HR 18 (LSB 1696HH (3) 85)

HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 18

BY  KRESSIG

A Resolution encouraging the United States Department of Defense to include the names of the fallen sailors of the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

   WHEREAS, on March 29, 1969, the officers and men of USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) departed Long Beach, California, for the Western Pacific to carry out the operational orders of their Commander in Chief during a time of war with North Vietnam; and
   WHEREAS, on June 3, 1969, USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754), while on an allied naval exercise during the Vietnam War, collided with the Australian aircraft carrier, HMAS Melbourne (R-21) in the South China Sea, near the coast of Vietnam; and
   WHEREAS, the collision severed the ship into two sections, with the forward section sinking in less than three minutes, taking the lives of 74 American sailors; and
   WHEREAS, members of the United States Armed Forces who died during the Vietnam War have been memorialized by placing their names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., if they died within the combat zone; and
   WHEREAS, the United States Department of Defense maintains the men who died as a result of the USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) collision do not meet the criteria for inclusion on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial since the accident occurred outside the combat zone, and continues to deny the placement of the names of the lost 74 sailors on the memorial; and
   WHEREAS, the Vietnam War combat zone boundaries were ill defined and have been changed from time to time, and should not be the defining reason to exclude the names of the lost sailors from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; and
   WHEREAS, other members of the United States Armed Forces who died outside the Vietnam War combat zone have had their names placed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; NOW THEREFORE,

   BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, That the names of the 74 sailors from USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) should be included on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and that the House of Representatives fully supports an immediate favorable decision by the United States Department of Defense to make an exception to its criteria and include those names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.