SECDEF to rename USNS Harvy Milk

| June 3, 2025 | 46 Comments


T-AO-206

Defense Secretary Orders Renaming of USNS Harvey Milk Amid DEI Policy Changes

Mike Schuler

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the U.S. Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO 206), a John Lewis-class fleet oiler that was delivered to the Navy in 2023, according to multiple media reports citing U.S. Defense officials.

This decision comes at the beginning of Pride Month and represents the latest move in the military’s efforts to scale back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

The vessel, named after Harvey Milk, a Navy veteran who became one of the first openly gay individuals elected to public office in the United States, was designated for this honor by the Navy in 2016.

The USNS Harvey Milk is part of the John Lewis-class fleet oiler program, which consists of 742-foot vessels designed to provide critical at-sea replenishment. The ships are designed to carry approximately 157,000 barrels of oil and provide diesel fuel, lubricating oil, and other provisions to Navy ships at sea.

SECDEF

Ray Mabus unavailable for comment, as if any would care. Hat tip to our own Deckie for stepping on yesterday’s FGS with the link. Thanks!

Category: Bravo Zulu, Navy

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2banana

Milk was a child rapist and sexual deviant.

SFC D

The Pentagon chimes in for pride month…

rgr769

The Navy could just name some spaces on ships for Harvey. How about some Harvey Milk Memorial Fan Rooms?

5JC

Still don’t care.

Green Thumb

Yeah.

The USS Phillip Dale Monkress.

Army-Air Force Guy

To be christened by Psul of the Ballsack Wirke himself.

Tallywhagger

Salvage/scavenge anything of value, reforge the steel if that is economically propitious and scuttle the rest in the San Francisco Bay as TOXIC WASTE.

Consider the site as a monument to Nancy “goddamned”Pelosi. If possible, include a secondary monument to Grey Davis and use that area as a nuclear waste storage facility

Last edited 16 days ago by Tallywhagger
RCAF-CHAIRBORNE

Pumping lubricating oil seems to be in line with the name.

KoB

Ok, I laffed WAAAAY yonder too hard at that! On target…fire for effect!

No love lost for the racist, grifting, Lewis either.

Anonymous

Naming a ship after a sleazy dude who liked teenage boys just because he was shot for being gay is as cringy as this:

Last edited 16 days ago by Anonymous
rgr769

There is no evidence I have ever heard proved that Milk was shot just because he was gay. The shooter was on a rampage over not getting his seat back on the city council.

David

And the headlines at the time were MAYOR MOSCONE SHOT. Several paragraphs later ” also killed the the attack was an alderman, Harvey Milk.” I don’t recall even hearing Milk was gay until years later. (In fairness I didn’t pay much attention.)

Anonymous

True, Milk didn’t go around braggin’ about it as is wont today so it wasn’t out there as the first thing folk thought-of.

Anonymous

True, “twinkie defense” and all… but the ship got named ’cause he was gay and shot (Democrats worked in the “martyr” angle like a mofo, of course).

SFC D

Milk got shot because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Graybeard

Need. Eye. Bleach. And. Memory. Bleach.

rgr1480

Here ya go:

Eye-Bleach_Simpsons
rgr1480

I hate you for that!

CDR D

<gag>

queer-flag-puke
Forest Bondurant

One seafaring superstition is it’s bad luck to rename a ship, and doing so will bring misfortune to it.

Oh well…

Dennis - not chevy

Sometimes you sorta have to. The best example I can think of is the USCGC Eagle; once upon a time she was the Horst Wessel.

Forest Bondurant

Presumably it went through the appropriate commissioning ceremony, but I forget all the protocols that go with it.

Odie

I think most all assigned to that ship will gladly take their chances with that superstition.

Some of the former navy folks I worked with always said it wasn’t gay if they were underway.

Dennis - not chevy

“It may be queer when it’s at the pier…”

Fuzzman

How would you know?
Everyone isn’t as homophobic as you are.
BTW, ships of that class are named for civil rights leaders.
Prepare for some fool to rightwash the names of other similar ships.

A Proud Infidel®™

So maybe next we can have the USS Gabby Giffords renamed?

Buckeye Jim

This will probably not be a well received comment but the naming of one of the future Ford class carriers after Doris Miller is a DEI stretch as well in my opinion. He received the Navy Cross for his actions at Pearl Harbor and a ship should be named after him (in fact, a now-decommissioned frigate was) but not an aircraft carrier. The Vinson and Stennis naming of current carriers was also a mistake.

MIRanger

Why is it a mistake to name two nuclear carriers after the Senators that were the most responsible for the expansion of the navy (Two Ocean Navy – Sen. Carl Vinson) and the development of the nuclear carrier (Sen John Stennis). Does the US Navy have other naming conventions like the Army that names its aircraft after American Indian tribes? Will next you be telling us to stop naming tanks after that Abrams guy because it sounds too much like the sleazy Georgia politician.

Army-Air Force Guy

Stacey Abrams is getting close to the size and weight of an actual M-1 Abrams.

Army-Air Force Guy

Kinda funny how the Navy named a supply ship after Cesar Chavez, when he reportedly said his time in the Navy was the worst two years of his life.

SFC D

I always get the giggles when Tucson leftists hold up portraits of Cesar Chavez when they protest the treatment of illegal aliens. Back in the day, you’d rather get picked up by CBP than Cesar’s goons.

Odie

The holes have been repaired, right?

Sapper3307

GOOD!

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Fuzzman

I think that if you need to spend time expressing your concerns about someone else’s homosexuality, you probably are struggling with your own sexuality.

Deckie

Honestly, there are still so many MOH recipients who have never had anything named after them, let alone other heroes whose names have definitely earned their place on a hull somewhere. I don’t know why they have gone ignored for decades (or over a century, for some.) Do they have to be someone who was alive and photographed? Someone who made a media appearance of some type? Had to have lived post-1941? I’m baffled.

Commissar

Nevermind.

I was going to whinge about this before I learned he had a relationship with a 16 year old boy when he was in his 30s.

Last edited 16 days ago by Commissar
Prior Service (RET)

In all seriousness, good job suppressing the knee jerk reaction and going with facts. A lot of people struggle with this, regardless of political persuasion.

Prior Service (RET)

So much for “Fairy winds and swallowing seas.” Well done, SECDEF. Now do the Cesar Chavez.

David

No ship should be named after anyone with a dishonorable discharge.

KoB

Fookin’ AWs! DaHell we gonna do with them?

SFC D

Nothing. Last time I made a snide remark to AW1Ed, he lost that lovin’ feelin’.

Last edited 16 days ago by SFC D
ANCRN

About time. The trend to name ships after politicians also needs to go into the trash. Don’t really care for the naming of a carrier after a career politician who never wore the uniform. There are plenty who served who were more worthy.

BlueCord Dad
BlueCord Dad
Sapper3307

Winds of change.

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