The guided-missile destroyer was repaired and upgraded after the attack, and only five sailors who were aboard that day remain with it. They did not want to talk to reporters, the Navy said.
Other members of the crew of more than 350 acknowledged that the attack is an inescapable part of the ship's history.
"It's always going to be the Cole,'' said Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Ellis, 34, of Moyock, N.C.
"You can't go down to the mess decks every day and walk on the 17 stars without thinking about it,'' Cmdr. Christopher W. Grady, the Cole's commanding officer, said of the attack.
Grady was referring to the ship's "Hall of Heroes'' with stars on the floor in honor of the sailors killed when suicide bombers pulled an explosive-packed boat alongside the ship, tearing a large hole in the Cole's side.
The bombing was blamed on the al-Qaida terrorist network. Saved by the surviving crew from sinking, the $1 billion ship underwent $250 million of repairs at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.
For the deployment, the Cole left Norfolk Naval Station on Nov. 29 as part of an independent three-ship strike group that was under the USS Enterprise carrier strike group.
The Cole spent its deployment in the Mediterranean supporting NATO and the war on terrorism as it escorted ships through the Straits of Gibraltar and made diplomatic port calls.
"This is the first step in the Cole's return to the fleet,'' Grady said. "Now, we take a much-needed rest for about a month and get back to work. I don't think the 17 sailors we lost would have it any other way.''
The Cole pulled alongside the pier midmorning, flying a huge American flag.
Ellis's 11-year-old daughter, Tiffany, wiped away tears and strained to pick out her father among the sailors manning the ship's rails in their white dress uniforms.
Minutes later, Ellis made his way through the crowd on the pier and hugged a now-smiling Tiffany and her two brothers, 13-year-old Michael and 6-year-old Jimmy.
Jimmy sat down on the concrete at his father's feet and showed off something he had learned while dad was at sea: how to tie his shoes.
"To be gone this long and to have this many back here waiting for you, it's unreal,'' Ellis said, surrounded by about 20 relatives and friends.
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