Early Military Bio
(from the article about his promotion linked in Pictures area)
L.B. Fields Wins Navy Promotion
31-year-old East Hartford man, Louis Bryan Fields, has been appointed a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy.
He is the son of Mrs. Elizabeth T Fields of 90 Governor S. East Hartford, and Joseph Henry Fields of Silver Springs, Md.
Commander Fields is now stationed at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida where he trains naval aviation instructors and is a administration officer.
Upon graduation from the Center School, East Hartford, he entered Fork Union Military Academy, Fork Union, Va. He graduated in 1939 as a cadet captain and was class president.
Commander Fields was in command of a military company at Fork Union which won the most coveted honor awarded such schools by the U.S. Army. This was a trophy as the best company in some 21 competing honor military schools.
Prominent in sports, he won a gold medal in the southeastern preparatory schools boxing tournament. He fought in the 135 pound class.
Nominated for the appointment to Annapolis, he was too young however, at the time. He entered Devit Prep School, Washington D.C., from which he was graduated with high honors in 1940.
This was followed by his appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy by Senator John A. Danaher. He graduated from Annapolis in 1943.
He was then assigned to the newly commissioned USS Knapp in the Atlantic which later went to the Pacific Theater. Commander Fields was navigator, the youngest officer on the ship. He was appointed a lieutenant (j.g.). The ship was with the noted Fifth Fleet at the surrender of the Japanese in Tokyo.
He was advanced to lieutenant when the USS Knapp was decommissioned at Charleston S.C. In 1946 he was assigned to the Combat Intelligence Center, San Diego Cal., as an instructor in electronics.
In 1948 he come to the East Coast to undergo training as a naval aviator. He received is wings at Pensacola in 1950 and was retained as an instructor of student pilots at various naval stations.
Commander Fields has been training instructors at Pensacola since 1952. Earlier that year he served on the USS Midway in a tour of duty in the Mediterranean.
He married the former Ella Mae Barkalow. She is the daughter of Col. And Mrs. Rees H. Barkalow of New Jersey and Florida. The couple have three children, two girls and a boy. They reside in Pensacola.
Commander Fields father, a Marine veteran of World War I, is past state commander of the American Legion in Maryland.
His mother is also a veteran of World War I. She held the rand of chief yeoman in the Navy. In later years she served with the Navy at Washington. At the time she retired in 1942. Mrs. Fields was attached to the executive offices of Secretary of Navy James Forrestal as a conference reporter.