BILL NUMBER: AJR 33	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Holden

                        JANUARY 30, 2014

   Relative to veterans.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 33, as introduced, Holden. Military and veterans.
   This measure would urge the United States Department of Defense to
include the names of the 74 fallen sailors of the Destroyer U.S.S.
Frank E. Evans (DD 754) on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, On March 29, 1969, the officers and men of the U.S.S.
Frank E. Evans (DD 754) departed Long Beach, California for the
western Pacific Ocean to carry out the operational orders of their
Commander in Chief during a time of war with North Vietnam; and
   WHEREAS, On June 3, 1969, the U.S.S. Frank E. Evans (DD 754),
while on an allied naval exercise during the Vietnam War, collided
with the Australian aircraft carrier, HMAS Melbourne (R 21) in the
South China Sea, near the coast of Vietnam; and
   WHEREAS, The collision severed the ship into two sections, with
the forward section sinking in less than three minutes, taking the
lives of 74 American sailors; and
   WHEREAS, Members of the United States Armed Forces who died during
the Vietnam War have been memorialized by placing their names on the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., as long as they died
within the combat zone; and
   WHEREAS, The United States Department of Defense maintains that
the men who died as a result of the U.S.S. Frank E. Evans (DD 754) do
not meet the criteria for inclusion on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
because the accident occurred outside the combat zone, and continues
to deny the placement of the names of the lost 74 sailors on the
memorial; and
   WHEREAS, The Vietnam War combat zone boundaries, which were ill
defined and were changed from time to time, should not be applied to
exclude the names of the lost sailors from the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial; and
   WHEREAS, Other members of the United States Armed Forces who died
outside the designated Vietnam War combat zone have had their names
placed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; now, therefore be it
   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the names of the 74 sailors from the U.S.S.
Frank E. Evans (DD 754) should be included on the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial, and California fully supports an immediate favorable
decision by the United States Department of Defense to make an
exception to its criteria and include those names on the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative
from California in the Congress of the United States.