Seaman Second Class Nabers was born February 8, 1928, in Villa Park Illinois. He shocked his parents by enlisting in the US Navy on Feb. 8, 1945, his seventeenth birthday.
Despite much inner turmoil, his parents signed the required permission papers and Neal was off to his greatest adventure in life.
Neal went to boot camp at USNTC (United States Naval Training Center), Great Lakes, Illinois.
He had his first and only leave April 1945 and spent it at home in Villa Park. He came aboard USS Indianapolis from TADCEM Shoemaker in Shoemaker, California on May 12, 1945.
He became very close to Daniel Spencer, S 1/c (a survivor), in the short time before Indianapolis was torpedoed.
He was survived by two sisters, Suzanne Francino of Sacramento, California and Nancy Gasser of Quincy, Illinois.