Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the U.S. Navy was changing the name of the U.S.N.S. Harvey Milk, a fleet replenishment ship named for a Navy veteran and one of the country’s first openly gay elected officials.
He said the ship would be renamed for Oscar V. Peterson, a chief petty officer who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for valor during World War II.
“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” Mr. Hegseth said in a statement released on social media.
Earlier this month, when Mr. Hegseth ordered a review of Navy vessels named after prominent civil rights leaders, the ship named after Mr. Milk was seen as a possible candidate for the change. The review of the vessel names was in keeping with the Trump administration’s drive to expunge diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from the federal government, a senior defense official familiar with the decision said at the time.
Mr. Hegseth said on Friday that the decision was not about “political activists, unlike the previous administration.”
“People want to be proud of the ship they are sailing in,” he said.
Christine Hauser is a Times reporter who writes breaking news stories, features and explainers.
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