Ernest E. Evans

Also known as: Ernest Edwin Evans · Ernest Edwin "Chief" Evans · Commander Ernest E. Evans · Cmdr. Ernest E. Evans, USN

Definition

Ernest Edwin Evans (August 13, 1908 – October 25, 1944) was a United States Navy officer of Cherokee and Creek descent and the first and only commanding officer of the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Johnston (DD-557), which he took alone against the Japanese Center Force at the Battle off Samar on October 25, 1944, in Philippine waters, to defend the slow escort carriers of Taffy 3 covering the Leyte beachhead. Born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1931, Evans attacked a fleet vastly superior in “number, firepower and armor,” fought his crippled ship for roughly three hours, and went down with her; he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor — presented on September 28, 1945 — for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.” (Wikipedia, CMOHS — citation)

Because his remains were never recovered, Evans is commemorated in the Philippines on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery, and his loss belongs indivisibly to this site’s records of the Battle off Samar, USS Johnston, and the liberation of Leyte. (CMOHS — citation) The future Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Ernest E. Evans (DDG-141), announced in November 2023, will carry his name, and the record of that naming describes him as the first Native American in the United States Navy to be awarded the Medal of Honor. (Wikipedia — USS Ernest E. Evans)

Identities

Source	Identifier	URL
Wikipedia	Ernest E. Evans	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_E._Evans
Wikidata	Ernest E. Evans (Q5393004)	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5393004
DBpedia	Ernest_E._Evans	https://dbpedia.org/page/Ernest_E._Evans
ProductOntology	N/A	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A	N/A
MeSH	N/A	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A	N/A
Google Scholar	Ernest E. Evans USS Johnston DD-557 Battle off Samar Taffy 3 Medal of Honor Cherokee Creek Leyte Gulf Kumano	N/A
ConceptNet	N/A	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A	N/A

Also Known As

Ernest Edwin Evans
Ernest Edwin “Chief” Evans
Commander Ernest E. Evans
Cmdr. Ernest E. Evans, USN

Examples and Analogies

The captain’s promise, kept to the letter: at Johnston’s commissioning on October 27, 1943, Evans told the assembled crew “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” — and less than a year later he made the promise literal, going in harm’s way until the ship went down under him. (Wikipedia)
A wasp stinging a bull: when Kurita’s battleships and cruisers were first sighted on October 25, 1944, Evans laid a smoke screen for the carriers, ordered flank speed and full right rudder, and led his destroyer out of the formation alone — firing at least 45 five-inch shells into the heavy cruiser Kumano before his torpedoes blew the cruiser’s bow clean off, an opening his Medal of Honor citation credits as being “the first to lay a smokescreen and to open fire.” (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — USS Johnston)
Verified data (life, service, and honors):
Born: August 13, 1908, Pawnee, Oklahoma; raised in Muskogee, where he graduated from Muskogee Central High School (Wikipedia, USNA Memorial Hall)
Heritage: of Native American ancestry, Cherokee and Creek (Wikipedia); the Naval Academy’s memorial record describes him as half-Cherokee and one-quarter Creek (USNA Memorial Hall)
Commissioning path: one year of enlisted naval service, then appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, entering as a midshipman on June 29, 1927 and graduating in 1931 (Wikipedia)
Early war: assigned to the destroyer Alden on August 9, 1941, serving in the East Indies when war opened; her commanding officer from March 14, 1942 to July 7, 1943, in operations around Australia, New Guinea, and the Dutch East Indies (Wikipedia)
Bronze Star: for meritorious achievement in the sinking of the Japanese submarine I-176 on May 16, 1944 (Wikipedia, USNA Memorial Hall)
Samar wounds: three 18.1-inch and three 6.1-inch shells from Yamato struck Johnston; a 6.1-inch hit on the bridge blew off two of Evans’s fingers, and he refused painkillers so his crew would be treated first (Wikipedia)
Medal of Honor: for action off Samar, Philippine Islands, October 25, 1944; presented posthumously on September 28, 1945; he also shared in Taffy 3’s Presidential Unit Citation (CMOHS — citation, Wikipedia)
Namesakes: USS Evans (DE-1023, 1955–1968); the Evans Full Mission-2 Simulator dedicated at Newport in 2013; and the future USS Ernest E. Evans (DDG-141), announced by the Secretary of the Navy on November 15, 2023 (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — USS Ernest E. Evans)

Usage Scenarios

1. Studying the Battle off Samar and the Liberation of the Philippines

Evans is the human center of the Samar action this wiki’s Battle off Samar entry carries in full: his unbidden charge opened the destroyer attacks that, with the escort carriers’ aircraft and smoke, persuaded Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita to break off, saving the Leyte beachhead of the October 20, 1944 landings. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — USS Johnston)

2. Medal of Honor and Command Leadership Study

The Evans citation — with its “indomitable courage and brilliant professional skill” that “aided materially in turning back the enemy during a critical phase of the action” — is a standard text in the study of battlefield command, taught alongside his shift of command to the fantail, where he shouted steering orders through an open hatch to men turning the rudder by hand after steering control was lost. (CMOHS — citation, Wikipedia)

3. Native American Service and Commemoration

Evans’s Cherokee and Creek heritage makes him a reference figure in the record of Native American military service; the November 2023 naming of DDG-141, announced during Native American Heritage Month at the U.S. Naval Academy, formalized that commemoration, as did the earlier destroyer escort that carried his name. (Wikipedia — USS Ernest E. Evans, USNA Memorial Hall)

4. Visiting Philippine War Memorials

For visitors to the Manila American Cemetery, Evans’s name on the Walls of the Missing connects the memorial to the sea battle fought off Samar — he is among the Medal of Honor recipients commemorated there, his grave the Philippine deep where Johnston lies. (CMOHS — citation, Wikipedia — USS Johnston)

