Hegseth Reveals New Name For Usns Harvey Milk

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the USNS Harvey Milk will be renamed in honor of a decorated Navy chief petty officer.

The fleet replenishment oiler will now be called the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, Hegseth announced, lauding the World War II veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

“During the Battle of the Coral Sea in 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,” the Defense secretary said, praising the Navy officer for his spirit of “self-sacrifice.” 

“Peterson himself was gravely wounded, yet he managed to single-handedly close the bulkhead stop valves, thereby helping to keep the ship operational,” Hegseth added.

Hegseth in a video posted online declared the Department of Defense is “taking the politics out of ship-naming” after earlier this month ordering Milk's name removed from the ship. Democrats have broadly criticized the administration removing the gay rights activist and Navy veteran's name.

The decision followed President Trump’s January executive order issuing guidelines banning gender identity and expanded pronoun usage from military service. 

The ship was named after Milk, who had served in the naval branch, in 2016 by then-President Obama's Navy secretary.

“We are taking the politics out of ship-naming. We're not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration,” Hegseth said Friday.

Hegseth is also considering renaming the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez and USNS Medgar Evers, according to CBS.