The veterans organization is pushing for Congress to add the names of lost crew members to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington DC.
Over 54 years ago, a naval ship filled with young men launched from the shores of Long Beach, carrying them to join the Vietnam War.
Seventy-four of those aboard the USS Frank E. Evans would never make it back home.
Their short lives were ended, not by enemy fire, but by a freak accident.
During a training maneuver, the USS Frank E. Evans somehow took a wrong turn, which placed it in the path of an incoming carrier ship. The much larger vessel plowed into the USS Frank E. Evans, ripping it in half. Seventy-four of the sailors went down with the ship, and the only body recovered was that of 19-year-old Kenneth Wayne Glines.
Fast forward over a decade later: After the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC in 1982, mourning family members of some of the 74 made the trip to find their loved ones’ names missing from the wall.
They had all been excluded, to the great disappointment of their families.
“You can’t just draw a line and determine those who are honored and who aren’t,” said Steve Kraus, retired Navy sailor and president of the USS Frank E. Evans Association.
The USS Frank E. Evans Association was founded in 1992 by former crewmember H. G. “Nick” Nichols in order to bring the living crewmembers and family members together, and share the history of the vessel and those who were aboard.
The association has been consistently trying to get the names of the 74 added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and has been reaching out to politicians for help.
“We’re never going to give up fighting for this issue, it’s something too near and dear to our hearts,” Kraus said.
On June 6, on the 54th anniversary of the crash, Congressman Adam Schiff introduced the bill HR3826 to the House of Representatives, which if passed, would add the names of the lost 74 to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
However, Kraus said that getting the bill through Congress has been a slow-moving process, especially with the recent government shutdown and another potential one that may be happening in nine days.
“It’s slower than a snail’s pace. This year Congress is just tied up in itself,” Kraus said.
Although the names of the lost 74 sailors are yet to be remembered on the national memorial, their names are etched beneath the American flag at the Long Beach Navy Memorial Park. The USS Frank E. Evans Association holds a memorial event on June 6 in Long Beach, as well as in multiple states across the country where some of the 74 lost sailors originated from.
With Veterans Day around the corner, Kraus said the public should also take time to remember the men and women serving in the armed forces today.
“We need to think about those hundreds of thousands deployed right now […] With what’s going on in the world today, they need our support,” Kraus said.