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Sailing True North

Sea Power

The Accidental Admiral

Partnership for the Americas

Destroyer Captain

2034: A Novel of the Next War

Command at Sea

The Leaders Bookshelf

Watch Officers Guide

Division Officers Guide

In 2021, after decades of searching, undersea explorers finally found the wreck of USS Johnston (DD-557), one of the most famous destroyers in US naval history. It sank in very deep water off the Philippine Islands, after the chaotic and heroic Battle off Samar on October 25, 1944. The warship lay at the bottom of the sea undisturbed for over seventy-five years in more than twenty thousand feet of water, making it the deepest shipwreck ever located and successfully surveyed. When it sank, it was under the command of Commander Ernest Evans, who would become the first Native American to be awarded a Medal of Honor. Ernest Evans was half Cherokee and a quarter Creek. As famed historian Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison said in his iconic study of US naval operations in the Second World War, In no engagement of its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts, and gumption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar. Under the determined command of Ernest Evans, his destroyer led a seemingly suicidal charge against vastly superior Japanese warships to try to protect lightly armored carriers during the crucial moments of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Of his crew of 329, Evans and 183 others perished in the battle or in the waters afterward.

I studied the battle many years ago as a young midshipman at Annapolis and have continued to read the many books and articles about Commander Evans and his gallant destroyer over the years. Born in 1908, Evans graduated from the Naval Academy in 1931 and commanded a destroyer for the first time early in the war: USS Alden. After successful Pacific combat operations in Alden, he was selected as the commissioning commander of the new Fletcher-class destroyer Johnston in 1943, and he subsequently deployed again to the Pacific at the height of the war.

In the fall of 1944, Johnston was part of a small flotilla of seven destroyers (including also USS Hoel and USS Samuel B. Roberts, which were likewise sunk in combat) assigned to protect light escort aircraft carriers at Leyte Gulf under the overall command of Admiral Bull Halsey. Due to Halseys impetuous decision to move the bulk of his Third Fleet north to chase what he thought was the main Japanese force, the small ships were all that remained between the carriers and a heavy Japanese surface force. General Douglas MacArthurs ability to retake the Philippines and fulfill his storied pledge to return hung in the balance.

Facing twenty-three vastly larger Japanese battleships and heavy cruisers, the seven small destroyers charged to protect the flattops. The action is universally known as the last stand of the tin can sailors, a tin can being an affectionate Navy nickname for a destroyer. Despite being totally outgunned, Evans made the hardest of decisions in combat: to risk it all in accomplishing his mission. He laid a smoke screen and charged at flank speed directly at the Japanese to make a torpedo attack, telling his crew over the ships announcing system that the odds were stacked against them, but they would attack anyway to protect the rest of the force. For two hours, the tiny destroyer engaged in a series of gun battles with the much larger Japanese warships. Evans was badly wounded by Japanese shellfire, but his small ship continued the fight relentlessly. The heavy guns of the Japanese fleetincluding the largest super battleship in their fleet, Yamatoeventually sank Johnston alongside several other destroyers.

The decision Evans made in the furious moments of combat off Samarto charge a vastly stronger enemycontinues to be studied and revered in todays Navy. Even the Japanese fleet rendered honors as the small ships sank before them, and treated the survivors they recovered with respect as they were taken prisoner. And because of the heroic actions of Johnston and the other destroyers, the carriers were able to escape. The Japanese admiral believed the destroyers would not have charged without heavier American forces in the vicinity and withdrew in confusion. MacArthur was able to successfully land his amphibious force and free the Philippines as he had promised.

It was the pivotal moment in the most consequential battle at sea of the Second World War. The US success rested on many factors, of course, but the decision Evans made to charge the enemy, a split-second choice when the battle surged around him, was at the heart of the US victoryalthough it cost him his life and his ship. As I contemplated that battle again and again in the course of a long Navy careerand think about it todayI ask myself two questions.