List of United States Navy people

This page contains a list of notable sailors.

Officers

* W. W. Behrens, Jr. — earth-sciences futurist
* Jeremy Michael Boorda — Admiral, former Chief of Naval Operations
* Richard Evelyn Byrd — polar explorer
* James F. Cahill — one of the first scuba divers and first Navy Seals
* Vern Clark — former Chief of Naval Operations
* Donnie Cochran — first African-American aviator assigned to the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels)
* Stephen Decatur — Hero of Tripoli
* Robert Dennison — retired admiral, presidential aide
* George Dewey — Hero of the Battle of Manila Bay in Spanish-American War; first and only Admiral of the Navy
* David Farragut — American Civil War Admiral, first officer to become an Admiral in the U.S. Navy
*Lillian E. Fishburne — first African-American female to hold the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy.
* Wilson Flagg — retired Admiral, killed in Sept 11 attack
* Edmund Giambastiani — 7th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
* William Halsey, Jr. — Third Fleet Commander, won battles off Guadalcanal and the Solomons; attained rank of Fleet Admiral (5 stars)
* Esek Hopkins — first Commander in Chief of the Navy during the Revolutionary War
* Grace Hopper — futurist, early computing pioneer, attained the rank of Rear Admiral in the Navy Reserve
* Isaac Hull — captain of USS Constitution.
* John Paul Jones — commander during the American Revolutionary War, considered to be the founder of the American Naval tradition
* Ernest King — Fleet Admiral; former Chief of Naval Operations
* William D. Leahy — first Fleet Admiral; first head of the Chiefs of Staff (before the post was renamed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff); former Chief of Naval Operations; former Governor of Puerto Rico; former U.S. ambassador to France
* Richard Marcinko — author, founder and commander of SEAL Team Six
* Homer A. McCrerey — earth sciences futurist, Fleet Meteorologist and oceanographer
* Michael Mullen — 28th Chief of Naval Operations; and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as of 2008
* Chester Nimitz — Fleet Admiral; former Chief of Naval Operations; signed for the U.S. when Japan formally surrendered onboard the USS "Missouri", class of carriers named after him
* Matthew Perry — Commodore who forced the opening of Japan
* Oliver Hazard Perry — Commanded the Battle of Lake Erie
* Eli Thomas Reich — Vice Admiral, only submariner to sink a Japanese battleship unaided during WW2.
* Hyman G. Rickover — Admiral, "Father of the Nuclear Navy"
* Rodger W. Simpson — Distinguished himself during World War II, recipient of 2 Navy Crosses
* Raymond A. Spruance — Commander at the Battle of Midway, led the Fifth Fleet in the Central Pacific and Okinawa. Rebuilt the Naval War College after World War II
* James Stockdale — One of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the Navy
* Patrick M. Walsh — Admiral, Vice Chief of Naval Operations
* Robert F. Willard — Admiral, former Vice Chief of Naval Operations

Politicians

* Bruce Bromley — Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, prominent trial lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore
* George H. W. Bush — former U.S. President; former director of the Central Intelligence Agency
* Jimmy Carter — former U.S. President; Cold War submariner and Peace Prize laureate
* Cesar Chavez — civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers
* Glenn Robert Davis — former member of the U.S. House of Representatives
* Gerald Ford — former U.S. President; served aboard carrier during World War II
* George Howard, Jr. — first African-American federal judge in Arkansas history; served in World War II.
* Lyndon B. Johnson — former U.S. President; worked as a bomb observer with the Army during World War II
* Robert Kerrey — former U.S. Senator; Navy SEAL commander during Vietnam War and first SEAL officer to win the Medal of Honor for classified raid in which he lost his lower leg by a Viet Cong grenade.
* John F. Kennedy — former U.S. President; decorated PT Boat commander in World War II
* John Kerry — junior U.S. Senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate; swift boat commander during the Vietnam War
* John McCain — senior U.S. Senator from Arizona and Republican presidential primary candidate in 2000; former naval aviator and POW
* Harvey Milk — First openly gay San Francisco supervisor. Assassinated November 27, 1978. Subject of the Academy Award winning documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk ", as well as the bestselling book "The Mayor of Castro Street"
* Richard M. Nixon — former U.S. President; supply officer in World War II
* Theodore Roosevelt — former U.S. President; assistant Secretary of the Navy
* Jesse Ventura — Former Navy UDT, professional wrestler and 38th Governor of Minnesota

Astronauts

* Neil Armstrong — naval aviator (Korean War), X-15 pilot, astronaut, first man on the moon
* Christopher Cassidy — Navy SEAL.
* Pete Conrad — naval aviator, astronaut, commander of Apollo 12 and 3rd man to walk on the moon
* Jim Lovell — naval aviator, astronaut, pilot of first lunar orbit flight (Apollo 8) and commander of Apollo 13 mission
* William C. McCool — naval aviator, astronaut, pilot of "Columbia" mission STS-107
* Alan Shepard — naval aviator and flag officer (Rear Admiral), first American in space (Mercury-Redstone 3) and Apollo 14 commander
* Richard Truly — naval aviator and flag officer (Vice Admiral), Manned Orbiting Laboratory and Space Shuttle astronaut, serving as pilot for both Space Shuttle "Enterprise" landing tests and on second orbital test flight (STS-2). Later became first astronaut to serve as NASA Administrator under President George H. W. Bush.
* John Young — naval aviator and Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle astronaut

Others

* Bob Feller — baseball Hall of Famer
* Carl Brashear — first African American Master Diver
* Johnny Carson — long time host of the Tonight Show
* Eddie Albert — actor
* James Avery — actor most notable for playing Phillip Banks on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
* Andy Baldwin — doctor and the bachelor for Season 10 of "The Bachelor"
* Ray Barbieri — Singer for seminal New York Hardcore Band Warzone
* Humphrey Bogart — actor, Academy-Award Winner
* Ernest Borgnine — actor, Academy-Award Winner
* Christopher "Big Black" Boykin — Star of MTV's Rob & Big television series and personal bodyguard to pro-skateboarder Rob Dyrdek
* Lenny Bruce — American comedian
* Bill Cosby — actor, comedian and educational philanthropist
* Tony Curtis- actor
* Fred Durst — singer, front-man of Limp Bizkit
* Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. — actor
* Henry Fonda — actor, Academy-Award winner
* Chris Gardner — self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, motivational speaker and philanthropist who, during the early 1980s, struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son, Christopher. The Pursuit of Happyness is based on his life.
* Arthur Hill Gilbert — impressionist painter
* Christian E. Griffin--- President and Managing Director of the Griffin Group International. Vice President and Treasurer of the Eta Beta Chapter of Phi Rho Eta Fratenity Inc.
* Robert A. Heinlein — science fiction author
* L. Ron Hubbard — science fiction author and founder of the Church of Scientology
*Norbert Basil MacLean III — pioneered equal access to the Supreme Court for members of the U.S. Armed Forces.
*Charlie Murphy — entertainer and brother of comedian Eddie Murphy.
* Armistead Maupin — author and gay rights activist
* Paul Newman — actor, Academy-Award winner
* Regis Philbin — talk show host of Regis and Kelly
* David Robinson — former NBA star (San Antonio Spurs), commonly nicknamed "The Admiral"
* George Lincoln Rockwell — U.S. Naval Commander and founder of the American Nazi Party
* Soupy Sales — actor and comedian
* MC Hammer - rap artist
* Bill Sharman — basketball Hall of Famer
* Roger Staubach — football hall of Famer, Vietnam veteran
* Thomas Pynchon — writer and novelist
* Montel Williams — talk show host
* Bill Withers — singer
* Jeremiah Wright — senior pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ; cardiopulmonary technician (once assisted in surgery on President Lyndon Johnson, himself an ex-Navy officer)
* Susan S. Wong — China medical advisor (ex-Navy Captain).

Groups

* Golden Thirteen — the thirteen African-American enlisted men who became the first African-American commissioned officers in the United States Navy.
* The Port Chicago 50 — group of 50 African-American Sailors who refused to return to work until changes were made at the U.S. Navy's Port Chicago near San Francisco.

Units

* * Blue Angels — the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron