John P. Laborde, Sr. was born in Marksville, Louisiana in November 1923. His father was superintendent of Avoyelles Parish schools and his mother was a school teacher. His father graduated from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama and his mother graduated from Dominican College in New Orleans, Louisiana. The family was in a farming community and many relatives were farmers. At home they had cows, chickens and more, even though they lived within city limits. Laborde picked cotton and pulled corn in the summers. He also played ball and ran track. They never worried about what they were going to be paid for their work. They knew the value of an education and did well overall. He felt it was a wholesome life. Marksville was a French Catholic community centered around the church and they were close to the Parish priests. All five siblings attended college. Laborde attended LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana] in the fall of 1940 at age 15 and received his undergraduate degree in pre-law. He was pulled out of school and into the military in 1943. LSU had mandatory ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] for all males, which he feels provided a degree of discipline and purpose and wishes it were still so. From 1940 to 1942 Laborde was at LSU but ROTC made them prime targets of the service. He was drafted in 1942 but allowed to remain in school. Laborde was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia in early 1943 to attend OCS [Annotator's Note: Officer Candidate School] in the infantry.

John Laborde was at home and sitting down to Sunday lunch when he heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officers Training Corps] at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the time. The next day at LSU, President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin D. Roosevelt] made his "Day of Infamy" speech and the student body had gathered to listen to it. Everyone was still in shock. Most of them present did not know what it meant individually but it was a historic moment. Laborde went to Fort Benning, Georgia for officer candidate school in early 1943. Having been in ROTC already, he was acclimated to military life. It was a given that it was what one had to do to learn. He studied military science and tactics in ROTC which was now amplified. There were 3,000 to 4,000 cadets present. He also studied his normal curriculum which was a combined mix of social studies and pre-law. He was at Tidewater [Annotator's Note: Tidewater, Inc.; an international petroleum service] for many years as CEO [Annotator's Note: Chief Executive Officer] after the war and he would interview job applicants. He would laugh when interviewing people who had history degrees. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer states that she is a history major and they laugh.] At Fort Benning there was an intensive curriculum to train officers to lead troops as second lieutenants in the infantry. Laborde says the real soldiers called the infantry school graduates "90-day-wonders" due to their short training compared to the enlisted ranks. His class was styled as the last 90-day class. He spent a week at OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] and many people were washed out. There he was told he was part of the first new 18-week class. He graduated on 22 October 1943 with 76 out of 250 of the original classmates. He finished first in his class at 19-years-old. He was retained to supervise platoons of candidates. Most of his classmates from the October 1943 class went right into Europe and D-Day and many did not make it through the war. Laborde stayed at Fort Benning for nine more months. He was then ordered directly to the Pacific and he feels that is one thing that saved his life. He did not question his orders to stay. Only one other graduate was retained as well. They both were sent to the Pacific on the same orders and they rode the train together to Fort Ord, California.

John Laborde traveled by train from Fort Benning, Georgia to Fort Ord in Monterey, California via New Orleans, Louisiana. The travel was not great. There were no sleeping cars and even civilians didn't even have seats. By the time they arrived they were covered in soot due to the steam engine. From Fort Ord, they moved to Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, California, north of San Francisco. They were there under secret orders to be ready to leave at any moment. They boarded a ferry and went down the Sacramento River to San Francisco and they immediately boarded the Maui troop transport [Annotator’s Note: USAT Maui] after getting juice from the Red Cross. By dark that night they were out of sight of land. He would not see the mainland again for three years. They spent 56 days at sea with 7,000 troops; unescorted and zigzagging across the Pacific Ocean to Oro Bay, New Guinea. They stayed there a short time then went to Leyte, Philippines. Laborde was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division at Tacloban [Annotator's Note: Tacloban City, Philippines] where MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] went ashore. Laborde was to lead a mortar platoon on Leyte as they prepared to invade Luzon, Philippines. He had his only combat experience when he volunteered to lead a group to capture and return a Japanese field piece that had been firing on the troops. He and his troops made their way to the piece, took it over and brought it back for study in late 1944. Before he had left Fort Benning, Georgia, he had some time to wait for his orders. Colonel Billingham was commander of the 4th Battalion [Annotator's Note: unable to locate a Colonel Billingham or 4th Battalion or combination of] and had Laborde perform as his adjutant during this time changing his specialty number to adjutant. Dick Bolling [Annotator’s Note: US Congressman Richard Walker Bolling] of MacArthur's advance echelon wanted to see all adjutants. Bolling called Laborde back a few times during the interview process and hired him out of 200 plus others. [Annotator's Note: Laborde gets really emotional at this point and takes a few minutes to regain his composure.] Laborde told Bolling that he was actually an infantry officer [Annotator's Note: Laborde struggles to continue] and Bolling asked if he was refusing the order; Laborde said no. He was picked up the next morning and taken to Tolosa on the beach on Leyte to the advance echelon's headquarters. He was introduced to and joined the Adjutant General's staff to handle Top Secret information. They taught him everything he needed to know. And he stayed with that group the rest of his time in the Pacific.

