On a warm and sunny early June day in 1943, John Francis Laboon, "Jake" to his friends, stood with his Naval Academy classmates on Warden Field; it was graduation day. These men were the class of 1944, but because of World War II raging in both the Pacific and European theaters, and thus need of their presence in the fleet, the class was "accelerated" one year in its training. A rough and tumble young man from the steel town of Pittsburgh, Jake had come to the academy in the summer of 1940. He excelled in athletics. During his tenure he earned the honor of an all-east selection as tight end on the academy's football team and led the lacrosse squad to the national championship in 1943, by his selection as an All-American defenseman.

The athletic heroics and even the regimen of the Academy …