The Navy Blames The Troops- No Support Ribbons On The Warships

In the immediate aftermath of the bombing of the USS Cole in the Gulf of Yemen in 2000 Admiral Vern Clark said of the ship's commanding officer, Cmdr. Kirk Lippold:

"There is a collective responsibility. We all in the chain of command share
responsibility for what happened on board USS Cole."
"The investigation clearly shows the commanding officer of the Cole did not have the specific intelligence, the focused training, the appropriate equipment and on-scene
security support to effectively prevent or deter such a determined, such a
pre-planned assault on this ship," Clark said on Jan. 19, 2001.

On Monday the Navy Secretary, Donald C. Winter, said:

...that Lippold's actions before the attack on Oct. 12, 2000, "did not meet the
high standard" expected of commanding officers.

Winter concluded that:

(b)ased on that assessment, that Lippold was "not the best and fully qualified
for promotion to the higher grade" of captain

and removed him from the promotion list according to the South Mississippi Sun Herald.