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The finding
of the rings
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| Mr. Eugene Smith had been
a contractor on Wake Island in WWII. He was captured by the Japanese and
was imprisoned in POW Camp Fukuoka in Japan. When he died, mmddyear,
it became known that Mr. Smith possessed two West Point class rings. The
two rings were inherited by his nephew, Joe Millman. In year, Mr. Millman passed the rings to a friend, Jack Boyt, USMA '67, who asked Ring Recovery (RR) for help in identifying their cadet owners. |
| Ring Recovery provided
preliminary identification of the graduates who had owned the two rings.
One ring was from the Class of 1925 (it was engraved with what appeared
to be "E.C. Mack"), and the other was from the Class of 1934. Ring Recovery then put Jack Boyt in touch with Tiffany & Company. After inspecting the rings first hand, a Tiffany archivist confirmed the preliminary identifications of the cadets. Tiffany's records showed that only one person in 1925, Edward C. Mack, had purchased a size 10 1/2 ring with a faceted garnet stone. |
| The Class of 1925 ring
was that of LTC Edward Clement Mack, Cullum Number 7805. He had entered
West Point from Pennsylvania having been a member of the Pennsylvania
National Guard. He died in POW camp Fukuoka in Japan on 9 April 1945 at
the age of 44. An Infantry officer, he had been assigned to the 57th Infantry
on Bataan. His military decorations are the Silver Star, 3 Bronze Medals
and the Purple Heart. LTC Mack's ring was returned to his son, John Hassig Mack, a West Point graduate, Class of 1961. See the story of the return of that ring by clicking here. |
| The Class of 1934 ring was that of the late Major Howard Marshall Batson, Jr., Cullum No. 9988. He died as a POW in the Japanese prison camp Fukuoka on 28 January 1945 according to his entry in the Register of Graduates. His nephew, LTC (Ret'd) Hugh James Hall, Jr., USMA 1953, Cullum No. 19522 was the recipient of Major Batson's ring. |
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FOOTNOTE: I searched the Register of Graduates
using the key word "Fukuoka". Click arrow for results.
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