CDR Sal, greatly appreciate you bringing the details of this hero's story to me. True heroism should be recognized and remembered, lest we forget what service "above and beyond" means in the heat of battle. Renaming this ship is keeping the memory of Chief Watertender Oscar V. Peterson front and center where it should be. RIP Chief Peterson. And thank you, CDR Salamander.
I know there’s been pushback on the idea of renaming the ship but I’d suggest that it was Mabus, while virtue signaling, was wrong to make the original name.
Milk can get a street or building in SFO names per their local government, but his tenure in the Navy never earned him the honor.
That this MOH recipient was bypassed is/was wrong. And now it’s been made right.
Though I’d suggest a DDG is warranted or could be.
Bullshit. Harvey Milk was an American hero, and a navy vet. Naming a replenishment oiler after him is fit and proper. Remember, his naval service was auxiliary to his heroism; so naming a auxiliary after him fits. Changing the name was done by a weak man, lacking confidence in his own sexuality. Homophobes are assholes and they need to be held up to public scorn.
Now, Oscar Peterson was a freaking warrior. In decades past, we named small, tough warships after naval heros. The capital ships were named after states, the cruisers after cities, but, the small boys were named after people. The USS Peterson should be a warship, a vessel with teeth; a frigate or destroyer.
Taking Milk's name off a ship is entirely appropriate and is not "homophobia." That term is like "Nazi" and is a leftists ploy top end argument.
Milk was not an honorable man any more than people like John McCain. Whatever Milk may have done in the service was outweighed by his leftist ways after he was out.
Every real sailor knows changing a ship's name is bad luck. The only reason not to acknowledge Harvey Milk's heroism is if you are a gay hater. Don't be a gay hater.
Let's be honest. There is a deep strain of ugliness in America. Where I live the folks who killed schoolteachers for teaching black kids to read lived out healthy lives, and may still be among us. There are folks who are openly Nazi. The KKK still holds meetings. Those folks hated Harvey.
Liberals are the folks that make America great. Freedom is a liberal idea. America is a beacon to the world because of our liberalism, our free markets and our individual liberty. The knuckle-dragging neanderthals on the extreme right need to thank the lord they live in a liberal nation.
"Where I live the folks who killed schoolteachers for teaching black kids to read lived out healthy lives." You live among the Jim Crow Democrats?
Your hero had an other than honorable discharge. And remember, in the Navy one ah-shit wipes out ten atta' boys. Milk was unfit to be honored by the USN by virtue of the nature of his discharge.
Your partisanship is showing. Remember, Washington warned us that political party partisanship would be the ruin of liberty. "It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection."
The klukluxers switched from the Democratic party to the Republican one The Republican Party had served as the "vehicle of white supremacy in the South", during the Goldwater campaign and the presidential elections of 1968 and 1972.
Not partisan at all. I even offered up a better alternative of a gay sailor (although enlisted, gasp!) who fought for his right to serve and is apparently untainted by habits that are found to be distasteful.
My points stand. But please feel free to continue calling me homophobic.
So. Let's look at this from a different perspective. Renaming T-AO-206 was more environmentally friendly than bleaching the stain from that ship with chemicals. Is this the hill you really want to die on, Tom?
A hero? Maybe to some. There is no accounting for some people's taste.
"What, then, of Harvey Milk?
Biographer Daniel Flynn notes that “Milk’s taste in men veered toward boys.” Milk’s close friend Oliver “Bill” Sipple “knew that Harvey Milk slept with boys.” In a laudatory biography written by esteemed LGBTQ journalist and close friend of Milk, Randy Shilts documents how, in 1963, a 33-year-old Milk invited a 16-year-old drug-addicted runaway “looking for some kind of father figure” named “Jack” Galen McKinley to be his live-in lover. Describing his typical day in a letter to a friend, Milk said he would “cook dinner, [expletive] Jack, take a bath, [expletive] Jack, listen to some music, [expletive] Jack, wash the dishes, [expletive] Jack.” Shilts notes that “Harvey always had a penchant for young waifs with substance abuse problems.” Milk was a well-documented pederast, “a man who engages in sexual activity with a boy or youth.”
