Pvt. David Alexander Dowell

Parents: Ira B. Dowell & Mary Durbin-Dowell

    - mother died during his birth

    - father married Bertha Nix

        - David Dowell was Lewis Nix's second cousin by marriage

Siblings: 2 half-brothers, 2 half-sisters

Occupation: farmer

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army 

        - 21 January 1941 - Louisville, Kentucky

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Overseas Duty:

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Battle of Luzon

        - 8 December 1941 - 6 January 1942 

    - Battle of Bataan

        - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942 

Prisoner of War

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs started march at southern tip of Bataan
            - POWs ran past Japanese artillery firing at Corregidor
                - Americans on Corregidor returned fire
            - San Fernando - POWs put into small wooden boxcars
                - each boxcar could hold eight horses or forty men
                - 100 POWs packed into each car
                - POWs who died remained standing
            - Capas - dead fell to floor as living left boxcars
            - POWs walked last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell

POW Camps: 

    - Philippine Islands: 

        - Camp O'Donnell

            - unfinished Filipino training base
            - Japanese put camp into use as POW Camp
            - only one water spigot for entire camp
            - as many as 50 POWs died each day
            - Japanese opened new POW camp to lower death rate 

        - Cabanatuan

Japan:

    - Tanagawa

        - Work: built dry dock

    - Omi Camp - 14 April 1944

        - Work: quarry & cement factory

Hell Ship: 

    - Nagato Maru

        - Sailed: Manila - 11 November 1942

        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 14 November 1942

        - Sailed: Takao, Formosa - 17 November 1942

        - Arrived: Pescadores Islands - 17 November 1942

        - Sailed: Pescadores Islands - 18 November 1942

        - Arrived: Keelung Island - 18 November 1942 

        - Sailed: Keelung Island - 20 November 1942

        - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 24 November 1942  

Liberated: 6 September 1945

Discharged: 23 March 1946

Married: Edith Souders

Worked: Sunglow Corporation

Died:

    - 24 April 1982 - Hocking Valley Community Hospital - Logan, Ohio

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