‘We Are Taking the Politics Out of Ship Naming’: Navy Renames Harvey Milk with Medal of Honor Recipient

On Friday morning, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted a video on X announcing that the Navy will rename the USNS Harvey Milk, named after the slain gay rights icon, to the USNS Oscar V. Peters.

A defense official confirmed the Navy is preparing to remove the ship’s name at the direction of Navy Secretary John Phelan, following orders from Hegseth. The official said the announcement was deliberately timed for Pride Month and aimed to align with the goals of President Trump and Hegseth including a renewed focus on promoting “warrior culture” within the military.

Hegseth stated the decision was meant to depoliticize the process and honor a decorated Navy hero.

WATCH — Midnight Hammer: B-2 Bombers Leave and Arrive Back to Missouri from Iran Mission:

“I’m pleased to officially announce that the Department of the Navy is renaming the fleet replenishment oiler, formerly known as the USNS Harvey Milk, to the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, Hegseth explained, and continued:

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.

Instead, we’re renaming the ship after a United States Navy Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, as it should be.

People want to be proud of the ship they’re sailing in, and so we’re renaming it after a Navy chief who, during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May of 1942, 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.

Peterson himself was gravely wounded, yet he managed to singlehandedly close the bulkhead stop valve, thereby helping to keep the ship operational.

In performing his heroic actions, Peterson received additional injuries and burns, which tragically resulted in his death. But his spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for his crewmates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy. For his heroic actions, Oscar Peterson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

The move has drawn sharp criticism from the left. Actor Sean Penn and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, both of whom were involved in the 2008 film Milk, denounced the decision. “I’ve never before seen a Secretary of Defense so aggressively demote himself to the rank of Chief PETTY Officer,” Penn stated.

WATCH — Hegseth SHUT DOWN This Reporter Triggered by the Word “Boys”:

Black condemned it as “yet another move to distract and to fuel the culture wars that create division.”

Late-night host Stephen Colbert also weighed in, calling the renaming “short-sighted and long-stupided and unsurprising,” and argued that Harvey Milk was a warrior “who was killed while fighting for his and many other people’s rights to exist.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs remembers Milk as someone who embodied “the values of honor, courage, and commitment” in his fight to expand gay rights.