Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday the new name for the USNS Harvey Milk, a fleet replenishment oiler named after the assassinated gay rights leader and San Francisco politician who served in the U.S. Navy.
The ship will be named the USNS Oscar V. Peterson in honor of a Navy chief watertender who died in World War II and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, Hegseth said in a video posted to social media.
Hegseth made the announcement ahead of the last weekend of Pride Month, the monthlong observance of the LGBTQ+ community that also coincides with the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Celebrations are expected this weekend in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and other cities.
The USNS Harvey Milk was christened in 2021 during President Joe Biden’s term. In Friday’s social media video, Hegseth said that the ship’s name change was made in line with “taking the politics out of ship naming.”
“We’re not renaming the ship to anything political,” Hegseth said. “This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration.”
“People want to be proud of the ship they’re sailing in,” Hegseth said.
LaShawn Sykes 
CBS News reported earlier this month that the Navy was considering renaming the Harvey Milk and multiple naval ships named after civil rights leaders and prominent American voices.
Milk was serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in City Hall in 1978. Before his political career, Milk served in the Navy Reserve from 1951 until 1955, according to the National Archives. He voluntarily resigned as he was facing court-martial over allegedly participating in a “homosexual act” in 1953.
The ship’s new namesake, Peterson, was gravely wounded in May 1942 while leading a repair party on the USS Neosho during an aerial attack from the Japanese in the Coral Sea, Hegseth said. Peterson was credited with singlehandedly keeping the ship running when the rest of the repair party was killed or severely wounded, Hegseth said.
“His spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for his crewmates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy,” Hegseth said.
Eleanor Watson,
James LaPorta,
and
Nikole Killion
contributed to this report.
