She is named for Father John Francis Laboon (1921–1988), a captain in the Chaplain Corps of the United States Navy, who was awarded the Silver Star during World War II while serving on the submarine USS Peto.

[6] On 21 June 2015, Laboon entered the Black Sea along with the French ship Dupuy de Lôme as part of NATO's presence missions following the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.

[7] While in the Black Sea, Laboon participated in joint maneuvers with a Romanian Navy Rear-Admiral Eustațiu Sebastian-class corvette for two days beginning on 22 June 2015.

[8] On 14 April 2018, she fired seven Tomahawk missiles from a position in the Red Sea as part of a bombing campaign in retaliation for the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons against people in Douma.

[9] On 14 October 2023, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed Dwight D. Eisenhower and her carrier strike group, which includes the cruiser Philippine Sea, along with Laboon, and sister-destroyers Mason and Gravely, to the eastern Mediterranean in response to Israel's war with Hamas.

[18] On February 6, 2024 at 4:30 p.m., while patrolling in the Gulf of Aden, USS Laboon (DDG 58), operating near M/V Star Nasia, intercepted and shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis.