleigh Burke-class ship built and the seventh to be based in Norfolk. It is named for Marine Sgt. Darrel Samuel Cole, who was awarded the Medal Of Honor posthumously in World War II. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by U.S. Navy

The 504-foot Cole, Norfolk's newest Arleigh Burke-class destroyer,

is ending 10 weeks of shakedown tests of its hardware and 327-man

crew.

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