One in five graduates of the West Point Class of 1942 perished in war

History · Published 1 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: When the United States Military Academy graduated its class of 1942, the students faced an uncertain future. For a staggering portion of these officers, that future would be cut short by the violence of World War II, leaving behind a legacy etched in stone.

The graduation of the West Point Class of 1942 took place at a pivotal moment in global history. Out of the 374 graduates who completed their training at the academy, seventy individuals—representing nearly one in five of the class—would not survive the duration of the war. Their names are permanently memorialized, engraved on a specific marker at the academy to ensure their sacrifices are not forgotten.

The names of these fallen officers, including James Edmund Buckley, Austin Patrick Byrne, and James Madison Caviness, Jr., represent a generation of leadership lost to combat. Documenting these specific lives requires navigating complex historical records. While some personal narratives are preserved through dedicated historical research, the broader scope of military loss is recorded in massive, state-specific datasets held by the National Archives.

For researchers and families seeking to trace the fates of others, the National Archives Catalog provides digitized access to extensive casualty lists. These records include detailed summaries of personnel lost across the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Specifically, the 1946 summaries for the Army and Army Air Forces provide a granular look at the conflict, listing the names, grades, and specific causes of death for personnel. While the Navy volumes are unique in recording the residence of the next-of-kin, the Army volumes focus on the service members themselves. These digitized documents, spanning 101 volumes, serve as a vital primary resource for understanding the true human cost of the war.

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