Report: Navy Ordered to Rename USNS Harvey Milk

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a highly unusual move that will strip the ship of the moniker of a slain gay rights activist who served as a sailor during the Korean War. US officials say Navy Secretary John Phelan put together a small team to rename the replenishment oiler and that a new name is expected this month. The officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the next name had not yet been chosen.

• Sources tell Military.com that the order to take the rare step came from Hegseth. The sources say the timing of the announcement, during Pride month, was intentional.

• The change was laid out in an internal memo that officials said defended the action as a move to align with President Trump and Hegseth's objectives to "re-establish the warrior culture." Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that Hegseth is "committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief's priorities, our nation's history, and the warrior ethos."
• Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat representing San Francisco, said in a statement Tuesday that "this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the 'warrior' ethos. Instead, it is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country."
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom also slammed the move, saying Milk was a Korean War combat veteran whose commander called him "outstanding." "Stripping his name from a Navy ship won't erase his legacy as an American icon, but it does reveal Trump's contempt for the very values our veterans fight to protect," the Democrat wrote on Bluesky.

• The USNS Harvey Milk was named in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who said at the time that the John Lewis-class of oilers would be named after leaders who fought for civil and human rights. It was christened in 2021 and the Navy says it conducted its first resupply mission at sea in fall 2024
• Milk, who was portrayed by Sean Penn in an Oscar-winning 2008 movie, served for four years in the Navy before he was forced out for being gay. He later became one of the first openly gay candidates elected to public office. On Nov. 27, 1978, he was assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor who opposed a bill Milk sponsored banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
• CBS News reports other ships on a list of vessels recommended for renaming, some of which have yet to enter service, include the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Medgar Evers.

(More Navy stories.)