Ernest E. Evans
On 27 October 1943, a short, barrel-chested, full-blooded Cherokee Indian in a Navy lieutenant commander's uniform stepped to a podium in a Seattle shipyard. Ernest E. Evans was about to assume command of a brand new Fletcher-class destroyer—USS Johnston (DD-557)—and before him were her crew and the assembled guests for her commissioning ceremony. He told the crowd he had been serving in an old, World War I-vintage destroyer when World War II broke out. His ship had been forced to beat an ignominious retreat out of the Java Sea to escape annihilation. "This is going to be a fighting ship,” he said, motioning toward the bunting-draped destroyer, “I intend to go 'in harm"s way,’ and anyone who doesn’t want to go along had better get off right now.” He then added in a firm, convincing voice, “I will never again retreat from an enemy force.”
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