This sailor knows that changing the name of a ship is not bad luck. Freedom is a liberal idea, but not one of modern liberals, who are not liberals at all. Washington and Jefferson were both classical liberals. The current misnamed version is nothing more than a group of liars trying to steal a name to cover their fascism. The modern liberal hates Washington and Jefferson. Both are considered extremists, even though they defined the political center in this country. Both the Dims and GOP are leftist parties, with the Dims being so far left they are no better than Fascists or Commies.
Had to look up pederast but had a pretty good hunch, which was confirmed. That trait should get anyone eliminated from the human race, much less have a USN ship named after them.
Milk's time in the Navy was less than distinguished or honorable. His time as a supervisor in SF was brief and was marked with very little achievement other than his sexuality. If anything Milk was popular in the gay Castro however most San Franciscan's knew him as the gov figure who 'outed' Oliver Sipple the hero who thwarted an assassins attempted shooting of Gerald Ford across from the St.Francis hotel, but Milk was more interested in pulling him out of the closet. The efforts to rewrite and enhance Milk's history, would be a stark understatement.
And I thought you were effed up when you said the reason eight year old boys needed tampons were in case they were hit in the face by a soccer ball. Now you champion another kid toucher.
CDR Salamander, thank you for reminding me of my “Duties” Last Friday of July!
The year is 2025. Hail to those brave men who preceded me! Everlasting be their memories!
Where I live, the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, 20751, the weather is Sunny, Humid and Hot.
“Laziness, have I ever offended thee? When thou were attacked, I rose to defend thee!”
I am the Commanding Officer of the SS Nurse Jane, (Private Pier) my perch fronting “Forevermore by the Bay” overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.
Will anyone who had family serving in the Coral Sea during WWII, ever trust the Japanese? Not me, sir! Neither will I trust South Korea nor Vietnam. Beware of the Philippines because they bend to the hand that feeds them.
Much work to accomplish on this Last Friday of July. Fair winds and following seas! NJ
Renaming ships may be bad luck, but that is s superstition, not a fact.
Most, if not vIrtually all the merchants taken up for military service from the Civil War onward were renamed with USS, USNS, NOTS or similar names either related to their original names or totally unrelated.
USS Hornet (CV-12) was being built as USS Kearsarge, but renamed after USS Hornet (CV-8) was sunk at the Battle of Coral Sea. Many of the CVEs built in WW2 had names change during or shortly after construction.
I suspect most of those condemning changing the Harvey Milk name as "bad luck" were joyously celebrating the renaming of Chancellorsville and Matthew F. Maury (for their politically unacceptable taint of Confederate connections) and saw no omens of bad luck.
WTC Oscar V. Peterson is an honorable and inspirational namesake.
Also mindful of a fellow WTC, Peter Tomich, who died in similar fashion in UTAH during the Pearl Harbor attack. The steam hot plant in Great Lakes was named for him.
I am happy for the renaming. Naming a ship after a pederast, would be like naming a ship after a Clinton! Poor form, lack of patriotism, and a hate of the service to name a few. Then changing it to someone that gave their life for others in battle? Full Bore!
I served on the USS Neosho AO143 from 1976 until it was decommissioned and turned over to the Military Sealift Command in May of 1978. During the time I served on her-we had 4 twin open tub 3”50 guns-2 forward and 2 aft. But-no working fire control radar and only one mount forward and aft were operable. I was told -but have never been able to confirm that she also had twin 5 in 38 cal dual purpose gun turrets fore and aft-reportedly removed in the 1960’s.
CDR Sal, greatly appreciate you bringing the details of this hero's story to me. True heroism should be recognized and remembered, lest we forget what service "above and beyond" means in the heat of battle. Renaming this ship is keeping the memory of Chief Watertender Oscar V. Peterson front and center where it should be. RIP Chief Peterson. And thank you, CDR Salamander.
I know there’s been pushback on the idea of renaming the ship but I’d suggest that it was Mabus, while virtue signaling, was wrong to make the original name.
Milk can get a street or building in SFO names per their local government, but his tenure in the Navy never earned him the honor.
That this MOH recipient was bypassed is/was wrong. And now it’s been made right.
