My grandfather was
Lieutenant N. Minter Dial

US Navy, Annapolis Class of 1932
Born in 1911, in Laurens, South Carolina,


    What I know of my grandfather is limited to a few Red Cross letters that we received.   He was commanding officer of the tugboat USS Napa at Corregidor and was awarded the Navy Cross defending the boat under heavy fire from Japanese planes.


    In March 1942, he reported to the Commandant of the Sixteenth Naval District for duty on his staff.   With the capitulation of the allied forces, he was thence captured, apparently sick with dysentery, and ended up Cabanatuan Prison Camp #1; he then went to Cabanatuan #3 and ended up in Bilibid (transferred there in October 1944).   Virtually the only thing we know of his time in camps was that he volunteered for the wood chopping detail.   He died on December 13, 1944, on a Japanese ship, which was bombed by US airforce.   The boat made it to Formosa.


    He died beside a Major Bertram to whom he passed on a last letter and his Annapolis ring.   The latter man made to Japan, lost the ring, but saved the last letter Minter wrote (night before his death) which he delivered to my grandmother some 7 months later.   The ring ended up being refound in 1958 in Korea by the driver of Rr Adm. Pressey who had been a classmate of Minter's at Annapolis.   It was a miraculous discovery and was eventually given over to my father, N. Victor Dial (Lt in the US Navy as well).


    My grandfather was also awarded the Purple Heart.   He is buried in Arlington Cemetery.     I would like to have any information at all while he was stationed in the Philippines and during the 3 years he was in the POW camps.   Who were his friends?   What did he do with his time?   What details did he work on?   His ailments, his good times...if there were any...


    Yours sincerely,
    N. Minter Dial
    Grandson

    Update (October 19, 1999)
    I can offer some help with locating a couple of your grandfather's POW friends;
    according to the ADBC Membership database:

    John Littig, son of Lt. Cmdr John C. Littig, lives at
    1340 Rockledge Lane #2
    Walnut Creek, CA 94595
    Phone (510) 682-1619

    Vice Admiral Kenneth Wheeler lives at
    403 Florence
    Statesville, NC 28677
    He is listed in our records with the U.S.S. Canopus

    2nd Lt. Walter Scott
    "F" Battery 59th CAC
    1313 Hillcrest N.W.
    Grand Rapids, MI 49504

    Please allow for inaccuracies in our records;  they had to be re-entered into the current database several years ago and that transition was far from perfect.

    Hope this helps,
    In the Faith,
    Fr. Bob+