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        The medals contained in this case were awarded to Lt.(jg) Donald W. Hamilton, Jr.'38 on May 29, 2004 by Francis M. Dunham,'70, St. Louis Chapter, U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, at an annual ceremony honoring 100 allied prisoners of war buried in a mass grave in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, Mo.

        Lt.(jg) Hamilton was aboard PEARY(DD-226) on 10 December 1941 at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Islands, when the ship was bombed by Japanese aircraft . Lt.(jg) Hamilton was badly wounded in the attack and sent to Stern berg Army hospital and later to the fortress of Corregidor where he was captured by Japanese forces in May 1942.

        In December 1944, 1619 pow's, including Lt.(jg) Hamilton were crammed on to an unmarked Japanese Merchant ship in Manila harbor for transfer to the Japanese home islands. After a horrendous voyage marked by brutality of the worst order and attacks on the aptly named "hell ships" by unwitting Navy pilots less than 500 of the pow's reached Japan alive at the end of January 1945. The 500 survivors were in such a debilitated condition that a further 161 of them died in the first month after reaching Japan.Lt.(jg) Hamilton was one of those 161 unfortunate men.

        On 27 September 1949, Lt.(jg) Hamilton was one of 100 pows brought home and buried in the mass grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery with full Military Honors. In November 2000 the St. Louis Chapter of the Alumni Association was made aware of the fact that there were fellow Alumni buried in this grave. Subsequent records checks disclosed that Lt.(jg) Hamilton had never received his medals, earned at such a terrible price, from World War II and that his Classmates were unaware of his final resting place. It was decided to rectify these oversights. A Memorial service was conducted every May on the Saturday before Memorial day starting in 2001, by the St. Louis Chapter. In 2004 the Medals were finally obtained and placed on the grave-site as noted above.

        On 26 April, 2005 the medals were presented to RADM Maurice "Mike" Rindskopf, President of the Class of 1938, at the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington, Va. by Francis "Mike" Dunham,'70 and Lynn Widener, President of the Class of 1970. RADM Rindskopf then presented the medals to the Naval Academy, represented by Lt Kurt Parsons,'98, on behalf of the Class of 1938. Thus the long saga ended with the 60 year old mistake corrected.by the combined efforts of the Classes of 1938, 1970 and 1998.