Though I’d suggest a DDG is warranted or could be.
Bullshit. Harvey Milk was an American hero, and a navy vet. Naming a replenishment oiler after him is fit and proper. Remember, his naval service was auxiliary to his heroism; so naming a auxiliary after him fits. Changing the name was done by a weak man, lacking confidence in his own sexuality. Homophobes are assholes and they need to be held up to public scorn.
Now, Oscar Peterson was a freaking warrior. In decades past, we named small, tough warships after naval heros. The capital ships were named after states, the cruisers after cities, but, the small boys were named after people. The USS Peterson should be a warship, a vessel with teeth; a frigate or destroyer.
OTH - discharge.
Taking Milk's name off a ship is entirely appropriate and is not "homophobia." That term is like "Nazi" and is a leftists ploy top end argument.
Milk was not an honorable man any more than people like John McCain. Whatever Milk may have done in the service was outweighed by his leftist ways after he was out.
Every real sailor knows changing a ship's name is bad luck. The only reason not to acknowledge Harvey Milk's heroism is if you are a gay hater. Don't be a gay hater.
Let's be honest. There is a deep strain of ugliness in America. Where I live the folks who killed schoolteachers for teaching black kids to read lived out healthy lives, and may still be among us. There are folks who are openly Nazi. The KKK still holds meetings. Those folks hated Harvey.
Liberals are the folks that make America great. Freedom is a liberal idea. America is a beacon to the world because of our liberalism, our free markets and our individual liberty. The knuckle-dragging neanderthals on the extreme right need to thank the lord they live in a liberal nation.
"Where I live the folks who killed schoolteachers for teaching black kids to read lived out healthy lives." You live among the Jim Crow Democrats?
Your hero had an other than honorable discharge. And remember, in the Navy one ah-shit wipes out ten atta' boys. Milk was unfit to be honored by the USN by virtue of the nature of his discharge.
Your partisanship is showing. Remember, Washington warned us that political party partisanship would be the ruin of liberty. "It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection."
The klukluxers switched from the Democratic party to the Republican one The Republican Party had served as the "vehicle of white supremacy in the South", during the Goldwater campaign and the presidential elections of 1968 and 1972.
You're simply rasping at straws. Jetcal1 is exactly correct. The truth is not partisan. It just is.
The modern Klan had its genesis in the Democrat party in the early 1900s. The Democrat party is still a racist party. That won't change.
Not partisan at all. I even offered up a better alternative of a gay sailor (although enlisted, gasp!) who fought for his right to serve and is apparently untainted by habits that are found to be distasteful.
My points stand. But please feel free to continue calling me homophobic.
So. Let's look at this from a different perspective. Renaming T-AO-206 was more environmentally friendly than bleaching the stain from that ship with chemicals. Is this the hill you really want to die on, Tom?
If you put me in charge, Oilers would be named after indian named rivers. I'd call her the USS Kissimmee.
But, Harvey Milk is a hero to many gay american. Changing the name is homophobic, so last century.
Well, that would explain why the party of the Klan didn't rename the Stennis or Vinson. They were heroes to so many Democrat voting klansman.
Keith Meinhold would have been a far more appropriate choice than Milk.
A hero? Maybe to some. There is no accounting for some people's taste.
"What, then, of Harvey Milk?
Biographer Daniel Flynn notes that “Milk’s taste in men veered toward boys.” Milk’s close friend Oliver “Bill” Sipple “knew that Harvey Milk slept with boys.” In a laudatory biography written by esteemed LGBTQ journalist and close friend of Milk, Randy Shilts documents how, in 1963, a 33-year-old Milk invited a 16-year-old drug-addicted runaway “looking for some kind of father figure” named “Jack” Galen McKinley to be his live-in lover. Describing his typical day in a letter to a friend, Milk said he would “cook dinner, [expletive] Jack, take a bath, [expletive] Jack, listen to some music, [expletive] Jack, wash the dishes, [expletive] Jack.” Shilts notes that “Harvey always had a penchant for young waifs with substance abuse problems.” Milk was a well-documented pederast, “a man who engages in sexual activity with a boy or youth.”
