Ernest Evans, of Native American ancestry and born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, entered the Naval Academy after a year as an enlisted sailor. That gave him experience on both sides of the officer-enlisted divide. In USS Alden he served through the opening Japanese offensive and the collapse of ABDA Command in the East Indies, then commanded the aging four-stack destroyer around Australia, New Guinea, and the Dutch East Indies. Samar was therefore the culmination of years spent taking an old destroyer into dangerous close-range work against stronger Japanese forces.
Chapter · 21:53-23:41
Ernest Evans learns destroyer command before Samar
Evans brought enlisted service, Naval Academy training, and hard ABDA campaign experience to his later command of USS Johnston.