page_title: Leonard Roy Harmon
section_title: Honors
hierarchical_section_title: Leonard Roy Harmon / Honors
caption_attribution_description: Scope and content: In honor of Lenard Roy Harmon - with caption.
context_page_description: Leonard Roy Harmon was an American sailor who died in action during World War II and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his valor. He is the first African-American man to have a US warship named after him.
context_section_description: Harmon was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously on March 1943. Additionally, two ships were named in his honor. HMS Aylmer (K463) had been provisionally named USS Harmon (DE-72) but was transferred to the Royal Navy prior to completion. The USS Harmon (DE-678) served from 1943 to 1947 and remained in the Reserve Fleet until 1967; it was the first US warship to be named for an African American. Harmon's heroism was also commemorated by the naming and dedication of Harmon Hall, bachelor enlisted quarters at Naval Air Station North Island, on July 29, 1975, and with a state historical marker placed at the Cuero Municipal Park in 1977. A poster of him hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
caption: An Office of War Information poster from 1943 by Charles Alston depicting  Harmon and the ship named in his honor.
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