SAN DIEGO — By the time David Williams Haas was 10 years old, he'd decided to join the Navy thanks to the mentorship of a family friend, who he knew simply as "Uncle Arleigh."
It was not until Haas' time at the Naval Academy that he came to fully understand the accomplishments of Adm. Arleigh Burke, a World War II veteran who served the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations as chief of naval operations and was just the fourth American to have a naval vessel named after him while still alive.
For more than two decades, Haas charted an upward career path similar to that of his mentor, facing combat in Iraq and Afghanistan as he ascended the Navy's ranks, at one point coordinating the operations of some 100 ships and submarines, 200 aircraft and 40,000 sailors and Marines.
