Bill Text: CA SCR143 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: USS Frank E. Evans Lost 74 Memorial Interchange and Bridge.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-16 - Set for hearing May 28. [SCR143 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SCR143-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Concurrent Resolution
No. 143
| Introduced by Senator Gonzalez |
April 29, 2024 |
Relative to the USS Frank E. Evans Lost 74 Memorial Interchange and Bridge.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SCR 143, as introduced, Gonzalez.
USS Frank E. Evans Lost 74 Memorial Interchange and Bridge.
This measure would designate the interchange at the junction of State Highway Route 710 and State Highway Route 1 in the County of Los Angeles as the USS Frank E. Evans Lost 74 Memorial Interchange and the bridge on State Highway Route 1 over the Los Angeles River in the County of Los Angeles as the USS Frank E. Evans Lost 74 Memorial Bridge. The measure would request that the Department of Transportation determine the cost of appropriate signs showing these special designations and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering those costs, erect those signs.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee: YESBill Text
WHEREAS, On March 29, 1969, the officers of the USS Frank E. Evans departed from the Port of Long Beach for the Western Pacific to carry out the operational orders of their Commander in Chief during a time of war with the North Vietnamese government; and
WHEREAS, The USS Frank E. Evans was ordered to withdraw from combat operations to participate in an allied naval exercise with the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and return to combat operations when the exercise was completed; and
WHEREAS, At 0315 hours on June 3, 1969, the USS Frank E. Evans, while participating in the exercise, was involved in a collision with the HMAS Melbourne 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. so long as they died within the war zone; and
WHEREAS, The United States Department of Defense maintains that the USS Frank E. Evans does not meet the criteria because the accident occurred outside of the war zone, and continues to deny placing the names of the lost 74 sailors on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; and
WHEREAS, Since the Vietnam war zone boundaries were created for tax purposes, were ill defined, and have been changed over time, they should not be the defining reason to exclude the names of the lost 74 sailors on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; and
WHEREAS, Other members of the United States Armed Forces who died outside of the Vietnam war zone have had their names placed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; and
WHEREAS, Other states have memorialized the fallen sailors of the USS Frank E. Evans by adding them to their Vietnam veterans memorials; and
WHEREAS, The State of California recognized 22 California residents of the USS Frank E. Evans and added their names to the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the “Remembering California’s Heroes” ceremony on March 29, 2015; and
WHEREAS, The lost 74 sailors’ memory will live forever in the hearts and minds of their families, relatives, survivors, shipmates, and friends; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates the interchange at the junction of State Highway Route 710, at postmile 6.881, and State Highway Route 1, at postmile 7.288, in the County of Los Angeles as the USS Frank E. Evans Lost 74 Memorial Interchange, and the bridge on State Highway Route 1 over the Los Angeles River, No. 53-0341 at postmile 7.105, in the County of Los Angeles as the USS Frank E. Evans Lost 74 Memorial Bridge; and be it further
Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested to determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with the signing requirements for the state highway system showing these special designations and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources sufficient to cover those costs, to erect those signs; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author for appropriate distribution.
