Awaiting the dreaded Western Union telegram. After twenty years at sea dreaming of commanding his own ship, Malcolm Peters finally gets his wish. In early December 1941, Peters sails from San Francisco bound for Hawaii on his first voyage as captain of the 324-foot S.S. Malama, a Matson Lines freighter. But the new commander's triumph is short-lived.

Captain Peters and his young family are torn apart in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that pulls the U.S. into World War II. Within weeks, the Malama disappears at sea. Left alone to make ends meet and to care for two small children, Leone Peters fears delivery of a dreaded Western Union telegram with bad news. What has become of her husband? Will she ever see him again?

With refreshing candor, author Judy Warwick writes about her father's mind-numbing years in Japanese POW camps and her mother's struggle and heartache on the home front. First Command 1941 is an absorbing, extensively illustrated family memoir about unlucky timing, courage, strength, and survival.