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USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754)

USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) was laid down on 21 April 1944 at Staten Island, N.Y., by Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 3 October 1944; and sponsored by Mrs. Allean F. Evans, widow of the late Brig. Gen. Evans. “The 2,200-ton super-destroyer Evans,” the New York Times reported the following day, “named in honor of the late Brig. Frank E. Evans of the Marine Corps, was launched at high water yesterday at the Bethlehem Steel and Shipbuilding Company yard at Mariners Harbor in the presence of high-ranking naval officers, seventy-five invited guests and 500 shipyard workers.” Frank E. Evans was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., on 3 February 1945, Cmdr. Harry Smith in command.

USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) began the destroyer’s service in the Atlantic Fleet as she completed a shakedown cruise and original daily anti-submarine warfare, gunnery, damage control, Combat Information Center (CIC), engineering, and communications training as part of Task Group (TG) 23.1 in the waters off Bermuda (23 February–5 March). On 6 April 1945, the Japanese had launched the first of a series of ten mass kamikaze attacks, interspersed with smaller raids and named Kikusui (Floating Chrysanthemum) No. 1, against Allied ships off Okinawa during Operation Iceberg—the invasion of the island.

As the war ended, USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) set out from Buckner Bay and joined TG 71.1, Rear Adm. Francis S. Low, Commander, North China Force. Fleet ocean tug Moctobi (ATF-105) took the destroyer in tow on 2 June 1946 as the latter entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, Calif., for an overhaul and inactivation on the 7th of June, and on 5 July 1947, shifted to Naval Station (NS) San Diego, Calif. USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) was decommissioned there and placed in reserve on 7 July 1947. On 11 May 1949, she was recommissioned at NS San Diego, Cmdr. William C. Meyer in command. Following a fitting out period at San Francisco Naval Shipyard at Hunters Point, and brief operations out of San Diego, the ship loaded ordnance at Seal Beach Naval Ammunition and Net Depot, Calif., on 8 June, and through the 13th returned to San Diego.

USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) sailed on 22 March 1952 for her second Korean tour, refueled and provisioned at Pearl Harbor (28 March–5 April) and reached Yokosuka to recover from the voyage (13–17 April). The ship then served with the fast carriers of TF 77 as they ranged along the Korean east coast. In this deployment USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) also shelled enemy positions in and around Conjin, Sŏngjin, Tanchon, Wŏnsan, and Yongdon. Frank E. Evans carried out a variety of tasks during her maiden deployment to the Vietnam War, and she took her turn off the northern coast of South Vietnam, ready to provide naval gunfire support to the allied troops fighting ashore in Quảng Ngãi Province in the I Corps Tactical Zone.

Inspectors from the Board of Inspection and Survey investigated USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) and reported on the 10th that they considered her “unfit for further naval service” and recommended that she be stricken. On 12 June 1969, Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, the Chief of Naval Operations, therefore directed that the ship be decommissioned.

For a complete history of USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) please see its DANFS page.