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Vet who survived wartime accident that killed son dies at 93

ALBANY, N.Y. — Lawrence Reilly Sr. barely survived the 1969 collision that sent half of the USS Frank E. Evans to the bottom of the South China Sea with his namesake son and 73 other shipmates trapped inside. The father spent the last years of his life unsuccessfully trying to convince the Pentagon to add those 74 names to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Reilly, a retired U.S. Navy master chief, died Wednesday at a Syracuse hospital from complications from pneumonia, according to his daughter, Luanne Oda, of Syracuse. He was 93.

Reilly and Lawrence Jr. were aboard the Evans when the destroyer was cut in half by an Australian aircraft carrier during a training exercise in the South China Sea in early June 1969, during the height of the Vietnam War.

The elder Reilly survived when the ship’s rear half remained afloat. His son and 73 other sailors went down with the forward section.

The Pentagon has said the victims aren’t eligible for inclusion on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial because they died outside the designated war zone.

Oda said her father, who also served in World War II, had pushed for years, with the help of fellow surviving shipmates, relatives of the victims and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to convince the Pentagon that the victims of the Evans sink­ing deserved to be add­ed to the Vietnam mem­orial wall in Washington, D.C.

“I’m just very sad he didn’t get see the day when they are on the wall,” Oda said. “But we’re going to keep fighting for it. They deserve it.”

Schumer, the Senate minority leader, mentioned Reilly’s death from the chamber’s floor Thursday and praised the veteran’s efforts on behalf of his lost son and shipmates.

“In his honor, we will continue to pressure the Pentagon to recognize the Frank E. Evans on the Vietnam Memorial,” Schumer said.

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