USNA ’75
Executive Director, USNA Out 2009-2018
Steve Clark Hall was born in San Francisco and graduated from Eureka Senior High, Eureka, California. He received his state-wide competitive nomination to the U. S. Naval Academy from Senator John Tunney of California. While at Annapolis, he was awarded the W. H. P. Blandy Prize for excellence as the top Systems Engineering Major and rowed on the Navy Lightweight Crew team, earning the “N” all three years as the seven man in the varsity eight.
After graduation, Steve entered the nuclear submarine training pipeline at the Naval Nuclear Power School in Vallejo, California, and eventually reported to his first boat, the USS HADDOCK (SSN 621) homeported in Honolulu, Vallejo and San Diego. Steve then went directly to a second sea tour as Engineer of USS MICHIGAN (SSBN 727) under new construction in Groton, Connecticut. After MICHIGAN’s first patrol, Steve went to a third straight sea tour as the Submarine Liaison Officer for Commander, Carrier Group THREE based at NAS ALAMEDA. After three years at sea on the carriers USS ENTERPRISE and USS CARL VINSON, he reported for a fourth consecutive sea tour as the Executive Officer of USS PERMIT (SSN 594) in San Diego. Following PERMIT, Steve had his only shore tour as the Executive Officer (ashore) at the Navy Program Management Office, Sunnyvale California, adjacent to NAS MOFFETT FIELD.
His 20 year navy career was completed after serving as the Commanding Officer of the nuclear submarines USS GREENLING (SSN 614) (1992-94) and USS DRUM (SSN 677) (1994-95), after which he ‘retired’ and moved back to his hillside home in the Castro District of San Francisco and became active as a neighborhood leader.
Steve is the visionary behind Out of Annapolis Project, a detailed study and documentary film about the stories from the LGBT alumni of the US Naval Academy. When not on the road, his native San Francisco is home, where he is a neighborhood leader in historic preservation and in the zoning and planning issues of the Castro District, Eureka Valley. He served as 2008 President of the Castro/Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association, San Francisco’s oldest neighborhood group, and he also serves on the board of directors of the Friends of City Planning and served as the President and CEO of the Eureka Valley Foundation. Steve is an active member of San Francisco FrontRunners and a myriad of other community service organizations.
Steve is an avid supporter of Navy Lightweight Crew and a longtime member of the USNA Alumni Association and Foundation’s “President’s Circle.” He desires to be interred at the Naval Academy Columbarium on College Creek, where the crew teams pass enroute from Hubbard Hall to the Severn for practice.
From Steve:
“I am undoubtedly very proud of my time at the U. S. Naval Academy and my career as a submarine officer in the U. S. Navy. The unique quality which I most appreciated was the extremely high caliber of the people with whom I had the pleasure to work. I know of no other organization, private, public or government, where there is such a selfless team effort ‘for the common good.’“I never tried nor did I feel that I was ever fooling anyone about my sexual identity while on active duty. As a submariner, I was surrounded by fairly brilliant, perceptive officers and enlisted men. Yes, some of my superiors, peers and subordinates may have been totally clueless, some at least suspicious, but most were fully aware. But what was important to those with whom I served was job performance, not my identity.
“The times are changing’ rapidly – I am quite awed over the common acceptance of LGBT people in the under 28 crowd. I am even more impressed by the number of flag and senior officers and their wives who have made it known to me how proud they are of their LGBT children, a fact they would have hidden a decade ago. I am now proud that those who want to serve their country may do so without living divided lives to satisfy a very outdated ‘social value’ for no purpose.
“I so envy the millennials for how far society’s values have changed in my lifetime. But that is not saying that it is any easier them today than it was for us in the past. ‘Don’t Ask, Don‘t Tell’ only added a layer of complication to a process which can be very difficult for many, whether or not they serve in the Naval Service. I feel that it is important for those who have preceded the current generation of LGBT leaders to let them know that they do have a full future ahead and they will be successful at whatever challenge that are willing to take on.”
Please feel free to contact Steve here at USNA Out.[contact-form-7 id=”1255″ title=”Steve Clark Hall”]