USS Johnston ( DD - 557 ) USS " Johnston " ( DD - 557 ) was a World War II - era " Fletcher " - class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy . She was the first Navy ship named after Lieutenant John V . Johnston . The ship was most famous for its bold action in the Battle off Samar . The small " tincan " destroyer armed with nothing larger than 5 inch ( 127mm ) guns and torpedoes would lead the attack of a handful of light ships which had inadvertently been left unprotected in the path of a massive Japanese fleet led by battleships and cruisers . The sacrifices of " Johnston " and her little escort carrier task unit " Taffy 3 " helped stop Admiral Kurita ' s powerful Center Force from attacking vulnerable U . S . landing forces , and inflicted greater losses than they suffered . Construction and commissioning . " Johnston " was laid down on 6 May 1942 by the Seattle - Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp . , Seattle , Washington ; launched on 25 March 1943 ; sponsored by Mrs . Marie S . Klinger , great - niece of her namesake ; and commissioned on 27 October 1943 , Lieutenant Commander Ernest E . Evans in command . The day " Johnston " was commissioned , Cmdr . Evans made a speech to the crew , in which he quoted a phrase attributed to John Paul Jones : " This is going to be a fighting ship . I intend to go in harm ' s way , and anyone who doesn ' t want to go along had better get off right now . " World War II service . During the Marshall Islands campaign , " Johnston " bombarded the beaches at Kwajalein on 1 February 1944 , and made a five - day bombardment of Eniwetok from 17 – 22 February . She gave direct support to invasion troops there , destroying several pillbox es and taking revetments along the beach under fire . En route to patrol duty in the Solomons on 28 March , she bombarded Kapingamarangi Atoll in the Carolines . An observation tower , several blockhouse s , pillboxes and dugouts along the beach were shelled . Two days later , she came into the mouth of the Maririca River , southeast of Empress Augusta Bay , Bougainville , Solomon Islands . After laying a heavy barrage into that area , she took up anti - submarine patrol off Bougainville . While performing this duty , on 15 May she depth charged and sank the Japanese submarine . After three months of patrol in the Solomons , " Johnston " sailed to the Marshall Islands to prepare for the invasion and capture of Guam in the Marianas . On 21 July , she teamed up with the Pearl Harbor " ghost " — the battleship — to bombard Guam . The destroyer had sent in more than 4 , 000 rounds of shells by 29 July . Her accurate gunfire shattered the enemy ' s battery installations , numerous pillbox es and buildings . " Johnston " next helped protect escort carriers providing air support for the invasion and capture of the Battle of Peleliu . Now the time had come for General MacArthur ' s long awaited return to the Philippines . Following replenishment at Seeadler Harbor , Admiralty Islands , she sailed on 12 October to help protect the escort carriers maintaining air supremacy over eastern Leyte and the Gulf , sweeping the enemy off local airfields , giving troops direct support on the landing beaches from 20 October , and even destroying vehicle transport and supply convoys on the roads of Leyte itself . " Johnston " was operating with " Taffy 3 " ( Escort Carrier Task Unit 77 . 4 . 3 ) comprising Rear Admiral Clifton A . F . “ Ziggy ” Sprague ' s flagship , five other escort carrier s , three destroyers including herself , and four destroyer escort s . " Taffy 3 " was one of the three units of Rear Admiral Thomas L . Sprague ' s Escort Carrier Task Group 77 . 4 , known by their voice calls as " Taffy 1 " , " Taffy 2 " , and " Taffy 3 " . Engagement of Taffy 3 . On the morning of 23 October 1944 , American submarines detected and attacked units of the Japanese fleet coming in from the South China Sea toward the precarious Leyte beachhead . The battleship - cruiser - destroyer Southern Force was decimated as it attempted to enter Leyte Gulf via Surigao Strait the night of 24 / 25 October . The more powerful battleship - cruiser - destroyer Center Force under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita had been pounded by Admiral “ Bull ” Halsey ' s attack carrier planes and presumably turned back from San Bernardino Strait . Admiral Halsey then raced north with his attack carriers and heavy battleships to engage a decoy Japanese carrier – battleship task force off Cape Engano . This left " Johnston " and her small escort carrier task unit as lonely sentinels in north Leyte Gulf , east of Samar and off San Bernardino Strait . As enemy ships fled the Battle of Surigao Strait at daybreak of 25 October , the powerful Japanese Center Force slipped through San Bernardino Strait and into The Philippine Sea heading toward Leyte Gulf . It steamed along the coast of Samar directly for " Johnston " s little task unit and the American invasion beachhead at Leyte , hoping to destroy amphibious shipping and American troops on shore . One of the pilots flying patrol after dawn alert that morning reported the approach of Japanese Center Force . Steaming straight for " Taffy 3 " were four battleships ( including ) , eight cruisers ( two light and six heavy ) , and 11 destroyers . " Johnston " s gunnery officer — Lieutenant Robert C . Hagen — later reported , " We felt like little David without a slingshot . " In less than a minute , " Johnston " was zigzagging between the six escort carriers and the Japanese fleet and putting out a smoke screen over a front to conceal the carriers from the enemy gunners : " Even as we began laying smoke , the Japanese started lobbing shells at us and the " Johnston " had to zigzag between the splashes . . . We were the first destroyer to make smoke , the first to start firing , the first to launch a torpedo attack . . . " For the first 20 minutes , " Johnston " could not return fire as the enemy cruisers and battleships ' heavy guns outranged " Johnston " s guns . Not waiting for orders , Commander Evans broke formation and went on the offensive by ordering " Johnston " to speed directly toward the enemy — first a line of seven destroyers , next one light and three heavy cruisers , then the four battleships . To the east appeared three other cruisers and several destroyers . As soon as range closed to within ten miles , " Johnston " fired on the heavy