Both Harvey and Alan have deep roots with the Navy.
- Little Alan in the photo above is forced to wear uncomfortable sailor clothing.
- Alan’s parents met on a ship.
- Both of Harvey’s parents were in the Navy.
- Harvey served in the Navy during the Korean war and was also a diving instructor. Every day he wore his special double dolphin Navy brass buckle.
- Alan Turing’s greatest codebreaking feat was cracking the Naval Enigma. It was complicated by eventually requiring 4 out of a possible 8 rotors and could only be fully cracked with the possession of special bigram tables, sets of random letters that were added to the encode message indicators.
- Alan loved sailing and traveled by boat several times to the US.
- The Muppet Show’s version of The Village People’s In the Navy aired in September/October 1980 and features Viking Pigs. Alan was of Danish/Scandanavian ancestry on both sides and learned both Norwegian and Danish.
- During World War II there were special U-Boats known as Milch-Cows that serviced other U-boats by supplying them with fuel, ammunition, etc. Harvey’s last name was originally Milch and that was also considered as his true surname by Harvey. Harvey also owned a special cow figurine named Milky.
READ MORE ABOUT ALAN
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Mathematical Knitting with Alan
How Did Alan Turing Break the Enigma?
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