Minter Dial - The Last Ring Home: A POWs Lasting Legacy of Courage, Love, and Honor in World War II

PRAISE FOR THE LAST RING HOME

An unforgettable saga of determination, strength, sacrifice, and love set against the background of unspeakable horrors during World War II in the Pacific Ocean Theater.

GILBERT KING, author of the Pulitzer Prizewinning Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

Minter Dials grandson, named for him, has spent years of his own life tracking down facts and shaping them into The Last Ring Home, a story of the human costs of war, life and death, love and loss.

GAVAN DAWS, author of Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of World War II in the Pacific

Minter Dial spent decades piecing together the life of the grandfather he never knew, in a quest that plunged him deep into one of the darkest chapters of the Pacific War. The Last Ring Home is the unforgettable story he uncovereda tale of bravery, brutality, and monumental suffering. This book is a loving testimonial to the sacrifices of an entire generation.

JANNY SCOTT, author of A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obamas Mother

Here is an inspired feat of historical sleuthing that stretches across generations and continents. In this feelingly told account of the heroic life of a grandfather he never knew, Minter Dial reminds us that history, above all else, is personal.

HAMPTON SIDES, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and In the Kingdom of Ice

The legacy of the Americans who surrendered after the 1942 Battle of the Philippines can now add a new voice. The Last Ring Home is a poignant story of suffering and loss across the generations... and one U.S. Naval Academy ring, which will leave readers thinking about the endurance of tenderness.

MICHAEL NORMAN and ELIZABETH M. NORMAN, authors of Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath

Minter Dial has, with remarkable success, blended intimate family history with one of the more horrifying aspects of the Second World War. He vividly captures the unimaginable ordeal endured by his namesake grandfather. The result is a stark presentation of the sufferings and hopes of a young man caught up in a manmade manifestation of Hell.

CHARLES SPENCER, 9th Earl Spencer, author of Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles 1 and the Sunday Times bestseller Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier

The Last Ring Home

MINTER DIAL II

A POWs Lasting Legacy of Courage, Love, and Honor in World War II

Copyright 2016 by Minter Dial.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency

(Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Myndset Press

thelastringhome.com

ISBN 978-0-9955006-0-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-9955006-1-7 (ebook)

Jacket and text design by Peter Cocking

Photographs courtesy of Diana Dial

Editing by Helen Reeves and Kristen Steenbeeke

Proofing by Lucy Kenward

Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens

Distributed in North America by Midpoint Trade Books

and in the United Kingdom and Europe by Gazelle

16 17 18 19 20 5 4 3 2 1

Oft, as in airy rings they skim the heath,
The clamrous lapwings feel the leaden death;
Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare,
They fall and leave their little lives in air.

WINDSOR FOREST

ALEXANDER POPE 1713

Bright is the ring of words

When the right man rings them.

BRIGHT IS THE RING OF WORDS

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 1895

The ring, so worn as you behold,
So thin, so pale, is yet of gold.

A MARRIAGE RING

GEORGE CRABBE 18131814

C ARRYING THE NAME of another, much less a moniker such as Nathaniel Minter Dial, is a bit of a weight. As the grandson of a true war hero, the family name came with even more heft than usual, and yet I was a fully grown man before I delved into the story of my grandfather and namesake. Named Nathaniel for his father and Minter after his mothers maiden name, the original Nathaniel Minter Dial carried even in his name the proud traditions and typically high expectations of his Southern ancestors.

By the time of my birth in 1964, Minter, my grandfather, and Lisa, his wife and my grandmother, were both dead. The only grandparent I had known on my fathers side was my stepgrandfather, Kennett Webb Hinks (who you will meet in this story). He was the most wonderful of men: caring, gregarious, and a partner in some of the perfect memories I had growing upincluding one summer on a dude ranch in Wyoming, racing across the prairie on horseback and camping under the stars. He mesmerized me with stories (and had plenty to spare as a former chief of planning with the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to todays CIA) and made me a devotee for life by loaning me his 1955 turquoise convertible Thunderbird when I was old enough to drive. With such a grandfather, who needed to blow the dust off an old legend and investigate ones real grandfather?

Apparently, I did.

It started with a call I received in December of 1991. After spending most of my life in Europe, I had just moved to Washington, DC, four months prior, when a woman representing Western High School in the District phoned me.

Is this Nathaniel Dial?

Yes, I said, although they refer to me as Minter.

Oh yes, I see thats your middle name.

May I ask what you are calling about?

My name is Mrs. Ellie Chucker, class of 1951. You see, I want to invite you to your school reunion.

Really? Which one might that be? I went to a whole lot of schools.

Western High School, although now its called the Duke Ellington School for the Arts. Back in your days, sir, it was called Western High School.

Thats most peculiar, I suggested.

Whys that?

Because I didnt go to any Western School.

But you are Nathaniel Minter Dial?

I am.

Silence.

The funny thing is, you sound rather young, Mrs. Chucker admitted.

Mildly put off, I countered that I was much closer to thirty than twenty, quietly wondering if that qualified me as old. After a pause, Mrs. Chucker explained that the man she was looking for would have been in his eighties.

It was only then that it dawned on me that she was looking for my grandfather, after whom I had been named.

This was an immense surprise for both of us. For Mrs. Chucker, when she came across my name in the newspaper, she felt sure that the N M Dial she had come across in the classifieds had to be the same person. Especially when she was able to confirm that the N and M stood for the same names. She just kept repeating, Ill be darned. I could hear her shaking her head.