Category: Shipmate’s Stories

LTJG DONALD MANION 51-53

“LTJG Donald Manion and I shared a stateroom for two years. LTJG
Manion was a practising attorney before going on active duty, He
had a terrible fear of EVANS hitting a floating mine in the middle
of the night while he was sleeping down forward, a premonition that some 15 years later proved correct.” -LTJG Doug Legg

ENSIGN CHARLES MAGNUS 52-52

“Ensign Charles Magnus was jokingly labeled ‘Magnus the
Magnificent’ after a paper back title by Ed Cazier. He never lost
that nickname.”

Lenz, Carl

My name is Carl Lenz Jr. I served aboard USS FRANK E. EVANS from 1950-1953.

While in Wonsan harbor, we fired at targets of opportunity. On one session, we fired a 5″ round every 11 minutes, day and night. Of course, they used to mount 53, where most of us engineers bunked. It’s hard to believe, but we did manage to sleep with that mount firing. Here was the sequence you would hear: opening the breech, loading the powder case and projectile, closing the breech and BOOM! Then the powder case came out the rear of the mount, hit the deck with a clang, and rolled around, until quiet. After 11 minutes, the forgoing would be repeated. Every time they fired mount 53, spun glass insulation would sprinkle down and you could hear shower shoes hit the deck. A lot of us with wooden shower shoes stored them overhead, which is what made the noise when they hit the deck.

Between the 11 min ordeal, and some of the battles from ship to shore, the projectiles burned the paint off the gun barrels.(see photo).

We had a fire control man by the name of Zorro He was extremely accurate. I always felt that is why we were assigned to shore bombardment, so often. We were very lucky to have not taken more hits from shore batteries. Quite often, they had us pretty well bracketed.

It wasn’t battle stations 24-7, so checkers, chess and card playing made for good pastimes (see photo). The lid off somebody’s foot locker improvised for a table.

We lost one of our chess boards and the chess men when shore batteries opened up on us one afternoon. The chess board was blown over the side from explosions, probably our own 5″ guns. One gun was manned 24-7 while we were in the combat zone. I found out what it was like being forward of a 5″ gun when it was fired; it almost blew me over the side. BJ Davis was directly in front of a 5″ when it was fired. I heard it knocked him silly. Speaking of BJ, the poor guy suffered from chronic sea sickness. I felt sorry for him when he came back aboard, just out of the hospital. I don’t know if he ever got over it.

On our second trip overseas, we experimented in how to blow up a Chinese junk and all its occupants. Planes fired rockets at them and we fired 5″ projectiles. We inspected the junks after each demonstration, with the damage being minimal. Then we tried the coup-de-gras, a depth charge set to go off very shallow. The results were fantastic. There are dummies in these crafts and you can barely make them out after the depth charge did its dastardly deed.

Fast forward to 2008… B. J.’s activities have been cut down after a heart attack before the first Missouri reunion. He hasn’t been able to travel much since then. He is the shipmate who cut out all the little wooden animals we have had in the Ship Store. BJ enjoyed working in his workshop for hours-on-end before his health problems.

MM2 Dietz and MM2 Tokar, were two WWII reservists called into service during the Korean conflict. None of the guys called back into service was happy about it; however, they were the men who taught us the ropes, so to speak.

LTJG DOUGLAS REID LEGG – 26 July 1952 to 1955

I Douglas Reid Legg, “Doug” was born 1 July 1930 at Portland, Oregon. My eyes are brown and currently my hair is grey/brown. I went through the NROTC program at Notre Dame, Indiana and became an Ensign on 1 June 1952. Six weeks later, in late July 1952, I reported to USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754) in Task Force 77 off Korea.

Not surprisingly, there was rapid turnover aboard FRANK E. EVANS as she was in mothballs when Korea began and her recommissioning crew was built around a large percentage of recalled reservists plus several men fresh from boot camp. I kept a diary for most of my time aboard her. I have a full, I hope, record of the officers from October 1952 through August 1954.

While onboard USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754), I had a number of successive billets associated with 1, 2, 3, and O Divisions. Ist nd rd started off as Assistant 2 Division Officer under Don Manion. Then, after a two-month ASW Officer school at Point Loma, San Diego, I relieved Ed Cazier as ASW and 3 Division Officer. I rd later relieved “Buck” Bennett as First Lieutenant and 1 Division st Officer. Prior to deploying to WESTPAC in 1954, Captain Chase appointed me Gunnery Officer, where I remained for most of my final deployment.

I spent time ashore in Korea as an FAO (Forward Artillery Observer) spotting gunfire for FRANK E. EVANS and the cruiser USS BREMERTON in support of the Sixth ROK infantry division. In September 1952, three of us from FRANK E. EVANS went ashore, Pitzer, Blankenship, and I. We wore Marine greens that were used with the ship’s landing force. However, we didn’t have green skivvy shirts, so we wore the standard Navy white issue. But when we got to the front, the Koreans immediately realized that we weren’t Marines and wanted to know who we really were.

