Ernest E. Evans' Last Stand at the Battle off Samar

Dec 05 , 2025

Ernest E. Evans' Last Stand at the Battle off Samar

Ernest E. Evans stood on the deck of the USS Samuel B. Roberts as gunfire tore the dawn apart. The sky burned with tracer rounds and Japanese shells. His ship was small—just a destroyer escort—but his heart was steel. They came to die that day. He led them into hell anyway.

A Warrior Forged in the Pacific

Born in Idaho in 1908, Evans was a salt-of-the-earth man shaped by rugged surroundings and a stubborn streak of grit. Enlisting before the war, he knew the sea like a second skin. But his faith anchored him deeper than the ocean—quiet, unyielding, and resolute. His crew whispered that beneath the hard-eyed commander beat a soul that prayed for courage and deliverance.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) wasn’t just words. It was the compass guiding him through the storm.

The Battle That Defined Him: Samar, 25 October 1944

The morning of October 25, 1944, found Lt. Commander Evans shepherding his destroyer escort into the teeth of the Japanese Center Force—four battleships, six heavy cruisers, and two light cruisers. The Samuel B. Roberts’s 1,200 tons of steel were a pebble against a mountain of warships bristling with guns that dwarfed his own.

When the fog of war cleared, Evans’s ship was one man against a fleet. He charged.

He laid down smoke screens to shield the American escort carriers. Then, with reckless, brutal determination, he closed distance to launch torpedoes at the towering battleships. The Samuel B. Roberts absorbed volley after volley, engines ragged, hull pierced. He kept his ship in the fight until the last inch.

When the ship was dead in the water, Evans ordered it to be abandoned—but refused to surrender or concede defeat.

One sailor later recalled, “We half thought we’d been thrown out of reality watching him nail those goliaths with torpedoes from a fishing boat.”

Evans went down with his ship that dawn—bloodied, broken, but unbeaten.

Honors Forged in Fire

Posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, Evans’s citation speaks in austere military language of valor and sacrifice:

“For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Lt. Commander Evans single-handedly engaged a vastly superior fleet, drawing enemy fire and disrupting their formation to protect the carriers. His selfless actions saved countless lives and altered the course of the battle.”

His legacy is etched alongside the most revered warriors of WWII. From Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to his own grateful crew, the reverence was unanimous. Nimitz himself said, “His actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States naval service.”

Scarred, Remembered, Redemptive

Evans's story is a brutal reminder that courage is often born on the bleeding edge of destruction. His choice to face annihilation rather than yield is the marrow of sacrifice—a lesson pressed into the bones of all who serve.

He lived and died by a code older than modern wars: defend the weak, fight with honor, hold the line until no breath remains.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

His life rippled beyond that hellish dawn at Samar. Every veteran who stands steady in the chaos owes a nod to Evans’s grim example: heroism does not wait for the perfect moment—it burns wild in the darkest hours.

In the ashes of the Samuel B. Roberts, there is a quiet, stubborn hope—a testament that even when swallowed by overwhelming odds, one man’s fearless stand can carve a forever place in the tide of history.

Ernest E. Evans did more than fight. He showed that sacrifice is an unbreakable legacy. And that redemption waits on the other side of the fiercest fire.

Sources

1. Naval History and Heritage Command, Medal of Honor Citation, Ernest E. Evans 2. Samuel B. Roberts Association, Battle Off Samar: The Last Stand of the Destroyer Escort 3. Morison, Samuel Eliot, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume 12 4. Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, remarks on the Battle off Samar, 1944