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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nOn June 3, 1969, the Sumner-class destroyer USS Frank E. Evans which was on maneuvers in the At around 3 a.m. on 3 June 1969, between Vietnam and Spratly Island, Frank E. Evans was operating with the Royal Navy, Royal Australian Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy in company with Melbourne which was in the process of going to flying stations and all ships in the formation were running without lights. Melbourne radioed Evans, then to port of the carrier, to take up the rescue destroyer position. The logical movement would be to turn to port and make a circle taking up station on the carrier’s port quarter. However, since the conning officer on Evans misunderstood the formation’s base course and believed they were starboard of Melbourne, they turned to starboard, cutting across the carrier’s bow twice in the process. Frank E. Evans was struck at a point around 92 feet from her bow on her port side and was cut in two. Her bow drifted off to the port side of Melbourne and sank in less than five minutes taking 73 of her crew with it. One body was recovered from the water, making a total of 74 dead. The stern scraped along the starboard side of Melbourne and lines were able to be attached by the crew of Melbourne. Around 60-100 men were also rescued from the water.<\/p>\n At the time of the collision the commanding officer of Frank E. Evans was asleep in his quarters having left instructions to be awakened if there were to be any changes in the formation. Neither the officer of the deck nor the junior officer of the deck notified him when the station change was ordered. The bridge crew also did not contact the combat information center to request clarification of the positions and movements of the surrounding ships.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In recent years, the USS Frank E. Evans (DD 754) Association, Inc.<\/a> has been lobbying for the names of those 74 sailors lost in the incident added to the Vietnam War Memorial, since the World War II-era destroyer had previously been on duty in Vietnam waters. According to Fox News<\/a>, the Pentagon has denied the request once again;<\/p>\n The Evans sailors “do not meet the established criteria for the inscription of their names on the wall,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said. “The deputy secretary of defense extensively reviewed information and records to make an informed decision.”<\/p>\n The Evans veterans say the Pentagon has previously granted exceptions to the eligibility criteria for adding names to the memorial, including for dozens of Marines who were killed when the plane carrying them back to Vietnam from leave in Hong Kong crashed during takeoff.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Until I read the part about the Marines who were killed coming back from liberty pass having their names added to the Wall, I agreed with the Pentagon. Now I’m not so sure.<\/p>\n The USS Frank E. Evans (DD 754) Association, Inc. lists the 74 fatalities on their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sea of Japan<\/del> South China Sea the day after it was relieved from duty off the coast of Vietnam was struck amidship by the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne. According to Wiki<\/a>;<\/p>\n