After my relief came aboard, I reverted to First Lieutenant. As a Regular officer, I expected to be reassigned after almost three years aboard the same ship. Our then XO LCDR George Wadleigh personally phoned BuPers to find out where I was to go next, but they’d “lost” my records, at which point, on St Patrick’s Day 1955, I reverted to USNR and applied for release from active duty.

One night in’54 I was CDO checking out the quarterdeck watch when one of the men in my division came back from liberty totally sloshed and with his forehead cut open down to the skull pan. We quickly summoned the duty Corpsman and went to Sick Bay where the Corpsman sewed up the sailor’s head with a needle and thread. I talked to the sailor, hoping to distract him from the pain, and then realized he was so intoxicated that he didn’t feel much of anything. Afterward, the Messenger o the Watch took the man down to his rack. The next morning at Quarters he couldn’t remember what had happened, or why his forehead was all stitched, or why his jumper was blood soaked. I gave him some strong suggestions about getting in bar fights involving broken beer bottles, but my comments obviously didn’t trigger any memories.

I served in her until five of us were released early from active duty as DESRON 13 was going out on Operation Wigwam, which involved the first testing of a nuclear depth charge. No one knew how long it would take for just the perfect weather for that test, so they release anyone whose “enlistment” was up thru the first week in June. I departed the ship in late April 1955 as LTJG. After being released from active duty in early May 1955, I did 20 years in the Naval Reserve and retired as a Commander on 1 July 1990 my 60th birthday.

I returned to Notre Dame where I completed a two-year research Master’s Degree in History. After that, I spent five years at the Universities of Oregon and London. The year in England was a wonderful experience which I repeated again in the late ’60s. In 1962 what was then Southern Oregon College in Ashland hired me for its History faculty, where I remained handling a variety of teaching and administrative posts until retiring 1 July 1990, my 60 birthday.

Somewhere amongst the huge collection of “stuff” I’ve accumulated over the past 40 years, there is one of the original ship “patches” in mint condition. There was a competition aboard FRANK E. EVANS for an appropriate design, and a GM1 submitted the winning design. I can’t remember his name, but I do remember that a couple of the CPO’s were outraged that someone could make PO1 on his first enlistment, with about nine months left on a four year “hitch.”

Running through the Association’s roster and checking out the names of shipmates from ‘52-‘55, I was struck by the fact that some names drew a blank. I still have several of those small green memoranda books that we kept all sorts of miscellaneous information in.

I have a couple of division rosters, those in the duty section I usually had when CDO, and the list of those men on the same life raft, #4, as me: Riley FN, Taylor FN, Garstang FN, Brenner FA, Anderson FN, Johnson FN, Marsh & Speirs both BT3, DaRe FA, brother of movie star Aldo Ray, Roy, Griffin, and Rodger, all FA’s.

Terry Opdyke who I worked with closely while Ship Secretary, actually phoned after the previous roster was circulated. Looking back over a half century, I’m still impressed by the quality of people I was fortunate enough to serve with in FRANK E. EVANS.

Doug currently resides at 585 Terrace St., Ashland, OR, 97520-2003. You can reach him at drlegg@msn.com or 541-482-4936

BT3 CARL J. JUNGJOHANN – 12 October 1950 to 1954

I Carl J. Jungjohann, “Jungle Jim” was born 16 January 1932 at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I had brown hair and hazel eyes. I enlisted in the Navy at San Diego, California on 20 July 1950, and went to boot camp at NTC San Diego, California.

After boot camp, I went aboard USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754) as a Fireman, FN. I was aboard Frank E. from 12 October 1950, until my discharge at Mare Island, California on 14 May 1954, as a BT3. My work station and battle station was the After Fire Room.

MM2 MARVIN DALE JONES 19 October 1952

I, Marvin Dale Jones, was born 4 October 1931, at Rural Linwood, Kansas. My eyes are blue and I have brown hair.

I graduated from Linwood Rural high school in 1949 and went to Kansas State University for two years.

In 1952, I enlisted in the Navy. I went to boot camp at NTC San Diego, then reported for duty on board USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754) 19 October 1952, at Yokosuka, Japan. Shortly thereafter, she departed for home in Long Beach. I was assigned to the engineering division where I worked in the forward engine room. I was promoted to Machinist Mate second class, and eventually was made “top watch.”

My most memorable experience was the time FRANK E. EVANS was ordered out to assist a merchant ship foundering in a typhoon in the South China Sea. We struggled out into the storm for a day and a half. It was a real experience being on the throttle, trying to keep up with all the orders from the bridge. We had to brace ourselves to stay upright. The twin screws would come out of the water and rev up, then the fantail would slam down and shake the whole ship. Part of the time, FRANK E. EVANS would slide sideways and tip back and forth until she righted herself. Trying to stay in your bunk was a real struggle too. We’d brace ourselves by hooking our arms and legs around something and just hang on. Nobody was hungry as all the pitching and rolling made us queasy. And to top it all off, just when we were getting close to the ship in trouble, we got a message that another ship had gotten there first. We were ordered to turn around and go back through the typhoon in the other direction!

