Full List of Navy Ships That Could Be Renamed By Pete Hegseth
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is looking to rename several Navy ships which honor civil rights leaders, according to documents obtained by CBS.
These memos show Secretary Hegseth is changing the name of the USNS Harvey Milk at the beginning of Pride Month. The USNS Harvey Milk honors the memory of the gay rights campaigner who served in the Navy during the Korean War before being discharged for his sexuality.
The USNS Harvey Milk is not the only ship that the Secretary wants to rename. He is also looking to change the names of several other ships named after civil rights campaigners and leaders.
According to the memo this renaming is being done in "alignment with president" and "priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture."
Chief Pentagon Spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a statement to Newsweek: "Secretary 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."
Main: Civil Service Mariners aboard Military Sealift Command's fleet replenishment oiler USNS Harvey Milk, Norfolk Virginia, September 2024. Inset: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers his speech during 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore, Saturday,...
Main: Civil Service Mariners aboard Military Sealift Command's fleet replenishment oiler USNS Harvey Milk, Norfolk Virginia, September 2024. Inset: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers his speech during 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore, Saturday, May 31, 2025. More
Main: LaShawn Sykes, Inset Anupam Nath/Main: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Inset: AP Photo
Why It Matters
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which kept gay service members closeted was repealed in 2010 by President Barack Obama. The Trump administration is now reversing LGTBQ+ policy in the military by firing transgender troops and renaming a ship celebrating a gay leader. Critics argue that wiping the names of civil rights leaders from ships is disrespectful to them and redefines values America fights to protect.
What To Know
The USNS is a John Lewis-class oiler, meaning it is one of several ships named for civil rights campaigners. John Lewis was the racial justice campaigner who coined the term "good trouble."
Other Ships up for Renaming
USNS Thurgood Marshall (T-AO 211)
Description : Named in honor of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice and a pioneering civil rights attorney.
: Named in honor of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice and a pioneering civil rights attorney. Military Service: Thurgood Marshall did not serve in the military. However, he played a significant role in advocating for the rights of African American service members, notably providing legal counsel during the Port Chicago mutiny trial, which highlighted racial discrimination in the military.
USNS Cesar Chavez (T-AKE-14)
Description : Named after Cesar Chavez, a labor leader and civil rights activist who cofounded the United Farm Workers union.
: Named after Cesar Chavez, a labor leader and civil rights activist who cofounded the United Farm Workers union. Military Service: Cesar Chavez served in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1948, shortly after World War II. He was stationed in the Western Pacific, including assignments in Saipan and Guam.
USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE-13)
Description : Commemorates Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist and World War II veteran assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963.
: Commemorates Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist and World War II veteran assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963. Military Service: Medgar Evers enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943 at age 17. He served in the European Theater during World War II. In the segregated 657th Port Company, he participated in the Red Ball Express, a logistics operation critical to the Allied advance at Normandy. department.va.gov
USNS Harriet Tubman (T-AO 213)
Description : Honors Harriet Tubman, an Underground Railroad conductor and Union spy during the Civil War.
: Honors Harriet Tubman, an Underground Railroad conductor and Union spy during the Civil War. Military Service: During the Civil War, Harriet Tubman served as a nurse, scout, and spy for the Union Army. Notably, she led the Combahee River Raid in 1863, which resulted in the liberation of over 700 enslaved individuals. In 2024, she was posthumously awarded the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard.
USNS Dolores Huerta (T-AO 214)
Description : Named after Dolores Huerta, a labor leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers alongside Chavez.
: Named after Dolores Huerta, a labor leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers alongside Chavez. Military Service: Dolores Huerta did not serve in the military. Her contributions are rooted in labor organizing and civil rights advocacy.
USNS Lucy Stone (T-AO 209)
Description : Commemorates Lucy Stone, a suffragist and abolitionist who was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree.
: Commemorates Lucy Stone, a suffragist and abolitionist who was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. Military Service: Lucy Stone did not have military service. She was a prominent advocate for women's rights and the abolition of slavery.
USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg (T-AO 212)
Description : Honors the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice known for her lifelong advocacy of gender equality and civil rights.
: Honors the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice known for her lifelong advocacy of gender equality and civil rights. Military Service: Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not serve in the military. However, she significantly impacted military policies through her legal work, notably contributing to the end of the military's policy of discharging women for becoming pregnant.
