Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a Navy oil tanker named after gay rights leader Harvey Milk will be renamed after Medal of Honor winner Oscar V. Peterson.
“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” he wrote on X along with a video announcing the move.
Milk was California’s first openly gay politician, who was shot and killed inside San Francisco city hall by former San Francisco supervisor Dan White. The ship, a fleet replenishment oiler, was originally named after him in 2016 under President Barack Obama.
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He served four years in the Navy in the Korean War but left due to his sexuality.
Peterson was awarded the Medal of Honor after his death, having died of his wounds during battle in World War II in an act of self-sacrifice that saved lives.
“People want to be proud of the ship they’re sailing in,” Hegseth said of the change. “We’re not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration.”
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Peterson, who spent 20 years in the Navy, was in charge of running the steam engine in the U.S.S. Neosho when it came under Japanese fire in the Philippines in 1942.
On May 7, 1942, the Neosho was severely damaged during the Battle of the Coral Sea. Peterson and other members of his repair party were badly injured, but Peterson managed to close four bulkhead steam valves. He sustained third-degree burns in the process, but the move kept the ship afloat. On May 11, the U.S.S. Henley rescued 123 survivors from the Neosho, and Peterson died two days later from his wounds.
The renaming comes amid a push from Hegseth to remove DEI and “woke” policies from the Department of Defense.
When the move was first reported earlier this month, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the move a “shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream.”
“As the rest of us are celebrating the joy of Pride Month, it is my hope that the Navy will reconsider this egregious decision,” Pelosi said in a statement.