Our oldest daughter was born in 1954 while I was overseas in Korea. I received notice of her birth through the Red Cross. In February 1955, I drove home from Long Beach to Kansas. Bud Hacker rode with me and then caught a plane on to St. Louis, Missouri, his home.

After the Navy, and thanks to the GI Bill, I finished college at Kansas State University with a BS degree in Animal Science. For several years I was a purebred beef cattle herdsman. Later, I worked for Farmland Industries, retiring in 1995.

I was married in 1953. We have 3 children, 11 grandchildren, and 6 great-grand children. Marvin currently resides at 23061 Hatchell Road, Tonganoxie, KS. You can reach him at djjrmandm@myvine.com or 913-845-9939.

RD3 FRANK MONROE JONES 5 January 1952 – 1955

I Frank Monroe Jones “Tiger” was born 16 August 1932, at Pueblo, Colorado. My eyes are hazel and my hair is brown. I enlisted in the Navy at San Francisco, California 30 April 1951, ane went to boot camp at NTC San Diego, California.

My time aboard USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754), 3 years, 2 months, and 8 days, was spent in “O” Division where I made third class radarman.

I attended American River College-Sacramento, Sacramento State College-Sacramento, CA, University of California- Davis, CA, and the California Highway Patrol Academy, Sacramento, CA.

“Tiger” currently resides at 804 Shady Creek, Kennedale, TX 76060. You can reach him at 817-483-9435.

BT2 CHARLES F. HOOG 5 June 1952-55

I Charles F. Hoog was born 24 December 1931, at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Currently my hair is gray and I have green eyes. I enlisted in the U.S. Navy 7 January 1952 at St. Louis, Missouri and went to boot camp at San Diego, California. I served on board USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754) from 5 June 1952, in B Division, until 1955.

Charlie currently resides at P.O. Box 87, Bloomsdale, MO 63627. You can reach him at flocharliehg@brick.netor 573-483-2760, or 573-760-7686.

MM3 WILLIAM J. HOLLIFIELD 21 October 1950

I William J. Hollifield “Bill” was born 14 March 1932, at
Gastonia, North Carolina. Currently my hair is grey and my eyes are brown. At the young, tender age of 17, I went to the Navy recruiting station, which at the time, May 1950, was in the U. S. Post Office. My journey started in June when I went to Columbia, South Carolina to be prepared for the long Greyhound bus ride to NTC San Diego, California.

At Vallejo, California, I reported aboard USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754). It was 21 October 1950. EVANS was in dry dock for about 10 months. When we went to sea, I was a machinist mate in the engine room.

I remember while underway at the equator, we had some very bad weather. We would try to rise over the huge waves but only fell back, stern first. When we did get over the wave, we went down bow first.

Liberty! But one that really stands out was in Sasebo, Japan. We went out and got inebriated. I fell into a rice paddy, up to my waist in human dung! The Chief of the Watch made me take off my white bottom and top, and tee shirt before I could come aboard. Three days later I met my cousin, who was on a LST. We went on liberty. Again, we had a little too much to drink. While stepping on the gangway and ladder, I fell into the water. My cousin pulled me out and got me back to the after engineering compartment.

While on patrol, we went to Wonsan harbor in Korea. I was assigned to a motor whale boat. We strung a cable between two of the boats to sweep for mines. It started to rain and then froze. There was so much ice on the decks and mast. It caused the ship to list. The seamen had to chip it off to get EVANS on an even keel.

After leaving Wonsan harbor, we were patrolling the Korean coast. We had liberty in Sasebo, Japan. A few days later we went back on patrol. While at sea FN Fred Hicks started down the after fireroom ladder. He slipped and fell head first. He was taken to sickbay where he died. He was placed in the freezer until the ship returned to port.

While in Yokosuka, Japan, I took a tour through miles and miles of underground caves where the Japanese military lived during WWII. It was one of the best tours in Japan.

All in all, I would have to say my four years aboard the Grey Ghost was one of the major highlights of my life. I met my wife in 1953, which was the beginning of our wonderful life. We were married in 1954.

My heart goes out to the 74 brave men who lost their lives in 1969. Bill Currently resides at 2912 Sandra Avenue, Centralia, WA 98531. You can reach him at billyhollifield@comcast.net or 360-807-4044.

FN HICKS, FRED “G” “D” 8 May 1953

After leaving Wonson harbor, we patrolled the Korean coast. We had liberty in Sasebo. A few days later we went back on patrol. FN Fred G. D. Hicks from Tennessee had been aboard FRANK E. EVANS since 8 May 1953. On 10 November 1953, FN Hicks was on watch in the after fire room with BT3 James H. Burnett and FN Alex Sanchez. They were getting ready to blow boiler tubes. FN Hicks started down the after fire room ladder. He slipped and fell head first. He was taken to sickbay where he died. He was placed in the freezer until the ship returned to port.