Johnston was a Fletcher-class destroyer, DD-557, named for John V. Johnston, a Navy officer in the Civil War. The class was the destroyer of this war: about 2,100 tons, five 5-inch guns, ten torpedo tubes, a hundred and seventy-five hulls. Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding launched her on 25 March 1943. She was commissioned on 27 October 1943. Ernest E. Evans, a Cherokee from Oklahoma, was her only captain. At the commissioning he told the crew he meant to take her into a fight.
Her first action was in the Marshalls, three months after commissioning. On 1 February 1944 she bombarded the southern Kwajalein beaches in support of the landing. During that fire her gunnery officer, Robert C. Hagen, saw a Japanese officer on the beach waving a saber as he tried to hold the defense together. Hagen put all five 5-inch guns on him and fired. Evans, from the bridge, said, “Mr. Hagen, that was very good shooting. But in the future, try not to waste so much ammunition on one individual.” From 17 to 22 February she bombarded Eniwetok, again for the landings. On 28 March she bombarded Kapingamarangi Atoll in the Carolines. On 30 March she bombarded Japanese positions near the mouth of the Maririca River, southeast of Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville, and then took up an anti-submarine patrol off the island.
On the night of 16 May, still on that patrol, she was with Franks (DD-554) and Haggard (DD-555). Haggard made the contact and, after she was damaged, coached Johnston in. Johnston made three depth-charge runs. Four minutes after the last, the men felt a heavy underwater explosion, then oil and debris. The submarine was I-176. She went down with all 103 men. The three destroyers share the credit. From 21 to 29 July she bombarded Guam in company with the battleship Pennsylvania (BB-38). Evans later counted 3,546 rounds of 5-inch. The same bombardment is also given as more than 4,000 rounds, and it was credited with several Japanese 4-inch batteries and other buildings ashore. At the opening of the Palau operation she escorted the carriers whose planes supported the troops at Peleliu. She stayed with those escort carriers through the autumn, and then off Leyte.
On the morning of 25 October 1944 a Japanese force of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers came down on the escort carriers she had been screening, east of Samar.
Evans did not wait for the order.
Johnston made smoke and closed. She fired her 5-inch guns, then all ten torpedoes. The usual account is that one of her torpedoes tore the bow off the heavy cruiser Kumano. Kumano left the fight. She was not sunk that day.
Heavy gunfire from the Japanese force hit her while she was still in it. Steering and the after guns went out. Evans was badly wounded and kept command. The torpedoes were already gone. She stayed in and kept firing. Hoel was sunk in the same fight. Heermann was there and was not sunk. The destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts was sunk there too.
By about 9:30 she was dead in the water. The gunfire that finished her came from the Japanese force. It is not pinned to one ship. At 9:45 Evans ordered the crew off. She rolled over and sank at about 10:10. Of 327 men, 141 were saved. Evans was not among them.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor. The ship received the Presidential Unit Citation, and six battle stars. She had been in commission less than a year. Her wreck was found in 2021, in deep water off Samar.
