... is an issue of some sensitivity in our family. The names of my brother and the other 73 men killed in the Frank E. Evans collision are not on the Wall because the collision actually occurred while they were on a SEATO training exercise a few miles outside the designated combat zone. Never mind that they went there directly from the gunline in Vietnam for the explicit purpose of training SEATO ally ships (including the Australian carrier Melbourne, which cut the Evans in half, and other ANZAC ships) and were scheduled to return directly to the gunline when the exercise was concluded.

We have been trying for years to rectify this omission and got as far as having a bill introduced in Congress a couple of years ago, but it died in committee and the sponsoring Congressman has retired. So, it looks like it will not happen, at least for the forseeable future.

----- jim o\-S