The names of 74 Navy sailors who boarded the USS Frank E. Evans in Long Beach during the Vietnam War and never made it back home are etched beneath the United States flag flying above Shoreline Park.
While memorialized in stone here, these names have been excluded from the Vietnam Veteran Memorial in Washington D.C. Their surviving shipmates have continued a decades-long campaign to rectify this.
“They earned their place on that wall,” said Steve Kraus, retired Navy sailor and president of the USS Frank E. Evans Association. “And so survivors, relatives of the lost, have agreed, ‘Hey, we’re not going to quit. We’ll keep pushing the issue until the right people finally wake up to the fact that yes, they belong on the wall.’”
During its time in service, the USS Frank E. Evans and her crew provided naval gunfire support for South Vietnamese, South Korean, and U.S. Marine Corps troops on the ground in Operation Daring Rebel. The ship responded to 86 calls for gunfire support and used over 3,500 rounds of ammunition.
Kraus was among the crew that boarded the USS Frank E. Evans in Long Beach in March 1969 to serve in the Vietnam War. He witnessed the moment the ship was struck by the Australian HMAS Melbourne: a disastrous accident that would split the USS Frank E. Evans in half and cut short the lives of 74 crew members.
“I’m one of a small handful of people that actually saw it happen,” Kraus said. “I saw it developing at the last minute, when I knew that they were going to hit us.”
In 1982, Ann Armstrong Daily was invited to participate in a ceremony at the Vietnam Veteran Memorial where the names of those killed in the war would be read aloud. She agreed, and wanted to read the name of her brother Herbert Daily— but no one could find it on the wall.
“That was the very first inclination that we knew, wait a second, their names are not on the wall,” Kraus said.
In 1985, the family of late Navy sailor Thomas Belue Box took a vacation to Washington D.C. where the highlight of the trip was supposed to be visiting the Vietnam Veteran Memorial to read Thomas’ name. But his parents Frances and Daniel, and sisters Julie and Sara couldn’t find it.
“By not allowing those 74 names on the wall, it’s almost like saying, ‘Well, what you did didn’t count. It didn’t count as much as this person over here or this person over there. And to me, that’s not true.'”
Steve Kraus, retired Navy sailor and president of the USS Frank E. Evans Association
After the experiences of the Daily and Box families, it became clear that the names of all 74 Navy sailors were missing from the memorial wall. To get these names added to the memorial, some of the surviving crew and families of the lost formed the USS Frank E. Evans Association in 1992.
The association has been reaching out to politicians in Washington D.C. to advocate for the addition of the 74 Navy sailors’ names. Kraus believes the association has faced roadblocks because people think there’s no more space on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. According to Kraus, there are thousands of names people want added to the memorial. And while Kraus says there may not be space for all of these, there is enough room to add the names of 74 lost onboard the USS Frank E. Evans.
“They should take the 74 because, to our knowledge, we’re one of the oldest and largest groups,” Kraus said.
The USS Frank E. Evans was struck on its way back from rearming in Manila, outside of the combat zone.
Kraus said the association believes, “If you volunteered and you signed up, you were trying to fly to Vietnam, and you died as a result of anything associated with that. In our opinion, you are a fatality of the war.”
As an example, the USS Frank E. Evans Association points to the 58 marines who died in a crash flying back from a recreational trip to Hong Kong. While not originally included in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, their names were added in 1985 under the direction of President Ronald Reagan.
“What the public should realize is that our military people make a huge commitment to this country when they sign up,” Kraus said. “It’s an offering to defend the country, whether it’s in war or it’s in peace. […] And then when they give their life in service to their country, as citizens, we can’t turn our backs on honoring them in the proper way. And by not allowing those 74 names on the wall, it’s almost like saying, ‘Well, what you did didn’t count. It didn’t count as much as this person over here or this person over there. And to me, that’s not true.'”
On June 3, the members of the USS Frank E. Evans Association will have their annual memorial in Shoreline Park at the engraved names of the 74 lost Navy sailors to remember and honor them. They plan to continue their fight to have the names added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for as long as it takes. To help fund their efforts, the association has set up a GoFundMe campaign.