cruiser — the nearest ship — and scored several damaging hits . During her five - minute sprint into torpedo range , " Johnston " fired over 200 rounds at the enemy , then — under the direction of torpedo officer Lieutenant Jack K . Bechdel — made her torpedo attack . She got off all 10 torpedoes , then turned to retire behind a heavy smoke screen . When she came out of the smoke a minute later , " Kumano " could be seen burning furiously from a torpedo hit ; her bow had been blown completely off , and she was forced to withdraw . Around this time , " Johnston " took three shell hits from , followed closely by three shells — from either a light cruiser or " Yamato " — which hit the bridge . The hits resulted in the loss of all power to the steering engine and all power to the three 5 - inch guns in the aft part of the ship , and rendered the gyrocompass useless . A low - lying squall came up , and " Johnston " " ducked into it " for a few minutes of rapid repairs and salvage work . The bridge was abandoned and Commander Evans — who had lost two fingers on his left hand — went to the aft steering column to conn the ship . At 07 : 50 , Admiral Sprague ordered destroyers to make a torpedo attack : " small boys attack " . " Johnston " , unable to keep position with her damaged engine , and with her torpedoes already expended , nonetheless moved to provide fire support for the other destroyers . As she emerged from a smoke screen , she nearly collided with fellow destroyer . At 08 : 20 , " Johnston " sighted a " Kongō " - class battleship — only away — emerging through the smoke . The destroyer opened fire , scoring multiple hits on the superstructure of the much larger ship . The return fire from the battleship missed clearly . " Johnston " soon observed under fire from an enemy cruiser , and engaged the cruiser in an effort to draw her fire away from the carrier . " Johnston " scored four hits on the heavy cruiser , then broke off as the Japanese destroyer squadron was seen closing rapidly on the American escort carriers . " Johnston " engaged the lead ship until it quit , then the second until the remaining enemy units broke off to get out of effective gun range before launching torpedoes , all of which missed . Then , " Johnston " s luck ran out ; she came under heavy fire from multiple enemy ships , and right when it was most needed , the damaged remaining engine quit , leaving her dead in the water . Under attack from all sides . The enemy ships closed in for an easy kill , pouring fire into the crippled destroyer . " Johnston " took a hit which knocked out one forward gun and damaged another , and her bridge was rendered untenable by fires and explosions resulting from a hit in her 40 mm ready ammunition locker . Evans — who had shifted his command to " Johnston " s fantail — was yelling orders through an open hatch to men turning her rudder by hand . Crewmen from the destroyer escort spotted Evans at the fantail , asking " isn ' t that their captain " , waving to them with what they did not realize was his only good hand . At one of her batteries , a crewman kept calling " More shells ! More shells ! " Still the destroyer battled to keep the Japanese destroyers and cruisers from reaching the five surviving American carriers : " We were now in a position where all the gallantry and guts in the world couldn ' t save us , but we figured that help for the carrier must be on the way , and every minute ' s delay might count . . . By 9 : 30 we were going dead in the water ; even the Japanese couldn ' t miss us . They made a sort of running semicircle around our ship , shooting at us like a bunch of Indians attacking a prairie schooner . Our lone engine and fire room was knocked out ; we lost all power , and even the indomitable skipper knew we were finished . At 9 : 45 he gave the saddest order a captain can give : ' Abandon Ship . ' . . . At 10 : 10 " Johnston " rolled over and began to sink . A Japanese destroyer came up to 1 , 000 yards and pumped a final shot into her to make sure she went down . A survivor saw the Japanese captain salute her as she went down . That was the end of " Johnston " . " From " Johnston " s complement of 327 officers and men , only 141 were saved . Of the 186 men lost , about 50 were killed out - right by enemy action , 45 men later died on rafts from wounds ; and 92 men — including Cmdr . Evans — got off " Johnston " before she sank , but were never heard from again . Aftermath . and also sacrificed themselves to save the escort carriers and to protect the landings at Leyte . Two of four Japanese heavy cruisers were sunk by combined surface and air attacks , and Admiral Sprague was soon amazed by the sight of the retirement of Kurita ' s entire fleet . By this time , planes of " Taffy 2 " and Taffy 1 " and every available unit of the Fleet were headed to assist " Taffy 3 " . But " Johnston " and her little escort carrier task unit had stopped Admiral Kurita ' s powerful Center Force in the Battle off Samar , inflicting greater losses than they suffered . Awards . " Johnston " was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation as a unit of " Taffy 3 " ( Task Unit 77 . 4 . 3 ) . Lt . Cmdr . Ernest E . Evans was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor : " The skipper was a fighting man from the soles of his broad feet to the ends of his straight black hair . He was an Oklahoman and proud of the Indian blood he had in him . We called him — though not to his face — the Chief . The " Johnston " was a fighting ship , but he was the heart and soul of her . " In addition to the Presidential Unit Citation , " Johnston " received six battle star s for service in World War II . , was the " Dealey " - class destroyer escort named for Ernest E . Evans . She was launched in 1955 and stricken in 1973 . No current ship carries the name of " Evans " , but there is another USS " Johnston " . By contrast , three current ships — , , and , all guided missile frigates — were named for " Samuel B . Roberts " and members of her crew . The second was a " Gearing " - class destroyer launched on 10 October 1945 . On 27 February 1981 , " Johnston " was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and transferred to the Republic of China ( Taiwan ) . She served in the Republic of China Navy as ROCS " Chen Yang " , and was later reclassified a guided missile destroyer , DDG - 928 . " Chen Yang " was decommissioned on 16 December 2003 .