Bath-built ship part of opening salvo

A warship built at Bath Iron Works participated in the opening salvo in the war to remove Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

The attacks involved more than 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from Navy ships in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, as well as bombs dropped from two Air Force stealth fighters.

Video released by the Pentagon showed the destroyer USS Donald Cook launching three Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea.

The Donald Cook, whose homeport is Norfolk, Va., was launched in May 1997 and commissioned a year later in Philadelphia. It was the 14th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built at Bath Iron Works.

The ship is named for Marine Col. Donald Cook, who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for gallantry as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.