October 25, 2018 “Where do we find such men?”

October 25, 2018

“Where do we find such men?”

Ernest Evans was a Cherokee/Creek Okie. It is safe to say that he never had a crab meat omelet in his tepee when growing up in Pawnee. Unlike Senator Elizabeth Warren [D-MA], as big a lying sack of buffalo shit as has ever been in public life, Evans chose honor as his fixed star. If Pow-Wow Warren is ever made to run the gauntlet, in proper Injun fashion, I will pay for the cudgels.

Ernest Evans was graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1931. When given his first command, the USS Johnston [DD557], a Fletcher class destroyer, he told his crew that he would never turn away form danger and if they didn’t like that he told them to get off his ship now. [Shades of Henry the 5^th, no?] Like a cavalry man of old, he would ride to the sounds of gun fire.

On October 25, 1944 – Pause to consider the significance of this date. “If we are to die we are enough”…”When can their glory fade?”…Thank God for GOOGLE! St. Crispin’s Day and Balaclava await your perusal.

529 years after Henry, “The Scourge of God”, formed the original Band of Brothers, Ernest Evans turned his not quite 3,000-ton warship into the path of 4 Jap battleships, and say what you will about them, they sure as Hell knew how to build big lethal sea monsters, 10 cruisers, and 15 destroyers. Tojo’s tars had euchred Halsey into chasing a phantom fleet 300 miles from where my uncle was landing with MacArthur. He was going to be killed. Evans, inter alia, saved his life.

He torpedoed the bow off a Japanese cruiser, breaking up a line of attack. He peppered ships 20 times the size of his vessel with 5-inch shells weighing 58 pounds, twice causing them to break up a line of attack. He was last seen, minus a hand, urging his men to continue the attack. He was awarded the Medal of Honor.

At the end of the movie “The Bridges of Toko-Ri”, the Admiral, after looking at the

casualty lists, asks the centuries-old question, “Where do we find such men?”

3 times in 6 centuries the question has been asked. It has been answered 3 times.

They are us. They are “ordinary men doing extraordinary things”. Achilles and Alexander and Horatius and El Cid and Nelson and Custer have welcomed them.

We should thank them. Always.  Because “They shall not grow old….”

Kevin Smith

WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET