Eanos Thomas Evans; needless embellishment
Someone sent us their work on this fellow Eanos Thomas Evans, who claims that he served in both the Second World War and the Korean War. His picture went out for “likes” on Facebook recently. I saw it, but I didn’t click on it;
He claims that he left the service as a First Lieutenant, according to his “Together We Served” Profile”;
In that rack, he claims the Silver Star, 2 Purple Hearts, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation w/V, CAR, Navy Presidential Unit Citation (3), Navy Unit Commendation, Good Conduct, China Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korea Service Medal,Navy & MC Overseas Service Ribbon, Marine Corps Drill Instructor Ribbon, Korean Presidential Unit Citation,China War Memorial Medal, United Nations Service Medal (Korea).
Well, you can throw out all of those medals for service in the Korean War. I don’t have his World War Two service records, so I’ll give him a pass on that, but according to his service records for the Korean War, he was a drill instructor for the entire war and never set foot outside the United States;
I’ll give him a break on the Combat Action Ribbon, because it didn’t exist when he left the USMC and when it was established on 17 February 1969, it was retroactive to 7 December 1941. But he’s wearing it upside down in the picture above.
There is a Silver Star and a Purple Heart (not 2) in his records, but there are no Korea service awards;
Eanos claims that he served on Okinawa and that may be true, I have nothing to refute that, but it seems to me that would be enough to last a man a lifetime of free beer at the VFW.
He claims that he saw his first combat at 17 years old, but he didn’t join the Marine Corps until he turned eighteen. His birthday was December 10, 1926 and he enlisted on December 9th, 1944, so he was technically 17 when he enlisted, but the next day he turned 18 – less than four months before the Battle for Okinawa (the battle began April 1, 1945).
In the Orange County Breeze, he told that reporter that he joined when he was 16 years old, nope, he was 18 years old when he enlisted. He also told them;
He fought at Peleliu in September 1944 when he was 17 years old. Daytime temperatures reached 110°F and water tasted like diesel fuel. According to Military History Online, the 1st Marines defended the left flank of the landing force. The division then advanced along the West Road that ran beside the Mumurgrogol Mountains (dubbed Bloody Nose Ridge by the Marines) that sheltered a hardbitten Japanese defense force in an intricate series of caves.
But Lt. Evans’ speech mentioned little about Peleliu.
That was three months before he enlisted – the battle lasted from September to November 1944 – all before he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was seventeen when the battle took place, but he wasn’t in the Marine Corps yet.
He has a book “Hold Your Head High, Marines” and there may be some more BS in there.
He was discharged as a Staff Sergeant, not a First Lieutenant, and he wasn’t parachutist qualified. Doug Sterner says that he has been unable to verify Evans’ Silver Star, so we’re taking another whack at his World War II records. For some reason, these guys with a break in service have stuff in their records that they didn’t earn.
Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures
Jesus they just keep coming.
Yep. This is why I don’t believe nobody.
Embellishers are probably worst than POSers. They undermine the credibility of every single service member.
Too old to beat up on. I’m thinking he doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on and why other people have him play dress-up for pictures.
Somebody behind the scenes is pulling the strings to have Facebook and TWS profiles set up for him and I’m betting it has to do with publicity/sales for the book.
I’m sure he was younger when he started.
Well, it just struck me as kind of funny that someone named James Jones would make a post on FB to gather likes for an old Marine.
Seeing as how an individual named James Jones was the author of the books “From Here To Eternity”, “The Thin Red Line” and “Some Came Running”, all of which chronicled WWII exploits.
In my mind, it just seemed like an elaborate ploy to pump up the publicity and sales of WWII genre books.
Just another conspiracy theory thought about before sufficient amounts of morning coffee had taken effect.
Claw, you are too kind. This dude smells like an embellisher.
Anybody know what the ladder like badges are for?
Look like “Distinguished Marksmanship” type awards. From shooting competitions like National Matches, Inter-Service matches and similar shooting competitions.
I don’t know. None of those badges have the ladder rungs on them.
WWII badges did have multiple bars. The bars were for everything from grenades to bayonets qualifications.
Did Marines wear them with that many different bars usually?
Yes, for a while back in the day there was a separate bar for Bayonet, grenade, different automatic weapons etc.
It started to look too Army so we stopped.
This is just sad. In re: WWII, he may not even know about the records fire.
I’m taking a pass on this, because he did serve.
Ex: I could be wrong, but I don’t think Evans records were destroyed in the 1974 fire. The National Archives probably has them because they provided the FOIA that has all of his Awards and Decorations on them.
It seems that the older we get, we tend to remember what took place a long time ago versus what we did 5 minutes ago.
Am curious about his story. He may or may not have embellished what he did. If he did, he is not the first WWII or Korean War Veteran who embellished or even lied about their time during their service.
Have found a story about a guy who claimed he was one of the original Darby RANGERs, was identified and honored as being the Oldest Living RANGER during an event 3 years ago, claimed for years he was nominated for the MOH, then told everyone he was a DSC, Silver Star, PH recipient for years, i.e. since 1945 and to this day, is still fooling folks with his bogus story.
I know…because I have his military records…and none of his stories were true, except he did served.
Anything is possible now.
And short-term memory loss afflicts everyone at some point, but when it hits is different for each person.
Yeah, well, his memories are about places he wasn’t. I’m sure I’d remember if I was in Korea while people were shooting at me, or at a MCRD being a drill instructor.
-If- he is truly into senile dementia, and at his age he may be far into it, he may genuinely be confused on where he was yesterday, let alone way back then.
-if- these stories go way back, then yes, faker. But if they closely track with the onrush of that “hazy gray fade” many of us will face, then I would give him the “gentle correction” treatment.
He legitimately earned way more “cred” than I will ever hold in my life. If only for that, I would say “let us be certain”.
Okay, but my mother became completely absurd after she had to spend time in a nursing home. She had no idea who I was but she did think she was pregnant, carrying a full litter (11) of children.
Like I said, it hits people in different ways. Evans may be able to remember place names, but not dates and/or who was actually there or any real details, whether he was there or not.
“The Fire” is not known to have affected any US Navy or USMC records.
It is “possible” that a few were on those floors that were affected, but Only ARMY and USAF records were stored where the fire was.
Correct. Most of the destroyed records were Army guys from Korean war period. My uncle was a Korea vet, and I told him, and he contact NPRC in St Louis, and they asked me to “send everything you have, and if you’re in touch with other guys/buddies, etc, tell them the same.” They re-established his 201 file and issued him his medals. It did NOT affect USN/USMC guys.
My father’s WWII Army records were lost as well. FWIW.
At his age I cut some slack for CRS about WWII; however, as Jonn indicates this did not happen overnight so I deem him fair game with the Orange County Breeze. Let’s have them ask the hard questions based on TAH research posted.
As a FYI update, on that douche-bag Duck in PA, the Catholic High School Alum responded putting distance between them and him and said he was no longer on their board. That now makes a third response for outing these fuckers in their community if you count the automatic out of office reply from a Florida VFW Commander.
Oh, come on! This hero ain’t got much time left. It’s better to be remembered for what you are then what you wish you were.
I searched his name in Ancestry.com’s U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls database. This database contains an index to U.S. Marine Corps muster rolls from 1798-1958. Information contained in this database includes: name, rank, enlistment date, muster date, and station.
This database does not show any record of “Eanos T Evans” prior to Jan 1945.
According to these records, “Eanos T Evans” was assigned to the following places during 1945:
Jan 1945: Private First Recruit Battalion, Recruit Depot, Marine Corps Base, San Diego, Calif
April 1945: Private Fourth Training Battalion, Second Infantry Training Regiment, Marine Training Command, San Diego Area, Camp Joseph H Pendleton, Oceanside, California.
April 1945: Private Sixty Second Replacement Draft, Transient Center, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific.
July 1945: Private Co G, Second Battalion, Fifth Marines, First Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force. According to Wikipedia, Second Battalion, 5th Marines fought at the Battle of Okinawa.
The Battle of Okinawa was from Apr 1, 1945 until Jun 22, 1945.
Sure hope that was age-related confusion that led him to claim Peleliu vice Oki. Otherwise, there’s really no reason to do that – or any excuse.
FWIW: his book appears to have been first published in 2006 (paper format). So if parts of that are questionable, he’s either been confused or lying for well over a decade. Either could be the case.
I think he’s been mostly confused about dates, Hondo.
According to this story, “Eanos ‘Tom’ Evans, a dear friend and one of the Marines who provided cover fire for Doc as he performed the field tracheotomy…”
Doc’s Bronze Star Citation states “Doc performed the tracheotomy on 15 June 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa…”
http://www.hqmc.marines.mil
Remember Lefty Lee? He convinced MOH recipient, Woody Williams that he had provided covering fire for Williams on Iwo Jima. But Lee was on a hospital ship with “shell Shock” that day.
