(See also, “Pete Hegseth orders the Navy’s Harvey Milk to be renamed” by Olivia Murray.)

USNS ships are owned and operated by the Navy, but, in their support role, are mainly manned by civilian crews (contrasted to USS ships).  One of them is named the USNS Harvey Milk, after some LGBTQ guy, but not for long.  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename it to reflect the president’s priorities and in the spirit of our “warrior ethos.”

That’s great, but why stop there?  The USNS Harvey Milk is one replenishment oiler, but there’s a whole class of them named after someone with no U.S. Navy service, nor any evident or direct ties to the Navy. That’s right, there’s a fleet of John Lewis-class replenishment oilers named after the Civil Rights leader and Congressman from Georgia.

A fleet of resplendent replenishment oilers?  Why?  Lewis did not even serve in the Navy.  What’s more, Lewis’s name replaced the previous generation of tankers’ namesake — Henry J. Kaiser.  Though he has a un-America sounding name, at least Kaiser was involved in shipbuilding projects, including establishing the Kaiser shipyards.

Renaming the entire new class of oil replenishment tankers to someone ostensibly unaffiliated with the U.S. Navy wreaks of reverse racism.  However, since commonsense conservatives tend toward magnanimity, and recognizing the minorities’ desperate and untoward scramble for recognition, we may generously allow the name of the singular USNS John Lewis.  That, and perhaps name a library or some government edifice in Georgia after him, if they must keep doing that.

So while Hegseth is spilling the Harvey Milk, what can he rename the replenishment oiler fleet to which it belongs?

VADM Moreell may be a more appropriate candidate than landlubber Lewis.  He meets two obvious criterion:  he was actually in the Navy and, as founder of the Seabees, he was intimately involved in oil infrastructure.  Indeed, in addition to expediting construction of gasoline production facilities, he was Officer in Charge of Petroleum facilitates in 1945.  He also helped organize the Naval Petroleum Plants Office.  The loony lefties won’t be pleased, however, because he was the son of legal immigrants who actually assimilated assiduously into their adopted country.

I’m sure there are many more candidates sporting a warrior ethos and with direct ties to the Navy and/or the oil industry.  If all else fails, how about something simple and commonsense:  The Drill-Baby-Drill class of oil replenishment tankers?

John Lewis already has multiple public infrastructure projects and edifices named after him, including a bridge in Seattle, for heaven’s sake.  He has received many honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  But naming an entire class of ships after a liberal landlubber represents reverse cultural appropriation that he hasn’t earned.

Image: U.S. Navy.