Steve Clark Hall

Steve Clark Hall '75
June Week 1975

USNA ’75

Homepages:
http://members.aol.com/greenling/
CastroCam.net

Steve Clark Hall was born in San Francisco and attended high school in Eureka, California. He received a state-wide competitive appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy from Senator John Tunny of California. While at Annapolis, he was awarded the W. H. P. Blandy Prize for excellence as a Systems Engineering Major and rowed on the Navy Lightweight Crew team, earning the "N" all three eligible years as the seven man in the varsity lightweight boat.

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.

On the bow of the
USS GREENLING

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.

Steve currently splits his time between Provincetown and San Francisco, where he a neighborhood leader in historic preservation and in the zoning and planning issues of Eureka Valley. He serves as 2008 President of the Eureka Valley Promotion Association, San Francisco's oldest neighborhood group, and he is also on the board of directors of Castro Area Action + Planning, one of San Francisco's leading neighborhood think tanks. Steve is an active member of San Francisco FrontRunners and a myriad of other community service organizatons.

recently in his Castro
terrace garden

Steve is an avid supporter of Navy Lightweight Crew and a member of the USNA Alumni Association and Foundation's “President's Circle”.

Steve is an OUTspoken advocate for ending the counter-productive “Don't Ask Don't Tell” policy and has been featured on National Public Radio and in various print media. He was one of several USNA Out members featured in Dr. Steve Estes book Ask & Tell, Gay and Lesbian Veterans Speak Out and one of several USNA Out members featured in the LBGT History Museum exhibit OutRanks.

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 extemely 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.’

“The ‘times are changing’ rapidly - I am quite awed over the common acceptance of LGBT people in the under 25 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 just a few years ago. I look forward to the day coming soon 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.”

“To add to what appears in Steve Estes book Ask & Tell, Gay and Lesbian Veterans Speak Out, 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 identity.

Please feel free to contact Steve here at USNA Out.