The case for adding 74 sailors of the USS Frank E. Evans to the Vietnam Memorial

By Maj. Cameron Gallagher, U.S. Army


Best Defense guest columnist

In the early morning of June
3, 1969, the USS Frank E. Evans was
engaged in "Operation Sea Spirit" with more than 40 ships of the
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. During the exercise, the Evans collided
with HMAS Melbourne, an Australian
carrier that ripped the American destroyer in two, killing 74 sailors.

The names of the "Lost 74" are not inscribed upon the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall because they were killed just outside the
designated combat zone, an area used by the Department of Defense (DOD) to
determine if an individual was a Vietnam conflict fatality.

Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and The USS Frank E.
Evans Association both
disagree with DOD's decision to exclude the "Lost 74" from recognition on the
wall. They argue that the Evans
provided naval support fire for combat operations in Vietnam the month prior to
Operation Sea Spirit and claim that they were scheduled to return after the
exercise.

In addition, there is
precedence for granting exceptions to servicemembers who were killed outside of
the designated combat zone. One of the most famous occurred in 1983 when
President Ronald Reagan ordered that the names of 68 Marines who died on an
R&R flight outside of the combat zone be added to the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial.

As Memorial Day approaches
next month, we need to ask ourselves: why shouldn't we add the "Lost 74" to the
more than 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?

 is the
story by ABC News on the "Lost 74."

MAJ Cameron Gallagher is an
AH-64D Apache aviator who served as a defense legislative fellow for Rep. Adam
Schiff (D-CA) in 2013. The opinions expressed in the article are solely those
of the author and do not reflect those of the U.S. government, the Department
of Defense, or the U.S. Army.