U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (Screenshot via Hegseth’s Facebook)
WASHINGTON (AP) | Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced June 27 that the USNS Harvey Milk will be renamed after a World War II sailor who received the Medal of Honor, stripping the ship of the name of a slain gay rights activist who served during the Korean War.
In a video posted to social media, Hegseth said he was “taking the politics out of ship naming.”
The ship’s new name will honor Navy Chief Petty Officer Oscar V. Peterson, who was awarded the highest military decoration posthumously for his actions during the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea in the Pacific.
The decision is the latest move by Hegseth to wipe away names of ships and military bases that were given by President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, which in many cases chose to honor service members who were women, minorities, from the LBGTQ community and more.
It follows earlier actions by Hegseth and President Donald Trump, a Republican, to purge all programs, policies, books and social media mentions of references to diversity, equity and inclusion in the military and elsewhere.
Hegseth’s announcement comes during Pride Month — the same timing as the Pentagon’s campaign to force transgender troops out of the U.S. military.
“We’re not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists,” said Hegseth, who earlier this month ordered Navy Secretary John Phelan to put together a small team to rename the USNS Harvey Milk replenishment oiler.
He said Peterson’s “spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for his crewmates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy.”
When Hegseth announced the decision to rename the ship, officials defended it as an effort to align with Trump and Hegseth’s objectives to “re-establish the warrior culture.”
Peterson served on the USS Neosho, which also was an oiler. The ship was damaged during the Battle of the Coral Sea, and even though Peterson was injured, he managed to close the bulkhead stop valves to keep the ship operational. He died of his wounds.
The Navy in 1943 named an escort ship after Peterson. The USS Peterson served for more than two decades and was decommissioned in June 1965.
The USNS Harvey Milk was named in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who said at the time that the John Lewis-class of oilers would be named after leaders who fought for civil and human rights.
Harvey Milk, who was portrayed by Sean Penn in an Oscar-winning 2008 movie, served for four years in the Navy before he was forced out for being gay. He later became one of the first openly gay candidates elected to public office, in San Francisco. He was assassinated in 1978 by a disgruntled former city supervisor.
Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk’s nephew and co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, responded to the news June 27.
“Petty and dishonest -as my uncle joined the Navy as a commissioned officer during a war and served honorably!” he shared. “We may have lost a back door battle to stop this misguided action but I thank you all for having been a part of celebrating the ship’s, albeit brief, legacy – the USNS Harvey Milk’s symbol of hope, having existed at all, will live on in hearts & minds of millions across the globe!
“Neither the bullets that took his life, nor the stripping of his name from this ship will stop my uncle’s message of hope, hope unshamed, hope unafraid, from reaching all that yearn for acceptance and love across the globe,” he continued. “To all the openly LGB appointees of the Trump administration, let me remind you of the famous MLK quote, ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’ Hope is never silent.”
