Steve Clark Hall (born November 9, 1953) is a retired

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

submarine officer and

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

maker. He is the first

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

senior U.S. Navy officer who is a graduate of the

U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of ...

Early life and education

Steve Clark Hall was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

on November 9, 1953, and attended high school in

Eureka, California Eureka (Wiyot: ''Jaroujiji'', Hupa: ''do'-wi-lotl-ding'', Karuk: ''uuth'') is the principal city and county seat of Humboldt County in the Redwood Empire region of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt ...

. He was nominated to the U.S. Naval Academy by Senator

John V. Tunney John Varick Tunney (June 26, 1934 – January 12, 2018) was an American politician who served as a United States Senator and Representative from the state of California in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the son of boxing champion Gene Tunney. ...

of California. He graduated with honors in the Class of 1975 with a Bachelor of Science in

Systems Engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering util ...

and rowed all four years on the Navy Lightweight Crew team. After completing his 20-year career as a

nuclear submarine A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...

r, he retired from Naval Service and returned to his home in the

Castro District The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...

of San Francisco.

Career

After graduation from Annapolis, Steve Clark Hall entered the nuclear submarine training pipeline at the

Naval Nuclear Power School Nuclear Power School (NPS) is a technical school operated by the U.S. Navy in Goose Creek, South Carolina as a central part of a program that trains enlisted sailors, officers, KAPL civilians and Bettis civilians for shipboard nuclear power pl ...

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to the ...

. His sea tours included USS ''Haddock'' (SSN-621), Engineer Officer of USS ''Michigan'' (SSBN-727), as the Submarine Liaison Officer for Commander, Carrier Group THREE based at

NAS Alameda Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS Alameda) was a United States Navy Naval Air Station in Alameda, California, on San Francisco Bay. NAS Alameda had two runways: 13–31 measuring and 07-25 measuring . Two helicopter pads and a control tower were ...

deploying on the carriers

USS Enterprise (CVN-65) USS ''Enterprise'' (CVN-65), formerly CVA(N)-65, is a decommissioned United States Navy aircraft carrier. She was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth United States naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of ...

and

USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) USS ''Carl Vinson'' (CVN-70) is the United States Navy's third supercarrier. She is named for Carl Vinson (1883-1981), a congressman from Georgia, in recognition of his contributions to the U.S. Navy. The ship was launched during Vinson's lifet ...

, as Executive Officer of USS Permit (SSN-594) and as the

Commanding Officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

of the nuclear submarines USS ''Greenling'' (SSN-614) (1992–94) and USS ''Drum'' (SSN-677) (1994–95) He was the commanding officer at the time the “Drum” collided with another ship in Hong Kong. His only shore assignment was as the

Executive Officer An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer, o ...

(ashore) at the Navy Program Management Office,

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...

Later work

After departing the U.S. Navy, Hall continued his public service, serving on the boards of various non-profit public benefit corporations including the Castro Area Planning + Action and the San Francisco Friends of City Planning. He served as President of

the Castro The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...

/Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association in 2008.

''Out of Annapolis'' project

Hall was one of 35

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

Naval Academy alumni who sought official recognition from the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association as the

USNA Out USNA Out is an American non-profit organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Alumni of the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. USNA Out is an independent 501(c)(3) organization that does not represent ...

Chapter. In July 2007, Hall began the Out of Annapolis Project which included a detailed study of the LGBT alumni of the Naval Academy. He produced and directed the documentary film by the same name, which opened at the SVA Theater in New York in June 2010. In January 2009, after a front-page article in the Annapolis ''

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

'' brought significant awareness to the Out of Annapolis Project, Hall worked with LGBT alumni of the

U.S. Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

to establish an association similar to USNA Out,

Knights Out Knights Out is an organization of West Point alumni, staff and faculty who support the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to serve openly in the U.S. military and who wish to educate young officers about the issues an ...

References

External links