The US Navy has officially renamed its ship that was originally dedicated to gay-rights icon Harvey Milk to the USNS Oscar V. Peterson in honor of the WWII Medal of Honor recipient.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated in a video address, “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.”
The USNS Oscar V. Peterson is a replenishment oiler that provides support to carrier strike groups at sea.
Milk, who served as a sailor during the Korean War but was discharged from the Navy for being gay, had the ship originally named after him in 2021 under the Joe Biden administration.
Milk became one of the first openly gay elected officials in American history when he ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was tragically assassinated in 1978 along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.
Chief Watertender Oscar V. Peterson received the Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942.
The decision to rename the ship coincides with the end of Pride Month and comes as part of an initiative to review and potentially change the names of several Navy ships to reestablish the warrior culture within the Navy.
Ships named after judicial trailblazers, civil-rights icons, and labor leaders are also being considered for renaming, including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Medgar Evers.