John Laborde was assigned to General MacArthur's [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] advance echelon as an adjutant and went to Manila, Philippines which had been difficult to recapture. The city was nearly demolished. They moved into the city hall building and the general officers stayed in the Manila Hotel. The lower ranks stayed in tents on the lawn for a few months. Laborde and his colleagues were assisting for the attacks on Okinawa, Japan, on 1 April 1945. This was when the kamikazes first appeared and almost won the war. General Buckner [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General SImon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.] was killed just a day or two before the Japanese surrender as well as nearly 50,000 troops in those attacks on Okinawa. Laborde and Headquarters Command were coordinating with General Kenney [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces General George Churchill Kenney] of Far East Air Forces to plan for the invasion of Japan. Laborde worked for General George Finch but would occasionally have to deal with Top Secret files and would interact with other General Officers. The US Army Signal Corps would break the codes, add language and then the adjutants would immediately decide where to transfer the information. They worked 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days per week, 365 days per year. The main problems in Manila were finding good drinking water and lack of sanitation. Laborde visited some of the soldiers who went to the Pacific Theater with him in the hospital. They had already been wounded in the short time they been there. Some of whom never had a chance to train. Laborde's friend who had traveled with him from Fort Ord, California, was assigned to a mission to take out a Japanese gun on Lubang Island, Philippines. He was killed when he charged the gun, just three days after arriving in Manila.

John Laborde had been assigned a mission to capture a Japanese field gun while assigned to the 24th Infantry Division at Tacloban [Annotator's Note: Tacloban City, Philippines]. He feels it was not a big experience except in hindsight. Nobody was killed even though the gun was still manned. He says there are thousands of stories like that that no one has ever heard about. He read a book titled "Ghost Soldiers" about the Bataan group [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March] that is a great story of human capacity. He feels people today do not want to hear about these things. [Annotator's Note: He describes the book in detail.] When the Army captured Manila, they freed Santo Tomas prison [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp or Manila Internment Camp] downtown. These former prisoners were fed and got back into routines, but they were pretty miserable when rescued. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer backs up to discuss Richard W. Bolling.] Laborde feels that his record stood him in good stead in being chosen to be adjutant by Bolling. He later asked Bolling why he wanted him as an adjutant instead of infantry which he was good at. Bolling asked Laborde if were refusing an order. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Laborde what his duties were before Okinawa, Japan]. The Headquarters Company was preparing for moving the advance echelon to Okinawa, which was code-named Olympic, in the event of an invasion of Japan. The capture of Iwo Jima, Japan altered the plans quite a bit. General Kenney [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces General George C. Kenney] served under MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] who would coordinate all of the air support. Laborde feels that MacArthur was not a common man. He was an elitist, blue-blooded, educated, and cultured, all the refinements of a real gentleman. MacArthur would write his own talks in pencil and would bring them to the staff to be sent on to Truman [Annotator's Note: President Harry S. Truman] or Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt]. Laborde feels MacArthur should be given a fair shot regarding the war and his subsequent actions.

John Laborde was assigned to General MacArthur's [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] advance echelon, when the atomic bomb was dropped on 7 August 1945 and he was elated. Based on the treatment of prisoners, he feels that the bomb was the right thing to do as the Japanese were ruthless. Once the Japanese attention had been gotten, MacArthur got word of their desire to negotiate and designed how the whole plan would go. He would have them surrender in Yokohama, Japan on the USS Missouri (BB-63). Some of Laborde's colleagues had flown up to Atsugi, Japan on 29 August 1945. Laborde went aboard the Sturgis [Annotator's Note: USS General S. D. Sturgis (AP-137)] and left Manila two or three days before the signing. There were to be no Japanese on the streets except for policeman. They walked into Yokohama which had a terrible smell that he still relates to Japan and attributes to food being cooked. They lived aboard the ship. MacArthur and Truman [Annotator's Note: President Harry S. Truman] had disagreements about when the surrender was to occur. MacArthur wanted it to be on a Sunday morning, but Truman wanted it to be when Americans were awake. It went MacArthur's way. Laborde and the other adjutants were handling communications with everyone. [Annotator's Note: The interview is interrupted by a phone ringing.] Laborde and another person were assigned to stay on board the Sturgis and monitor communications.

