Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that the naval ship previously honoring Harvey Milk has been renamed the USNS Oscar V. Peterson.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Milk served in the Navy during the Korean War as a diving officer. He was later elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first openly gay elected official in California.
Milk was assassinated in 1978, less than a year after taking office.
The ship was christened in 2021.
Peterson was a chief watertender for the Navy during World War II. He was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his service. He died in the sinking of USS Neosho in 1942.
"We are taking the politics out of ship naming," Hegseth said in a post on X. "We are not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activism, unlike the previous administration. Instead, we are renaming the ship after a United States Navy Congressional Medal of Honor recipient."
