Laboon (DDG 58) - Naval Cruise Book

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FEARLESS FIFTY EIGHT ' S NAMESAKE Fearless Fifty Eight honors the distinguished career of Captain John Francis Jake Laboon, Chaplain Corps, U.S. Navy. Known to most simply as Father Jake, he devoted his life to service to God, Country, and the Navy. A football star and National Championship Lacrosse AJl-American, Laboon graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy as a member of the class of 1944. Assigned to the submarine USS PETO (SS 265), then Lieutenant Junior Grade Laboon won the Silver Star for brav- ery for diving from his moving submarine to rescue a downed aviator under heavy enemy fire. At the close of World War II in 1946, Lieutenant Laboon left the Navy to become a Jesuit priest. In 1958, Father Laboon returned to the Navy he loved as a member of the Chaplain Corps. Over the next 21 years, he served in virtually every branch of the Navy and Marine Corps. His assignments included tours in Alaska, Hawaii, Ja- pan, and Vietnam. As a Chaplain with the Marines in Vietnam, Father Laboon earned a Legion of Merit with Combat V. In addition to his heroic service in two wars, Father Laboon became the first chaplain for the Polaris Submarine Pro- gram, and later became the Senior Catholic Chaplain at the Naval Academy. The Naval Academy has honored Father Laboon by renaming the Chaplain ' s House in his honor. When he retired in 1979, Captain Laboon was the Fleet Chap- lain, Atlantic Fleet. When his naval career ended. Father Laboon returned to Annapolis as the house manager of the Jesuit retreat facil- ity, Manresa-on-Severn. His final tour of duty was a pastor of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Church in Woodstock, Mary- land. When he died in 1988, Father Jake left behind countless service members and their families whose lives he had touched with his compassion and understanding. His courage and genuine interest and concern for all his shipmates was then, is now, and will forever remain an extraordinary example for young sailors and marines everywhere. It is in- deed an honor for DDG 58 to be named for such a hero.