Scattered Far and Wide: The Naval Academy Class of '38 at War

The young men who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1938 left Annapolis on the cusp of the twentieth century's mightiest conflagration and faced its perils around the world while serving on ships, planes, submarines, and even an airship. In the process, these junior officers earned medals and fame, left legacies of heroism and loss, and sparked tales of renown and bravery that reverberate today.

Scattered Far and Wide tells the stories of midshipmen from the Class of 1938 who graduated at a historically perilous time, going on to face the trials of combat as new officers in the war's early days and, in its later years, as ship captains, pilots in leadership positions, and submariners in charge. Tested as young leaders, they bore the new burdens of command while at the fore of the Pacific War's largest and most pivotal campaigns. They felt the wind and spray in their faces and the percussion of ships' guns and depth charges, at the perfect moment in their lives and careers to make their experiences unusually compelling, heartbreaking, and--most assuredly--instructive. Their sacrifice was substantial: 42 of the 438 graduates were killed in action.

These men were scattered across Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. They struggled for survival as part of the Navy's Asiatic Fleet, attempting to stem the onslaught of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the war's early months; were captured and shipped to brutal prisoner-of-war camps; took to the air off aircraft carriers as members of torpedo, bomber, and fighter squadrons during the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway; and served on submarines in the conflict's latter stages, enduring some of the most legendary war patrols in the history of the Silent Service.

Justin Laborde is a gifted storyteller and uniquely positioned to tell this story. His grandfather, Alden Laborde, was a member of the Class of 1938, and upon his death Justin obtained a 1938 edition of The Lucky Bag, the U.S. Naval Academy yearbook. Perusing the memoirs of Alden's classmates, Justin realized he was well placed to tell the fascinating and unreported tale of this class' experiences in World War II. He spent five years gathering primary materials and researching the histories and wartime stories of the Class of '38's members. As a result, his book focuses on smaller, more personal, and more relatable experiences than most previous histories of the war and shows the reader these well-known battles and strategic developments through the eyes of young naval officers new to leadership and to combat. Readers will finish this book caring deeply about the fates of the men who were part of the Naval Academy's Class of 1938.