State honors victims of 1969 Navy disaster

Names of the dozens who died in training accident are not included on D.C. wall.

James Kerr grew up in Glendale in the ’50s and ’60s, delivering newspapers on his paper route, playing Little League baseball and graduating from Hoover High School in the late 1960s.

But as an 18-year-old seaman apprentice in the Navy, Kerr never returned home; he was killed when the ship he was stationed on, the U.S. destroyer Frank E. Evans, was cut in half during a military training accident south of Vietnam in June 1969.

Before the accident, in which the Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne struck the ship during a training exercise, the Evans had provided artillery support for ground troops in Vietnam.

Seventy-four of the 278 crew members aboard the ship were killed as half the ship sank in less than three minutes off the south coast of Vietnam.

But the names of the dead were never included in the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., because the accident occurred outside combat lines.

But now there’s a new motivation to include Kerr’s name and the others’: More than 20 names of the Californians who were among those who perished were recently added to the California state Capitol’s Vietnam War memorial, after a years-long effort by family members of the “Lost 74” — as they are known — and survivors of the tragedy.

Fred Kerr, James Kerr’s younger brother of 15 months, and fellow Hoover graduate, said it was bittersweet seeing his brother’s name added to California’s memorial March 29.

“The sweet part was that it will be there from now till the end times. That’s the good news. The bitter part is that it takes you back and reopens old wounds. At the time, I was 17 years old,” Fred Kerr said, and now he is the only one in the family left — his father, sister and mother have all passed away.

Still, for Fred Kerr, who lives in Atascadero with his wife, Judy, with whom he grew up in Glendale, the remaining challenge is getting his brother’s name added to the memorial in Washington, D.C., something he said is awaiting approval from the U.S. defense secretary.

Each May, names are added to the country’s memorial, and Fred Kerr is hopeful that his brother’s name, and those of the 73 others, will be added in 2016.

“I think it will be done,” he said, adding: “My brother was cheated, as were the other 73. They were cheated out of the life they were living and the life they were going to live. That is the ultimate sacrifice.… They put their lives on the line for us every day,” he said of military men and women.

Glendale resident Randy Slaughter, who grew up in Dallas and joined the Navy, was 22 and stationed on the Kearsarge, a ship with a full hospital sent to retrieve survivors of the Evans. His ship later delivered the survivors to the Philippines.

“I’ll just never forget looking at what was the Evans. We knew men had died,” Slaughter recalled.

A few years ago, he discovered a photo of the Evans and reached out to the survivors to give them a copy. Since then, he’s become a major supporter of the effort to get the 74 names added to the memorial in Washington, D.C.

He was also present to see the 22 names of the Californians added to the state’s memorial.

“It was quite a day. I had to be there. When their names go on the wall in D.C., I will definitely be there,” Slaughter said, adding that he still enlists friends and supporters to write letters to congressional officials advocating for the addition of the 74 names.

“Every day, I try to think of some way ... to get this done. It’s a passion of mine now. We just got to keep the pressure up.”

‘They were cheated out of the life they were living and the life they were going to live.’

—Fred Kerr, referring to victims of Navy disaster