Today's Medal of Honor belongs to Lieutenant Commander Ernest Evans, captain of the destroyer
U.S.S. Johnston. He also had earned a Bronze Star earlier in the war, but he and his crew went far above and beyond what could have possibly been expected of them, given the odds they were up against. This was some serious David and Goliath type shit. Only instead of David fighting Goliath, David was fighting a guy who made Goliath look like David.
For a quick background on Evans, his crew called him the Chief, since he was 3/4 Native American. When he was given command in the ship, he let his men know exactly what he expected from them. "This is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm's way, and anyone who doesn't want to go along had better get off right now." He backed that up. I'm honestly surprised that he didn't sink his ship himself, given his massive titanium balls.
For a quick background of the fight, this happened during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, as Japanese forces attempted to disrupt General MacArthur's return to the Philippines. (spoilers: they didn't, they got shit-kicked).
During the battle, the
Johnston was part of a group of around a half dozen destroyers defending a group of escort carriers, which are basically just floating runways with little protection of their own, designated Taffy-3.
They came up against a Japanese force consisting of several battleships, a bunch of cruisers, and a lot of destroyers. (just for reference, in terms of mass: destroyers<cruisers<battleships) So, instead of running, or playing rope-a-dope, Taffy-3 charges the enemy formation, with Evans taking the lead. They are out there playing tag with ships literally ten times their size. Think a line brawl consisting entirely of Nathan Gerbes fighting Zdeno Charas. The
Johnston spent around three hours basically turning into a pinball, zig-zagging around firing hundreds of shells and as many torpedoes as possible at anything not friendly. They several different ships and even blew the bow off of one, forcing it to retreat. Several times they had to stop and repair, as they were getting shot to hell themselves. At one point, a shell hit the bridge, rendering it inoperable, and destroying Evans' left hand. Again, instead of retreating, Evans relocated, and continued commanding the ship via word of mouth before their engines were finally knocked out, and Evans was forced to give the order to abandon ship.
As the ship was going down, a Japanese destroyer pulled alongside, and fired a few shots into her to ensure she sank. As the crew were abandoning ship, they saw the Japanese captain saluting the
Johnston as it went under, he was that impressed by how ferociously the Americans fought.
Evans abandoned ship with his men, but was sadly lost at sea before he could be rescued. Of the 327 men on board, only 141 survived. Taffy-3 as whole lost several ships and over 1,500 sailors. But they did their job. They protected the carriers, and delayed the Japanese attack long enough for every possible American aircraft in the fleet to scramble and fight of the Japanese.
MoH Citation said:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Commander Ernest Edwin "Chief" Evans (NSN: 0-70042), United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. JOHNSTON (DD-557) in action against major units of the enemy Japanese fleet during the battle off Samar on 25 October 1944. The first to lay a smokescreen and to open fire as an enemy task force, vastly superior in number, firepower and armor, rapidly approached. Commander Evans gallantly diverted the powerful blasts of hostile guns from the lightly armed and armored carriers under his protection, launching the first torpedo attack when the JOHNSTON came under straddling Japanese shellfire. Undaunted by damage sustained under the terrific volume of fire, he unhesitatingly joined others of his group to provide fire support during subsequent torpedo attacks against the Japanese and, out-shooting and outmaneuvering the enemy as he consistently interposed his vessel between the hostile fleet units and our carriers despite the crippling loss of engine power and communications with steering aft, shifted command to the fantail, shouted steering orders through an open hatch to men turning the rudder by hand and battled furiously until the JOHNSTON, burning and shuddering from a mortal blow, lay dead in the water after three hours of fierce combat. Seriously wounded early in the engagement, Commander Evans, by his indomitable courage and brilliant professional skill, aided materially in turning back the enemy during a critical phase of the action. His valiant fighting spirit throughout this historic battle will venture as an inspiration to all who served with him.
For a more detailed/much much much better explainatoin of the battle, check out this video. I realize it's long, but play it at 1.5 speed or something, it's honestly 100% worth your time.
It's good I'm alone. He's not your wife, he's your buddy. Who cares what he eats? Having mucho fun here, but gotta run an errand.