It is rare for a Navy ship to be renamed as the practice is considered to be taboo within the armed forces. However, two ships were renamed in 2023 as they had ties to the Confederacy. Unlike the ships that were named after people who tried to secede from the Union, these ships are being stripped of being named after people who strived to improve the rights of others within the US.
This is one of several moves from Hegseth and the Trump administration to remove mention of civil rights leaders from the military. In early April, Hegseth purged 400 books from the Naval Academy library on race relations, gender, and sexuality.
The Trump administration Defense Department has also banned affinity groups such as the Black Society for Engineers and the Native American Heritage Forum at military academies.
What People Are Saying
Chief Pentagon Spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a statement to Newsweek: "Any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete."
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi: "Our military is the most powerful in the world—but 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.
"As the rest of us are celebrating the joy of Pride Month, it is my hope that the Navy will reconsider this egregious decision and continue to recognize the extraordinary contributions of Harvey Milk, a Veteran himself, and all Americans who forged historic progress for our nation."
Senator Martin Heinrich on X (formerly Twitter): "Harvey Milk served his country honorably—first in uniform, then in public office. Taking his name off this Navy ship sends a clear message, and it's one of disrespect and cruelty."
Harvey Milk served his country honorably — first in uniform, then in public office.
Taking his name off this Navy ship sends a clear message, and it's one of disrespect and cruelty. pic.twitter.com/d3J3iFnXkS — Martin Heinrich (@SenatorHeinrich) June 3, 2025
What Happens Next
Pride Month will continue to be celebrated by LGBTQ+ people and allies across the world for the month of June.
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The county's Civil Service Commission eventually agreed, ruling in 1984 that he had been improperly terminated in order to preserve the jobs of white employees with less seniority, and ordering that he be reinstated with full back pay. 'I had to fight for my job just to make sure the rules were applied fairly,' Silcott told the Los Angeles Times. But the reinstatement was short-lived: within months, Silcott alleged that the county had retaliated by stripping away meaningful duties, among other retributions. 'They had him working in a closet at one time,' said Roberts. Later that year, the Board of Supervisors approved a roughly $1 million settlement offer to resolve his federal discrimination lawsuit. The Times noted that his case had 'become a rallying point' for those seeking greater equity in public employment. As Silcott later reflected, 'This was never just about me. It was about making sure the next Black architect who comes along doesn't have to fight the same battles.' Silcott would later work as an architectural consultant to public agencies and universities while serving on several public boards, including the South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, the Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals and the California State Board of Architectural Examiners. He built a stylish home in Windsor Hills, where he would regularly host family, not to mention mayors, council members, and, later, former President Obama, said Mitchell. In 1995 — retired as an architect — he took on minority ownership and a board seat at Kennard Design Group, one of the largest Black-owned architecture firms in the country, following the death of its founder (and Silcott's good friend) Robert Kennard. 'He didn't hesitate,' said Gail Kennard, Robert's daughter, who still leads the firm, and wanted to ensure the company's stability at a difficult time. 'He was always there to help. For advice, support, anything. 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Silcott Endowed Chair with an initial $1 million, bringing architects like Sir David Adjaye, Philip Freelon, Jack Travis and Roberta Washington to teach and mentor at Howard. And with a $1 million gift he funded the T. George Silcott Gallery, named for his late brother, providing a venue for exhibitions, critiques and public lectures. Silcott also made unrestricted contributions of hundreds of thousands more to Howard's Department of Architecture, supporting scholarships, travel fellowships and capital improvements. By the end of his life, his contributions to Howard exceeded $3 million, making him, according to the school, the largest individual donor to architecture programs at historically Black colleges and universities in the country. 'Howard and its school of architecture was at the very center of his life,' said Mitchell, who noted Silcott's gifts also helped keep the school afloat during difficult periods. Silcott received the Howard University Alumni Achievement Award, the Centennial Professional Excellence Award and the Howard H. Mackey Dean's Medal, named after his mentor. He also received the Kresge/Coca-Cola Award for philanthropy to HBCUs. In 2020, he was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. After a stroke in 2020, Silcott moved to Washington, D.C., to be under family care. He was placed in hospice in 2022, and put on a feeding tube, but lived three more years against the odds, noted Roberts, one of seven close nieces and nephews who called him 'Uncle James.' 'He would not acknowledge that he wasn't going to live forever,' said Roberts. Silcott remained engaged with Howard until his death.
