Hegseth unveils new name of USNS Harvey Milk

The US Navy has officially changed the name of its ship honoring slain gay-rights icon Harvey Milk to the USNS Oscar V. Peterson in commemoration of the WWII Medal of Honor recipient.

“We are taking the politics out of ship naming. We’re not renaming the ship to anything political, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a video address. “This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration.

“Instead, we’re renaming the ship after a United States Navy Congressional Medal of Honor recipient — as it should be,” he said. “People want to be proud of the ship they’re sailing in, and so we’re renaming it after a Navy chief.”

The USNS Oscar V. Peterson is a replenishment oiler that provides support to carrier strike groups at sea.

It was christened in 2021 under the Biden administration for Milk, who served as a sailor during the Korean War but was forced out of the Navy for being gay. 

Milk became one of the first openly gay elected officials in American history when he successfully ran to serve on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. 

He and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were both assassinated in 1978 by a disgruntled former city supervisor who opposed the gay-rights activist’s push to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing and employment.

Meanwhile, Chief Watertender Oscar V. Peterson was posthumously awarded the military’s highest award for his service in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Peterson had led a repair party on the USS Neosho, which had been severely damaged by Japanese dive bombers during the attack.

With nearly all of his repair party dead or wounded, Peterson, himself gravely wounded, mustered the strength to close the bulkhead stop valves, keeping the ship afloat.

He suffered significant burns from his effort that led to his death days later. Peterson was awarded the medal of honor in December of that year.

The decision to rename the ship notably comes at the end of Pride Month, where more LGBTQ festivities are expected in cities such as New York this weekend.

Navy Secretary John Phelan issued a memo last month indicating that several ships’ names would be reviewed for possible change to help in “reestablishing the warrior culture” in the Navy.

Ships named after judicial trailblazers, civil-rights icons and labor leaders are also on the renaming “recommended list.”

Those vessels reportedly include the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez and USNS Medgar Evers.