The destroyer USS Mahan, right, conducts a replenishment at sea with the USNS Harvey Milk in the Atlantic Ocean on Nov. 9, 2024. (U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — A Navy replenishment ship that previously honored a gay rights icon will be renamed to recognize a Navy chief who received the Medal of Honor, the Pentagon announced Friday.
The USNS Harvey Milk will become the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday via a recorded video shared on social media platform X. The announcement comes less than one month after defense officials confirmed Hegseth had ordered the sea service to strip Harvey Milk’s name from the ship because it did not “align with President Donald Trump’s and Hegseth’s priorities.”
“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” Hegseth said in the video.
The John Lewis-class replenishment oilers are designated by the Navy to be named for civil rights leaders and activists. The USNS Harvey Milk, the second ship in the class, was first named for the gay rights activist in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. Other oilers in the class are named after women’s rights activists Lucy Stone and Sojourner Truth and Supreme Court justices Earl Warren, Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Oscar Peterson, the ship’s new namesake, was a chief watertender in the Navy in 1942 during World War II when Japanese forces attacked fleet oiler USS Neosho in the Coral Sea. As a watertender and part of the ship’s repair party, Peterson was responsible for the ship’s boiler and fire room.
“We are 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,” Hegseth said.
Peterson, despite being severely wounded in the attack, managed to single handedly close the bulkhead stop valves and keep the ship operational. The rest of the repair party was unable to help Peterson because they were gravely injured, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
In closing the valves, Peterson was further wounded and burned. He died one week later from his injuries. Peterson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
“His spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for his crew mates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy,” Hegseth said.
The USNS Harvey Milk will now be called the USNS Oscar V. Peterson, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday, June 27, 2025. Peterson, who is pictured, was a chief watertender in the Navy during World War II. (Congressional Medal of Honor Society)
The new name follows a Pentagon review of military installations and assets. The review was conducted to ensure all Defense Department names are “reflective of the commander in chief’s priorities, our nation’s history and the warrior ethos,” Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, said June 3.
In February, Hegseth reverted Fort Liberty’s name back to Fort Bragg and in March he reverted Fort Moore back to Fort Benning. However, Bragg no longer refers to Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, for whom the base was named in 1918, but for Pfc. Roland L. Bragg. Benning now honors World War I veteran Cpl. Fred G. Benning. Its original namesake was Confederate Gen. Henry Benning.
On June 10, while celebrating the Army’s 250th birthday, Trump announced seven other southern Army installations would return to their old names that were changed in 2023 because they honored Confederate generals. In each case, a service member with the same last name as the Confederate general was chosen to be honored.
The next day, Hegseth told senators during a subcommittee hearing that the Defense Department is “not interested in naming ships after activists.”
“That’s the stance we are taking,” he said.