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Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Satellite imagery this week captured the drawdown of U.S. forces at the remote Diego Garcia naval base in the Indian Ocean, after the joint British-American military facility had played a central role in the Pentagon's campaign of signals and deception in the lead-up to U.S. airstrikes against Iran. In late March, analysts studying open-source imagery—like those taken by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites—began noticing an increase in U.S. Air Force deployments to the coral atoll amid tensions in the Middle East. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later revealed that they were part of U.S. efforts to deter Iran and its proxies. The U.S. Defense Department and Iran's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to separate written requests for comment. Why It Matters Diego Garcia sits in the center of the Indian Ocean, a strategic, cross-regional location—2,000-3,000 miles from both Iran and China—that is key to U.S. power projection in both halves of the vast Indo-Pacific region. Permanently staffed by only a few hundred British and American troops, the remote island base allows the United States to rapidly respond to crises by pre-positioning naval and air assets near possible flashpoints. The base received public attention in spring amid a spike in U.S.-Iran tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, which was among the list of disputes U.S. President Donald Trump had sought to resolve upon his return to office. With diplomacy all but stalled between Washington and Tehran after the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites amid clashes between Israel and Iran in June, Trump has threatened to strike again if Iran's leaders don't return to the negotiating table for another nuclear deal. What To Know Unlike U.S. bases in Qatar and nearby states, Diego Garcia's remoteness put it beyond most Iranian missile capabilities, making it an ideal staging area. In the past, it has been used as a launchpad for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Later it became a hub for operations across the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa. But when Trump gave the order to strike Iran in June, the attack did not originate from Diego Garcia, with the Pentagon instead opting to fly seven B-2 bombers from Missouri in a move that largely avoided detection and therefore maximized surprise. A new ESA photograph captured on Monday, rendered in false color to avoid dense clouds, showed the end of Diego Garcia's temporary role as a tool for military signaling. Empty parking aprons were seen where U.S. jet fighters and strategic bombers once stood as clear warnings to Tehran. At its height in May, the surge in forces to the Indian Ocean base included F-15 fighter aircraft, B‑2 and B‑52 bombers, KC‑135 tankers and C‑17 military transport planes, according to publicly available analysis at the time, which preceded the two-week campaign of Israeli airstrikes on Iran's military infrastructure and Iranian ballistic attacks on Israeli territory. Drag slider compare photos "We probably ensured that Diego Garcia was ready, but ultimately, the president decided on a different plan that was really focused on trying to preserve security," retired U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, the former head of the U.S. Central Command and now a researcher at the Middle East Institute, told Newsweek. In a mission relying on deception, aerial refueling and near-total radio silence to strike Iran's nuclear sites, the B-2s from Whiteman Air Force Base flew a round-trip bombing sortie that lasted more than 30 hours, the Pentagon later said. A separate group of suspected decoy aircraft were routed to Guam and successfully mislead observers about U.S. intensions. "These decoys were probably to get Iran to refocus their attention on threats coming from Diego Garcia rather than from the U.S.," Shahin Berenji, an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College, told Newsweek. Operation assessments indicated that Iran's nuclear facilities were damaged and its enrichment program likely delayed by several months to years. However, the threat from Iran is not over, the subject-matter experts said, stressing that the visible reduction of U.S. forces at Diego Garcia did not necessarily reflect a shift in priorities in the CENTCOM area. What People Are Saying U.S. Army General (retired) Joseph Votel, former CENTCOM commander and current research fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Newsweek: "I think that the threat of Iran will continue to drive U.S. interests and U.S. military strategy in the region for the foreseeable future. [Iran's enrichment capability] certainly has been delayed…but it's not completely destroyed, and Iran has not taken off on a different path. So I think we have to continue to be concerned about that." Shahin Berenji, assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College's Strategy and Policy Department, told Newsweek: "I would argue that given what happened in this past crisis, just because the U.S. doesn't have prepositioned forces in Diego Garcia, it doesn't mean it can't strike Iran with strategic bombers from the homeland." Berenji said his views were his own and did not represent those of the college. What Happens Next Diego Garcia will remain a key strategic hub for the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, even if it isn't used in every operation.
