Louis Nathaniel Dosh was born on August 27, 1915, in Florida. He was the son of Robert Nathaniel Dosh Sr. and Marguerite Perry Dosh. He was married to Betty Bloxsom. He graduated from Ocala High School at age sixteen and attended Stanton-on-the-Hudson Preparatory School before entering West Point in 1934. There, he sang in the Cadet Choir and Glee Club, acted in the Cadet Players, and earned distinction as a pistol sharpshooter, graduating with the Class of 1938.

After a brief assignment at Fort Screven, Georgia, he was sent to the Philippines in 1939, where he served with the 57th Infantry Regiment (Philippine Scouts). When war erupted, Dosh correctly predicted in a November 1941 letter that an attack would come at Lingayen Bay. Following the Japanese invasion and the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, he led a small band of U.S. and Filipino Scouts into the Luzon hills, conducting three years of guerrilla warfare against Japanese forces. Cut off from communication, Dosh and his men relied on Lt. Hipolita “Ding” San Jose, a Filipino nurse, who risked her life smuggling supplies, medicine, and mail to the guerrillas. His last known letter, dated August 23, 1943, thanked her and requested more supplies.

By 1944, Dosh had been captured and was seen as a prisoner in Manila. In December 1944, an underground contact saw him marching with other POWs toward a ship bound for Japan—he flashed a “V for Victory” sign but could not speak. The ship was bombed, leaving Manila Bay; survivors were briefly confined, then forced onto another unmarked Japanese transport, which was also bombed at sea. Of 1,616 prisoners, 942 were killed, and the survivors were sent to Honshu, Japan. Captain Dosh, promoted to major in the field (though not officially recorded), perished during this voyage. Before his capture, he had hidden his West Point ring and personal effects, which were later recovered by a Filipino nurse and returned to his family.

Cpt Dosh's name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, alumni.westpointaog.org