Trump administration on USNS Harvey Milk renaming: 'Taking the politics out of ship naming'

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy replenishment oiler previously named for gay rights leader and Navy veteran Harvey Milk has a new moniker: the USNS Oscar V. Peterson.

"We are taking the politics out of ship naming," said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a video posted to his X account.

"We're not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists — unlike the previous administration."

Peterson was a Navy chief who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in combat during World War II.

"People want to be proud of the ship they're sailing in," said Hegseth, "and so we're renaming it after a chief, a Navy chief."

The Defense secretary saluted Peterson's actions during the Battle of the Coral Sea — a major naval conflict fought in 1942 that proved crucial for the Allied forces in the Pacific Theater.

"Chief watertender Peterson led a repair party on the USS Neosho," said Hegseth. "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."

Peterson's injuries and burns resulted in his death, said Hegseth. "But his spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for his crewmates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy — and for his heroic actions, Oscar Peterson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor."

California leaders condemn removing Milk's name from Navy vessel

Reports emerged last month of the Defense Department's plans to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, which was named for the former Navy officer who later became one of the country's first openly gay officials, winning a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

Milk, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated on Nov. 27, 1978, by former city supervisor Dan White.

Milk served as a diving officer on the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake during the Korean War, according to Military.com. He left the service as a lieutenant junior grade in 1955 with a "less than honorable" discharge "after being officially questioned about his sexual orientation," according to his official biography.

Regarding the decision to pull Milk's name off the ship, the Pentagon offered a brief statement:

"Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief's priorities, our nation's history, and the warrior ethos."

The replenishment oiler previously known as the USNS Harvey Milk was christened and launched by the Navy in San Diego Bay in 2021.

It's rare for the Navy to change the name of a ship.

Two years ago, the Navy renamed the USS Chancellorsville and the USNS Maury, based on a congressional commission's recommendation to remove names linked to the Confederacy.

The Chancellorsville was renamed the USS Robert Smalls, after a former slave who captured a Confederate ship during the Civil War, and the Maury became the USNS Marie Tharp, named after a pioneering female oceanographer, according to NPR.

Opposition to the vessel's name change included a pair of prominent California politicians.

"Donald Trump's assault on veterans has hit a new low," wrote California Gov. Gavin Newsom on his X account.

"Harvey Milk wasn't just a civil rights icon — he was a Korean War combat veteran whose commander called him 'outstanding.' Stripping his name from a Navy ship won't erase his legacy as an American icon, but it does reveal Trump's contempt for the very values our veterans fight to protect," he said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, said pulling Milk's name from the replenishment oiler "is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American dream."

Will the Defense Department become the 'War Department'?

The Trump administration may not be done with name changes in the defense community.

The president has suggested changing the name of the Defense Department back to its pre-World War II moniker as the War Department, USA Today reported.

At the conclusion of a June 25 NATO meeting in the Netherlands, Trump introduced Hegseth as "secretary of war."

Trump said the name of the War Department, the precursor to the Defense Department, was visible on the wall of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, where the agency was once housed.

"Then we became politically correct, and they called it the secretary of Defense," Trump said. "Maybe we'll have to think about changing it. But we feel that way."

In March, Hegseth used his X account to poll followers on their opinions on the emerging Department of Defense or "Department of War" debate.

More than 203,000 people voted — with 54% favoring the "Department of War."

Changing the agency's name to the War Department would require an act of Congress.

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