Fitzgerald, Christopher

LT CHRISTOPHER FITZGERALD 3 February 45

Merchant Marine Academy Class of 1942

• 23 November 1920, Born Elmhurst, Queens, New York
• November 1940 Reported to USMMA
• 4 October 1941 commissioned USN Midshipman
• September 1942 Appointed Ensign USNR

Went to Radar School and was reassigned to USS FRANK E EVANS DD 754 as the Engineering Officer, which was the first Radar Pickett 2200 ton Destroyer to be Commissioned. EVANS was assigned to the 7th Fleet and was stationed on Radar Pickett #9 duty, in the battle of Okinawa. EVANS was on station with USS FRANKLIN Aircraft carrier, which was badly damaged by bombs. As the war was ending, FRANK E. EVANS was sent into Darien, Manchuria. A small group of us took a train to (Muckden) Shenyang to a prison of war camp looking for General Wainwright. EVANS was acknowledged in Naval History for the work done in the picket lines in Okinawa. “Many times in Okinawa the seamen of America fought not only men, but grim, brainaddled death itself. That they stayed on and fought this nightmare enemy to the end, almost passes belief. But they stayed”. In August 1945 I left the Yellow Sea and USS FRANK E. EVANS.

Residence 202 Parkside Place, Indian Harbour Beach, Florida 32937 (407) 777-4049