The deadliest year of the War so far ended with reports that Everitt Wright had been lost at sea. To put things into perspective, government records show that all of Colorado County lost only ten men in Korea, Vietnam, and the Two Persian Gulf Wars combined, conflicts that combined for over 15 years of warfare. Southern Colorado County lost nine men in 1944 alone; followed by eight more in 1945.

To those of us born after the war, World War II had been fought on a scale that seems incomprehensible today. The commitment of the nation and the sacrifice of life touched every home and heart in our communities.

Everitt Wright was born April 11, 1920 in Eagle Lake, the son of Mr. & Mrs. Will Wright. Later, his family moved to Brazoria County where he graduated from Angleton High School. Wright entered the Navy in 1939, in Virginia, at the age of nineteen.

Wright served on the U.S.S. Monaghan, a Faragut class destroyer, DD-354. The Monaghan, designed to carry a complement of 251 men, was armed with 5” guns and torpedoes. The Monaghan was built at the Boston Navy Yard and commissioned in 1935. If Wright served on the Monaghan throughout the war, he was involved in some of the most important fighting in the Pacific War.

Monaghan’s battle record included sinking a Japanese midget submarine in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; serving in screening support for carrier forces at the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway, as well as covering for the invasions of the Aleutians, Tarawa, Eniwetok, Kwajalein, Guam and Luzon, She also participated in the longest sea battle of the war at Komandorski Islands. Her last fight was Leyte Gulf. It was after this battle that disaster struck.

Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet withdrew toward the Marianas to refuel in mid-ocean. On December 18, 1944, at the worst possible time, with ships low on fuel and riding high in the water, a typhoon with 140 mile per hour winds, lashed the fleet. A huge swelling sea and wind that drove the rain on a virtual horizontal pounded the fleet, inflicting great damages on escort carriers and other smaller ships. Many planes were wrecked and there was much loss of life. The high seas rolled many of the ships over as much as 70 degrees to starboard and then 70 degrees to port. Yet many such ships survived.

Three destroyers, Monaghan, Hull and Spence capsized and sank, taking with them 790 men. Of 790 men on these three ships, less than 100 survived; including only six men from Monaghan.

It was later determined by a court of inquiry that the three destroyers likely went down because their skippers attempted to stay on station within the fleet for too long before trying to make their own way in the storm. Admiral Nimitz would later remark that this was the greatest damage to material and loss of life sustained by the U.S. Navy since Pearl Harbor.

Wright was listed as missing in action for many months, but finally determined to be lost at sea. He was survived by his father and step-mother, his wife who resided in Houston and four brothers. Two brothers were in the service: Warrant Officer Willie Wright, then in Belgium and Private Henry Wright then in Louisiana. Still at home in Eagle Lake were brothers Robert and Terry, and sisters Lena Mae Landry and Letha Wright.

Wright’s name is on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Cemetery in Manila, the Philippines. Many members of Wright’s family are buried in Lakeside Cemetery.