Strategies

Anchor the morning by ship times and orders: the smoke screen, the order to charge, the torpedo run that crippled Kumano, Yamato’s salvoes that wounded Evans, and the abandon-ship order form a documented sequence — carry it rather than the legend. (Wikipedia)
Carry the famous quotes with their speakers: the commissioning promise is Evans’s; the “fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected” announcement is credited by contemporaneous sources to Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland of Samuel B. Roberts, and writers should not transfer it. (Wikipedia)
Pair the man with the ship but cite each to its own record: Evans’s fate is documented in his own record, while Johnston’s casualties (186 of 327 dead) and her 2021 wreck identification belong to this wiki’s USS Johnston entry. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — USS Johnston)
Attribute the heritage framing precisely: “of Cherokee and Creek descent” is the standard description, and the “first Native American in the Navy” Medal of Honor claim belongs to the ship-naming record — carry it attributed, not asserted. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — USS Ernest E. Evans)

Security and Safety Measures

Respect for a war grave: Evans’s remains rest, if anywhere, in Johnston’s hulk more than 6,400 meters down in the Philippine Trench; the standing convention treats the wreck as a seamen’s grave, to be documented but never disturbed. (Wikipedia — USS Johnston)
Source discipline on the captain’s fate: survivor accounts of his final hours differ — shellfire, a damaged whaleboat, a lifeboat returning the Japanese salute — so any specific claim about how he died should carry its teller rather than being stated as fact. (Wikipedia)
Keep award tiers separate: the Medal of Honor (to Evans), the Bronze Star (for I-176), and the Presidential Unit Citation (to Taffy 3 as a unit) are three different honors at three levels — conflating them misstates the record. (CMOHS — citation, Wikipedia)
Precision about dates of award: the action date is October 25, 1944; the medal was presented posthumously on September 28, 1945 — two different dates that popular retellings often collapse into one. (CMOHS — citation)

Historical Context

Ernest Edwin Evans was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, on August 13, 1908, a Cherokee and Creek Native American in a state then just a year old. He served a year as an enlisted sailor before entering the Naval Academy in 1927, graduating with the Class of 1931. His war began in the Dutch East Indies: assigned to the destroyer Alden days before Pearl Harbor, he took her command in March 1942 and operated through the campaigns around Australia and New Guinea until July 1943. Ordered to Seattle to fit out the new Fletcher-class destroyer Johnston, he assumed command at her commissioning on October 27, 1943 and made his fighting-ship promise to the crew; in May 1944 he earned the Bronze Star in the sinking of the Japanese submarine I-176. (Wikipedia, USNA Memorial Hall)

On October 25, 1944, in the waters off Samar, Johnston was screening Taffy 3 when Kurita’s Center Force — battleships including Yamato, six heavy cruisers, and destroyers — bore down on the escort carriers covering the Leyte landings. Evans did not wait for orders: smoke for the carriers, then a solo charge, more than 200 shells into Kumano, and torpedoes that tore off the cruiser’s bow and pulled Suzuya from the fight. Yamato’s return fire cost Johnston engine power and communications aft and cost Evans two fingers; he fought on, interposing his ship between the enemy and the carriers, shifting command to the fantail and shouting steering orders below, until the burning, shuddering destroyer lay dead in the water after three hours of combat. He was last seen on deck ordering abandon ship; the Japanese destroyer Yukikaze was seen to salute Johnston as she sank, and her captain later claimed to have seen Evans in a lifeboat returning the salute. He was not among the rescued. The Medal of Honor citation, signed for action in which he was killed, closed the record: his “valiant fighting spirit throughout this historic battle” would remain “an inspiration to all who served with him.” (Wikipedia, CMOHS — citation)

His afterlife runs through two navies and one Philippine memorial. The destroyer escort USS Evans (DE-1023) carried his name from 1955 to 1968; the Surface Warfare Officers School’s simulator at Newport took his name in 2013; and on November 15, 2023 the Secretary of the Navy announced that DDG-141, an Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyer, would be USS Ernest E. Evans. In the Philippines his name is cut into the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery, and his ship’s wreck — identified in 2021 at 6,460 meters, with hull number “557” still legible — lies in the Philippine Trench as the deepest monument to the battle he chose. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — USS Ernest E. Evans, CMOHS — citation, Wikipedia — USS Johnston)

Challenges and Controversies

The Fate of the Commander

Evans’s exact death was never conclusively established and remains the subject of conjecture among Johnston’s survivors: some say he was hit by shellfire, others that he reached a damaged motor whaleboat, and the commanding officer of Yukikaze claimed to have seen him in a lifeboat returning the salute rendered to his sinking ship. What is documented is narrower — seriously wounded, he lived to order abandon ship, and he was never rescued. (Wikipedia)

The Misattributed Morning Announcement

The dramatic announcement “This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can” is often given to Evans, but contemporaneous sources credit it to Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland of the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts; this wiki’s entries assign it accordingly. (Wikipedia)

The First-Native-American Framing

Evans is repeatedly described as the first Native American in the U.S. Navy to receive the Medal of Honor — the framing carried in the 2023 ship-naming coverage — and as one of only two World War II destroyer captains to earn the medal. The claim is standard in the naval record but should be carried as attributed framing, since broader “first Native American Medal of Honor recipient” claims span all services and earlier wars. (Wikipedia — USS Ernest E. Evans)

The Sinking’s Clock

Small discrepancies persist across the standard accounts — Evans’s own article carries Johnston sinking at 10:11, while this wiki’s USS Johnston and Battle off Samar entries carry 10:10, and casualty counts of 186 versus 187 dead reflect men listed missing whose fate was never established. Precision requires carrying the figure with its source rather than harmonizing silently. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — USS Johnston)