John Laborde was in Yokohama, Japan for the surrender of the Japanese. His group was told the Japanese were going to feed them for the first week. Their first breakfast included a big bottle of beer that contained 12 percent alcohol. After that, they decided to return to the ship to eat. The 18 to 20 miles between Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan was totally destroyed making some of the crew wonder why they didn't know more about it beforehand. It appeared to them that Japan had nothing left to fight with. Their industry had been wiped out and food was scarce. But Laborde says no one asked him for his advice. They went to Tokyo to the Dai-ichi building, across the plaza from the Imperial Palace [Annotator's Note: Tokyo Imperial Palace]. Laborde's accommodations for the first few weeks was in the NYK shipping line [Annotator's Note: Nippon Yesen Kabushiki Gaishi, Japan Mail Shipping Line] building which basically had a roof. They slept on the floor. It did not occur to Laborde to be concerned for their safety. He does not recall carrying weapons even though they walked six to eight blocks to work every day. There were no terrorists then. He attributes that to having the formal surrender that MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] organized and to not destroying the Emperor by placing him in jail or anything similar. Once the Japanese realized this, they went along with MacArthur being in charge. Eventually the Army took over the Peers Club [Annotator's Note: House of Peers; upper house of the Imperial Diet, Empire of Japan] and Laborde and his colleagues moved there.

John Laborde spent a full year in Tokyo, Japan from 29 August 1945 until 20 August 1946 as member of MacArthur's [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] advance echelon. MacArthur became an idol to the Japanese people and stayed at the US Embassy with his family. He would ride to the Dai-ichi building to work. When he first started this, there would be one or two Japanese waiting outside to catch a glimpse of him. By the time Laborde left, the numbers would be in the thousands and they would applaud MacArthur. There was very little, if any, injury to American personnel in the field either working or taking leave. The Army took over a hotel in Miyanoshita [Annotator's Note: Miyanoshita-Hakone, Japan] at the base of Mt. Fuji for rest and relaxation. The biggest problem was being away from home. Laborde feels he and others missed an opportunity due to not thinking more about their futures by broadening their experiences in a completely different culture. They were completely focused on getting home. Each day finished was one day closer to going home. Once that time came, MacArthur signed a picture for Laborde, and he was asked to stay on in the regular Army. Laborde's colleague took up the offer and flew off in a C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft]. Laborde had no family and was already registered for law school. As an officer he was to get first class accommodations, yet none were available, so he volunteered to ride with the enlisted troops. They traveled by ship over six to seven days from Tokyo to Seattle, Washington. Everyone was so happy it didn't matter that he was an officer. He ran into a friend who he had attended Louisiana State University with. They traveled together from Seattle to Fort Sam Houston, Texas for separation from the military. Laborde then went by train to Lafayette, Louisiana where he met his parents. His brothers, Alden and Lucien were already home and back in the swing of things.

John Laborde arrived home from his service in the Pacific Theater went back to law school. He feels it was a mistake because he hadn't really left his war experience behind him. The professors were very intense, and he had a hard time transitioning. His class was large due to the G.I. Bill and by the number of people whose plans had been interrupted by the war returning to school. Because the transition was tough many dropped out. Laborde got married in June 1949 and began a family. He had planned on practicing law in Marksville, Louisiana. A client of his brother's, Sid Richardson from Fort Worth, Texas, offered him a full-time job in New Orleans, Louisiana as a lawyer and land man, which he accepted. He worked for six years for Richardson and then started his own company, Tidewater, out of the blue. He then became a businessman for 45 years and retired October 1994.

John Laborde retired from his own business in October 1994. He feels that his time serving as an adjutant in MacArthur's [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] Headquarters Company, impressed him and showed him how to be a part of a system of discipline and organization that would serve him well in business. He's tried to raise his family in the same way. He received a law degree and planned to practice law and move into local politics. He had announced that he was running for the Marksville School Board in Marksville, Louisiana, which his brother opposed. He feels he could have been a political success. He feels his leadership qualities were recognized by others. His legal education was helpful in business. His company, Tidewater, was started as a public-owned company from the very beginning which was rare in those days. Laborde feels that he was able to do that due to his military experiences.