Hegseth Orders Renaming Of Several Ships

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the John Lewis-Class Replenishment Oiler, USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206), which is named after Navy Veteran and gay rights activist, Harvey Milk, who also served as the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California.
The renaming follows a memo recently by Secretary Hegseth to Navy Secretary John Phelan, directing him to rename a number of ships operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) that are or will be named after civil rights icons once built, including but not limited to the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Medgar Evers.
According to an official, the decision to announce the renaming of the Harvey Milk during Pride Month was intentional by the Defense Department.
Military.com reviewed a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy -- the official who holds the power to name Navy ships -- that showed the sea service had come up with rollout plans for the renaming of the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.
The memo reviewed by Military.com noted that the renaming was being done so that there is "alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture," apparently referencing President Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan.
The renaming news was slated to become public June 13, according to the memo.
A new name for the Harvey Milk was not given but, according to the memo, Hegseth and Phelan are planning to announce the new name aboard the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned Navy ship.
The Harvey Milk is a John Lewis-class oiler, a group of ships that are to be named after prominent civil rights leaders and activists.
CBS reported Tuesday that the Navy is also considering renaming other John Lewis-class oilers including the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and USNS Harriet Tubman. Both Marshall and Ginsburg were Supreme Court justices, and Tubman was a Black abolitionist who helped slaves escape the South via the Underground Railroad.
Unlike the Milk, though, some of the ships being considered for renaming have yet to be completed.
While there are some rare examples of Navy ships being renamed following construction and christening, those instances are outliers and, broadly, Navy traditions consider renaming a ship to be taboo.
The most recent renaming occurred in 2023 when the Navy decided to rename the cruiser USS Chancellorsville and research ship USNS Maury -- two names with ties to the Confederacy -- to USS Robert Smalls and USNS Marie Tharp, respectively.
Unlike the decision to rename the Harvey Milk, which was done on the orders of Hegseth, the recommendation to rename the two ships came from a commission that was created by Congress to study names with ties to the Confederacy across the entire military.
The USNS Harvey Milk is currently completing maintenance and refit work at a shipyard in Alabama that is expected to wrap up by the end of June.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/03/hegseth-orders-navy-strip-name-of-gay-rights-icon-harvey-milk-ship.html