The seventeen sailors killed aboard the USS Cole were wiped out by technology in the hands of terrorists. A powerful shaped explosive allowed a small boat to cripple a powerful Navy destroyer.
Technology can both kill and protect.
But it's only made the lives of military families more uncertain. News footage of the conflict in Southeast Asia brought horror of combat into American living rooms. Now it's the front porch war. On the front porch of the Gauna family in Ennis, broadcasters relay every new bit of information about the fate of the missing sailors. Tim Gauna is a front page story before the family knows exactly what happened to him.