Remembering how much history I have read of how long small units and individuals ‘held out’ on the islands after the battles were technically over, I can believe he would have taken fire on Okinawa sufficient that he felt justified in saying he fought there. Records – well, my never-active-post Korea father’s records went up in the fire. So I can allow some slack. All the awards? Not so much.
The part I don’t get is the desire to wear these dress uniforms.
I don’t care if I never wear a dress uniform again. What a pain in the arse.
They can’t even get me to do it for the Army Ball…
I”m proud of my service, but don’t feel the need to relive the old days by wearing something I really never liked anyway.
Hard to understand your feelings unless you recently retired. I retired in 78′ and gave away my uniforms to AD. In 97′ when daughter married a company commander in a military ceremony, I bought a new set of dress blues. Wore them when the kid retired from the AF, daughter’s husband from the Army and every Veterans Day at the cemetery. Even had the coat let out and bought another pair of trousers when the old set “shrunk” We owe it to the current generation. shape up Ret_25X
I respect both you and Ret_25X decision on wearing your uniform after retiring.
My better half and I are both retired. We bagged our last set of Blues and Class A’s to include our decorations on our uniform and never worn them again.
We both have attended several military balls, military funerals and Veteran Days events, but chose to wear regular coat and tie/tuxedos or gowns/dresses.
We all have different feelings on this and none of us are right or wrong on our choice to wear our uniform after retirement.
Owe it to our current generation? Maybe. Our grown kids could care less if we ever wore our uniforms again. They know what we did…and we know they are proud of us.
At least you did the right thing, Club Manager, by wearing your uniform to military events. I applaud you on doing the right thing.
I also applaud Ret_25X on his/her decision as well. I feel both of your families are very proud to have you as a relative. You both served.
Not wearing the uniform is a form of respect I give those still in uniform. I still go to functions, but don’t wear the uniform. Tux and medals when appropriate or a good business suit when less than formal.
Going to events like Signal Ball, Army Ball and such is important, but I”m retired now and just want to socialize and enjoy the event now.
I still get invited to everything. For some reason I’m on the mailing lists…can’t understand that…LOL
In any event, I never liked the new blues (ASUs) and really found it an uncomfortable uniform.
Let the youngsters wear the bling…
It’s so sad to hear this from one of the greatest generation that served his country.
There is too much detail for this to be senility or “misremembering”. My grandfather retired as a Coast Guard Captain who was the 65th CG aviator and who flew PBYs during WWII and whoes career spanned the early 30s to 1959.
Towards the end of his life he became very confused and would sometimes try to put together and wear his old uniform and it would be totally jacked up but no stolen valor; that takes premeditation and somewhat lucid planning.
Too bad for this guy but no pass from me. He had an honorable career but he is mo different than the fake Chief who couldnt be satisfied with what he actually did do. I’m doubting the Silver Star and the whole works.
Could be he began embellishing at one point and after so many years it became “the truth” to him and to his handlers. So, for even 15 years others have kept him on point for “this is what you’ve done and what your experience was” because that is how he told it decades and decades ago.
Senility is sad.
My grandfather, later in life, claimed he was Hitler’s chauffeur. But he had a battlefield commission from WO during the Bulge which earned him a CIB and BS medal; he also served in Korea retiring as a captain (he enlisted in 1935 as a mule skinner).
The confusion about being Hitler’s chauffeur originated (probably) because he “liberated” a Mercedes-Benz during the War and drove around in it until it was confiscated. He once told me the Benz looked like it could have been some high official’s. So … at age 95 he began thinking he was Hitler’s driver.
Oh … but he still knew the names of his mules!
Based on the evidence presented it’s hard to give him the “old guy” pass. He was a Marine on Okinawa and that is plenty enough for anyone. I don’t know why not for him. Sad case.
The water tasted like diesel fuel? What does that even mean? GTFO with this bullshit stories. Unsat, Marine. Un-fucking-sat.
He read that part. Someone got the bright idea to put water going onshore to the Marines in barrels that had been used for diesel. It made quite a few sick.
Yes, that was a fact. Pelileu had little potable water. They knew and planned for that.
They used 55 gallon drums that had once held Fuel to store it in.
As you could guess they weren’t cleaned properly
I’d chalk it up to his age.
“There’s some things in this world you just can’t explain.”
Charlie Daniels, “The Legend of Wooly Swamp”
It’s strange he would demote himself. At least he didn’t claim he was an E-8. Maybe he’s suffering dementia?
On the bright side, Medals of America made a ton of cash off of him with all those commemoratives he wearing. I really dislike that company.
A hero who wanted to be a bigger hero. Fucking Sad.