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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that the U.S. Navy is officially renaming the ship formerly known as the USNS Harvey Milk to the USNS Oscar V Peterson.
“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” Hegseth said in a social media video announcing the decision.
“We’re not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration… People want to be proud of the ship they’re sailing in.”
Without addressing why Americans should not be proud of Harvey Milk, a naval veteran who became the country’s first openly gay elected politician before being assassinated in 1978, Hegseth went on to recount the story of the Pentagon’s choice of replacement honoree, Oscar Vernel Peterson (1899-1942).
Chief Watertender Peterson is famed for his actions in the Battle of the Coral Sea during the Second World War, in which he was gravely wounded when Japanese dive bombers targeted the USS Neosho in the Pacific, but nevertheless managed to single-handedly close the ship’s bulkhead stop valves to keep it operational.
Peterson subsequently died from the injuries he sustained during the onslaught and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
“His spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for his fellow crewmates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy,” Hegseth said.
The Independent asked the Department of Defense for more information about the rationale behind the renaming and was told by a U.S. official: “Based on typical Navy maintenance cycles, the complexities of repainting, updating official symbols, and procuring branded materials, it is estimated that the collective updates would be completed within a period of no longer than six months after funding.
“There was a review of all installations and assets conducted to ensure all installations and assets are reflective of the commander-in-chief’s priorities, the nation’s history and the warrior ethos. There are no plans to rename any other ships in this class.”
The initial announcement of the decision earlier this month was met with dismay by LGBT+ rights activists, who accused Donald Trump’s administration of wanting to “erase a lot of history” by dropping Milk’s name from the fleet replenishment oiler.
Not all Navy veterans were on board either, with one telling NBC News that the renaming “does nothing to help crew members prepare for war,” amounts to “nothing but a distraction.”
It was subsequently reported that other ships were under consideration for renaming as part of Hegseth’s purge of “woke” ideology from the military, including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, the USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the USNS Harriet Tubman, the USNS Dolores Huerta, the USNS Lucy Stone, the USNS Cesar Chavez, and the USNS Medgar Evers.
“Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all Department of Defense installations and assets are reflective of the commander-in-chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos,” the Pentagon said in a statement at the time.
