USNS Harvey Milk

[ericbarbour]

An editwar just starting. Over an article that has existed since 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... &limit=500

And an IP address that I expect to be eternab& shortly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:C ... :471D:EABF

Why?

https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainme ... 359782.php

Milk has been dead for 47 years and he's still generating headlines. What a paranoid country this is.

[badmachine]

Since when does the left advocate for attaching the names of their heroes to warships?

Also that reporter is laying it on a little thick tbqh. This particular slice of baloney made me retch just a little:

While I never had the opportunity to know Milk, I’ve come to consider him an ancestor of mine and every other queer person who is able to live life outside of the closet.

[boredbird]

Since when does the left advocate for attaching the names of their heroes to warships?

Should be called USS David Shankbone.

[ericbarbour]

Should be called USS David Shankbone.

Now THAT would be FUNNY.

It's a bit of a backhanded insult to name a lowly oiler ship after someone. It makes me wonder if some homophobic navy official had that idea--knowing that the gay folks would have no idea it was an insult.

[Strelnikov]

Should be called USS David Shankbone.

Now THAT would be FUNNY.

It's a bit of a backhanded insult to name a lowly oiler ship after someone. It makes me wonder if some homophobic navy official had that idea--knowing that the gay folks would have no idea it was an insult.

Most of the original WW I/WW II oilers were named after Native American tribes or place names with Native origins, though there were the oddball civilian tankers purchased by the USN (the USS Sara Thompson and USS Robert L. Barnes in 1917 and 1918) that got civilian names. The Sara Thompson was later renamed Sanraku Maru when it was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and rebuilt into an oiler again after years as a bunker ship.....and then promptly sunk six months later by the USN submarine USS Trout.

We have an entire class of US Navy oilers named after Henry J. Kaiser that have been floating around since the 1980s. The USNS Harvey Milk is part of a class named after John Lewis....the deal is, if you are a famous non-presidential politician, they name a support ship after you. Warships are either named after admirals, famous naval war heroes, or old names of previous vessels with some distinction (there were two USS Nautilus submarines and there will probably be another one again. The second one is the nuclear one you are probably thinking of.) The John Lewis class is full of names of political people, including Robert F. Kennedy (not the insane son.)

[boredbird]

The USNS Harvey Milk is part of a class named after John Lewis

Correct, it's a John Lewis class oiler which has been modified to refuel other ships from the stern. This can come in handy in rough sea conditions, where our boys most like to fight. It's a brotherhood, the Navy.

Now renamed but the configuration has not changed.

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/27/nx-s1-54 ... r-peterson