Speaking in a video posted on X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Department of the Navy is renaming the fleet replenishment oiler formerly known as the USNS Harvey Milk to the USNS Oscar V. Peterson.
In 2016, the John Lewis-class fleet oiler was named after Harvey Milk by a previous Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. Milk was a Navy veteran who was the first openly gay politician to be elected in California.
The renaming comes from the Navy’s efforts to align themselves with the President and the Defense Secretary’s “warrior culture” objectives and protect Title 10 rights.
"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,” Hegseth says (whose photo is to the right).
Hegseth said people want to be proud of the ship they're sailing in, so they are renaming it to a Navy chief that gave his life for others. Chief Water Tender Peterson led a repair party on the USS Neosho during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942.
"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 single handedly close the bulkhead stop valves, thereby helping to keep the ship operational,” Hegseth explains.
In performing his 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, and for his heroic actions Oscar Peterson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. So, I would like to officially welcome the USNS Oscar V. Peterson to the Navy's Vessel Registry,” Hegseth says.