Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that he was taking the "politics out of ship naming," renaming a vessel that was previously named in honor of a San Francisco gay rights icon to honor instead a World War II Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.
"I am pleased to announce that the United States Navy is renaming the USNS Harvey Milk to the USNS Oscar V. Peterson," the post on X from Hegseth read. "We are taking the politics out of ship naming."
In a video accompanying the post, the secretary stated that he was proud to announce the Department of the Navy has renamed the Military Sealift Command's underway replenishment oiler.
I am pleased to announce that the United States Navy is renaming the USNS Harvey Milk to the USNS Oscar V. Peterson.
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) June 27, 2025
We are taking the politics out of ship naming. pic.twitter.com/2ypwAQGdAl
"We're not renaming the ship to anything political," Hegseth said. "This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration. Instead, we are renaming the ship after a United States Navy Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. As it should be."
"People want to be proud of the ship they are sailing in," he added. "And so we are renaming it after a Navy chief that, during the Battle of the Coral Sea of May of 1942, Chief Watertender Peterson led a repair party on the USS Neosho. The ship was severely damaged by Japanese dive bombers, and the entire repair party was either killed or severely wounded."
"Peterson himself was gravely wounded. Yet, he managed to single-handedly close the bulkhead stop valves, thereby helping to keep the ship operational," Hegseth continued. "In performing his heroic actions, Peterson received additional injuries and burns, which tragically resulted in his death. But his spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for crewmates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy."
The secretary went on to explain that Peterson, "for his heroic actions," was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
He closed out the clip, making it clear he was officially welcoming the USNS Oscar V. Peterson to the Navy vessel registry.
Earlier this month, RedState reported that the renaming of the ship, part of the "John Lewis" class of logistics ships, was happening. But it was unclear what the vessel's new name would be.
As Streiff wrote:
President Barack Obama's Navy Secretary Ray Mabus inaugurated the John Lewis class in January 2016. The lead vessel in the class was named after Georgia Congressman and civil rights figure John Lewis. Lewis had no connection to the U.S. military or the Navy. The other active vessel in the class, besides the USNS Harvey Milk and USNS John Lewis, is the USNS Earl Warren. Ships for Robert F. Kennedy, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth have been christened. Ships named for Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are under construction. Those named for Harriet Tubman and Dolores Huerta have been ordered.
Milk was a problematic choice from any perspective other than trying to be "in your face" about his flamboyant variety of homosexuality. Milk got an other-than-honorable discharge from the Navy for engaging in homosexual acts. According to his biographer Randy Shilts in "The Mayor of Castro Street," Milk frequently attempted to prey on young sailors while he was a Navy officer; he had an underage teen as a paramour when he was 33, and he was a supporter of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple before the whole Flavor-Aid messiness. But, from an administration that awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Milk, it is no surprise that he was allowed to make thousands of sailors the butt (can I do that?) of jokes by naming a ship after him.
Now, it's been renamed after a great American naval hero. These are the kind of things I definitely voted for.
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