Saw a 30 minute documentary on this story. A really touching love story, story of courage, etc.
Tl;dr version: Lt. Minter Dial, Annapolis grad '32 is stationed in Manila at outbreak of WWII, in command of Navy tug NAPA. Fights through defense of Manila, earns Navy Cross. Scuttles tug when out of gas and ammo, joins defenders of Corregidor.
Spends years in POW camp. Dies in bombing of Hell Ship on way to Japan. Gives his USNA ring to a friend, makes him promise to give it to his wife.
Said friend hides ring, but loses it during bout of illness in Korean POW camp. Fifteen years later, a Korean finds it, reports it to an American...who turned out to be a USNA classmate and friend of Dial. They recover the ring and return it to Dial's widow in 1962, who dies a few months later.
Ring is stolen from the family home in Paris, 1967.
Watch the video if you get a chance
http://www.thelastringhome.com/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/minters-ring-the-story-of-one-world-war-ii-pow-40301808/
The Smithsonian article has much more detail than the book web site.
Tl;dr version: Lt. Minter Dial, Annapolis grad '32 is stationed in Manila at outbreak of WWII, in command of Navy tug NAPA. Fights through defense of Manila, earns Navy Cross. Scuttles tug when out of gas and ammo, joins defenders of Corregidor.
Spends years in POW camp. Dies in bombing of Hell Ship on way to Japan. Gives his USNA ring to a friend, makes him promise to give it to his wife.
Said friend hides ring, but loses it during bout of illness in Korean POW camp. Fifteen years later, a Korean finds it, reports it to an American...who turned out to be a USNA classmate and friend of Dial. They recover the ring and return it to Dial's widow in 1962, who dies a few months later.
Ring is stolen from the family home in Paris, 1967.
Watch the video if you get a chance
http://www.thelastringhome.com/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/minters-ring-the-story-of-one-world-war-ii-pow-40301808/
Quote:
Minter's Ring: The Story of One World War II POW
When excavators in Inchon, Korea discovered a U.S. naval officer's ring, they had no knowledge of the pain associated with its former owner, Minter Dial
The Smithsonian article has much more detail than the book web site.