Defense Secretary Pete Hegses ordered the Navy to rename the oil ship, named after gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
Military.com first reported an imminent name change, citing a memorandum from the Navy Secretary’s office. The document reportedly indicated that the service planned to strip Euler USNS Harvey Milk from its moniker.
Defense officials also confirmed with the outlet that Hegses ordered Navy Secretary John Phelan to assume the name change, and the announcement is intentionally scheduled to occur during Pride on June 13th.
Following news of the impending name change, Senator Nancy Pelosi (d-calif.) called “the shameful, vindictive erase of those who tried to break barriers for all to pursue American dreams.”
Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk (1930-1978), December 4, 1977. Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California.
“Our military is the most powerful in the world, but this malicious move does not reinforce our national security or the spirit of “warriors,” the former House Speaker said in a statement. “Instead, it’s a surrender of basic American values. It’s about celebrating the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.”
The Department of Defense and the Navy did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the hill.
USNS Harvey Milk was officially appointed at the August 2016 ceremony in San Francisco. There, American politician Milk became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California in 1977 as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was assassinated in 1978 while serving on the board and in 2009 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Milk, a former Navy liberal who served on a submarine rescue ship during the Korean War, was forced to resign from his service after four years, and instead of facing a martial for being gay, he accepted a discharge other than an honorable discharge.
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Euler of John Lewis Class, a ship group named after renowned civil rights leaders and activists, has been officially working since Harvey Milk was baptized and launched in November 2021.
“The Navy Secretary needed to inspire today and in the civilian workforce not only to correct past mistakes, but also to inspire all the LGBTQ community leaders who served in naval uniforms.
“For too long, sailors like t-in-milk were either pushed into the shadows or, worse, kicked out of our beloved navy,” added Del Toro. “That injustice is part of our naval history, but so is the perseverance of everyone who continues to serve in the face of injustice.”
But since Hegseth, he has been the Pentagon chief since he was trying to dismantle military programs and reading materials that deal with and reference issues of diversity, anti-racism, or gender.
The efforts he claimed were intended to bring the army back to the “warrior spirit,” but also included attempts to remove what was deemed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content from the Department of Defense websites and social media pages.
The result was a temporary removal of webpages dedicated to baseball legend Jackie Robinson, former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell, Navajo Law speakers and Japanese-Americans.
Hegseth’s efforts apparently have been extended to renaming the ship. The Navy memo mentions President Trump, Hegses and Phelan, which refers to “the purpose of the President and SECDEF and SECNAV priorities,” which stripped Harvey Milk of his name.
The memo did not include the new name for the ship, but according to siervery.com, it plans to announce a moniker mounted on the USS Constitution, the Navy’s oldest commissioned vessel.
It is rare for the navy to rename a ship. The final case of 2023 was a recommendation from the Commission of Congressional Duty, established to scrutinize Confederate names throughout the military, and decided to change the cruiser USS Chancellorsville to USS Robert Smalls and the research vessel USNS Maury to USNS Marie Tharp.
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