If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Woodmere N.Y.
Date of Passing Nov 27, 1978
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Harvey Bernard Milk
Deep Sea Diver
US Navy / Korean War
Both of Harvey Milk's parents had served in the U.S. Navy. His mother, Minerva Karns, was an early feminist activist who joined the Yeomanettes, a group agitating for the inclusion of women in the US Navy during World War I. His father, William Milk, served on a sub crew during the war.
After earning his degree from New York State College for Teachers in Albany, in 1951, Harvey entered the U. S. Navy where he served on active duty during the Korean War. He trained as a deep-sea diver, and advanced to the rank of chief petty officer on the U.S.S. Kittiwake (ASR-13).
Commissioned an ensign in late 1953, he was transferred to Naval Station at San Diego to serve as a diving instructor. In 1955, he was discharged from the Navy at the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. Milk was proud of his military service, and wore a brass belt buckle bearing his Navy diver's insignia until the day he died.
PMoF: In August 2009, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Milk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with the comparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States.
Other Memories Milk graduated from Bay Shore High School in Bay Shore, New York, in 1947 and attended New York State College for Teachers in Albany (now the State University of New York at Albany) from 1947 to 1951, majoring in mathematics with a minor in history. He wrote for the college newspaper and earned a reputation as a gregarious, friendly student. None of his friends in high school or college suspected that he was gay. As one classmate remembered, "He was never thought of as a possible queer-that's what you called them then-he was a man's man".
