ABOARD THE DESTROYER COLE -- Where smoke, dark and thick, once billowed, fresh air now pumps through this ship's brightly lit corridors.

Where waters of the Gulf of Aden once flooded an engine room and spread to many others, shiny decks are now bone-dry. And where cries of fear and dread and panic once reigned on the day 18 months ago when suicide bombers blew a giant hole in this Navy ship, a quiet sense of determination and resolve has taken hold.

The COLE, dead in the water after terrorists attacked in Yemen, then resurrected at a Mississippi shipyard, begins its trip home to Norfolk today.

The crew of this 509-foot guided missile destroyer appeared buoyed this week after the completion of $240 million worth of repairs and modernization in a Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard, leaving the 6-year-old ship "better than new."

The ship is expected back in Norfolk on Thursday, and many said they were eager for the return and a chance to join the effort against terrorism in Afghanistan and beyond. But inside the repainted ship filled with 550 tons of new steel and 350,163 feet of new electrical cable, sobering symbols remain to honor the sacrifices that killed 17 sailors and wounded 39.

A quick tour of portside areas damaged by the Oct. 12, 2000, attack did not reveal any visible scars. "The work we did had to be a cut above," said Michael E. Chapman, general ship superintendent for the shipyard and the COLE's chief restorer. "The fact is that it is the COLE, and that means something special."

Chapman said he had been shocked by the extent of the damage when the COLE, built at Northrop Grumman Ingalls Shipbuilding, returned to the Mississippi yard in December 2000. The Navy commissioned the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in June 1996.

Twisted metal by the ton needed to be excised from the area around the blast. The crew's galley, the Chief Petty Officer mess room and lounge, the Command Master Chief's office, the oil test laboratory, general workshop and a repair locker all needed to be rebuilt.

Three gas turbines had to be replaced, along with a 63-ton gear box. During the COLE's 16-month stay at Ingalls, shipyard workers and the ship's crew installed new water pipes, air-conditioning vents and floor tiles.

A stern flap was affixed to increase speed and fuel efficiency. New computer software -- "like going from Windows 97 to Windows 2000," as one officer described it -- now runs the combat systems.

Other changes intentionally remind the crew and visitors of what was lost:

The American flag, or battle ensign, that flew on the stern as the crew struggled to control the ship and off-load the casualties is encased in the new enlisted galley.

Outside this mess deck, a Wall of Heroes wooden plaque lists each of the 17 lives lost. Along the corridor's floor, workers embedded 17 gray stars, about a square foot in size, to mark the dead.

Most of the crew is new to the ship, many new to the Navy. Only 40 sailors of the original 294-member crew remain.

"I just haven't had a whole lot of questions about Yemen," said Chief Petty Officer Mike Peterson, 37, of Chesapeake, who reported to the COLE after the attack.

"We're history, we know that," said Lt. Joe Gagliano, the ship's combat systems officer who remained aboard after the attack. "We're moving forward, but we'll never forget."

Gagliano, a 28-year-old COLE survivor, admitted he was a little skeptical at first that the ship could be saved. "But the shipyard was incredible, and we're a determined warrior," he said, invoking the ship's nickname.

For the COLE's commanding officer, Cmdr. Kevin M. Sweeney, the test of the shipyard's labor came last week. The destroyer took to the sea again, undergoing two days of trials before its voyage home.

"My first concern out there was the safety of the crew," he said.

Sweeney talked about the endurance of the shipyard workers and the crew who labored long hours and on weekends and holidays to make the successful sea trials happen on time.

Then he paused and smiled.   "And boy did she run," he said.