US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the renaming of a naval vessel honouring a gay rights pioneer in a landmark crackdown on "activism" in the military.
The USNS Harvey Milk, named after the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, will soon bear the name of a Second World War Medal of Honor recipient instead.
It's set to become the USNS Oscar V Peterson, Hegseth revealed in a social media video on Friday.
The defence chief, 45, said the rebrand was part of an effort to remove political activism from military vessel naming conventions, a U-turn from the Biden White House's approach to honouring civil rights figures in the armed forces.
The USNS Harvey Milk is set to become the USNS Oscar V Peterson
GETTY
Hegseth declared: "We are taking the politics out of ship naming.
"We're not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration.
"Instead, we're renaming the ship after a United States Navy Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, as it should be."
In the past, the Defense Secretary had condemned the Biden administration's moves to change the name of military bases which honoured Confederate generals.
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Hegseth said the rebrand was part of an effort to remove political activism from military vessel naming conventions
REUTERS
But chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell has vowed that renaming the Harvey Milk is different.
"In no way is the Fort Bragg renaming comparable to a potential renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk - which occurred very recently in 2016 under the Obama Administration and was widely viewed as an ideologically-motivated action that countless sailors and veterans found abhorrent," Parnell said.
Peterson, a chief watertender in the US Navy, received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions during the Battle of Coral Sea in 1942.
According to Hegseth, Peterson demonstrated exceptional heroism when Japanese bombers attacked the USS Neosho.
Hegseth's move marks the latest Donald Trump-inspired attack on the US approach to honouring civil rights figures
GETTYHe hailed how the hero sailor exemplified the kind of individual the Navy should honour through its ship names.
The Medal of Honor is America's highest military decoration for valour, awarded to service members who distinguish themselves through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their own lives above and beyond the call of duty.
More than 3,000 Americans have been awarded the medal - akin to Britain's Victoria Cross, which has seen over 1,300 recipients since 1856.
The vessel in question is a John Lewis-class replenishment oiler, designated T-AO-206, which provides fuel and supplies to naval forces at sea.
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