Memories - USS FRANK E EVANS (DD754)

It was the summer of 1969. I had received my commission as an Ensign in the US Navy in May and then completed Gunnery School at Dam Neck, Virginia.

I flew to the Philippines to catch a flight to the carrier Enterprise and then a helicopter ride to my new ship, USS WILLIAM H STANDLEY (DLG32). While I was in the Philippines I saw something that I still remember clearly to this day over 40 years later. I saw what was left of the USS FRANK E EVANS (DD754).

Earlier that summer on June 6, 1969 the EVANS was operating as part of a joint exercise with the Australian Navy in the South China Sea. It was a dark night. The EVANS somehow misunderstood the movement of the Australian carrier CANBERRA and turned in front of it. The CANBERRA's bow cut right into the EVANS amidships and literally cut the EVANS in half. Within a few minutes the front half of the EVANS sank, but the aft half remained afloat.

The aft half was eventually towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines and that's where I saw her -- at least the aft half -- tied up to the pier. It looked like a giant knife had cut her in half.

Here's a picture of the EVANS alongside the Navy tug as it was being prepared to be towed.

For a young kid about to begin his Navy career it was a sobering sight and I can still see it in my mind's eye as clear as if I just saw it yesterday.

Ironically, about a year later, one of the EVANS survivors was assigned to my gunnery crew on the STANDLEY. He was a good kid and a good sailor, but he didn't want to talk too much about his experience -- which was understandable.

Psalms 107:23-30
Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm, so that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; so He guides them to their desired haven.