- https://wng.org/opinions/who-was-harvey-milk-1749078257
Not a hill to die on, Tom.
This sailor knows that changing the name of a ship is not bad luck. Freedom is a liberal idea, but not one of modern liberals, who are not liberals at all. Washington and Jefferson were both classical liberals. The current misnamed version is nothing more than a group of liars trying to steal a name to cover their fascism. The modern liberal hates Washington and Jefferson. Both are considered extremists, even though they defined the political center in this country. Both the Dims and GOP are leftist parties, with the Dims being so far left they are no better than Fascists or Commies.
And yet the changed the name of a T-AGS from Maury Tharp
Milk was an open pederast.
"He's dead. Give it up, Jim."
Had to look up pederast but had a pretty good hunch, which was confirmed. That trait should get anyone eliminated from the human race, much less have a USN ship named after them.
Milk's time in the Navy was less than distinguished or honorable. His time as a supervisor in SF was brief and was marked with very little achievement other than his sexuality. If anything Milk was popular in the gay Castro however most San Franciscan's knew him as the gov figure who 'outed' Oliver Sipple the hero who thwarted an assassins attempted shooting of Gerald Ford across from the St.Francis hotel, but Milk was more interested in pulling him out of the closet. The efforts to rewrite and enhance Milk's history, would be a stark understatement.
Oscar Wilde went to jail, that don't mean it was right.
And I thought you were effed up when you said the reason eight year old boys needed tampons were in case they were hit in the face by a soccer ball. Now you champion another kid toucher.
Pederasts like Milk are assholes and they need to be held up to public scorn.
There, I fixed it.
From a lamp post.
Slowly Nature repairs itself.
We need more of this and highlighting true service & sacrifices of those who made us who we truly are.
No more useless unnecessary naming after political fools.
CDR Salamander, thank you for reminding me of my “Duties” Last Friday of July!
The year is 2025. Hail to those brave men who preceded me! Everlasting be their memories!
Where I live, the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, 20751, the weather is Sunny, Humid and Hot.
“Laziness, have I ever offended thee? When thou were attacked, I rose to defend thee!”
I am the Commanding Officer of the SS Nurse Jane, (Private Pier) my perch fronting “Forevermore by the Bay” overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.
Will anyone who had family serving in the Coral Sea during WWII, ever trust the Japanese? Not me, sir! Neither will I trust South Korea nor Vietnam. Beware of the Philippines because they bend to the hand that feeds them.
Much work to accomplish on this Last Friday of July. Fair winds and following seas! NJ
We preparing to arm oilers again?
Even an ECM system and CIWS mean a little harder to kill.
It will be too little too late.
Renaming ships may be bad luck, but that is s superstition, not a fact.
Most, if not vIrtually all the merchants taken up for military service from the Civil War onward were renamed with USS, USNS, NOTS or similar names either related to their original names or totally unrelated.
USS Hornet (CV-12) was being built as USS Kearsarge, but renamed after USS Hornet (CV-8) was sunk at the Battle of Coral Sea. Many of the CVEs built in WW2 had names change during or shortly after construction.
I suspect most of those condemning changing the Harvey Milk name as "bad luck" were joyously celebrating the renaming of Chancellorsville and Matthew F. Maury (for their politically unacceptable taint of Confederate connections) and saw no omens of bad luck.
WTC Oscar V. Peterson is an honorable and inspirational namesake.
Also mindful of a fellow WTC, Peter Tomich, who died in similar fashion in UTAH during the Pearl Harbor attack. The steam hot plant in Great Lakes was named for him.
Chief Tomich's name also graces Senior Enlisted Academy in Newport, RI.
I am happy for the renaming. Naming a ship after a pederast, would be like naming a ship after a Clinton! Poor form, lack of patriotism, and a hate of the service to name a few. Then changing it to someone that gave their life for others in battle? Full Bore!
I served on the USS Neosho AO143 from 1976 until it was decommissioned and turned over to the Military Sealift Command in May of 1978. During the time I served on her-we had 4 twin open tub 3”50 guns-2 forward and 2 aft. But-no working fire control radar and only one mount forward and aft were operable. I was told -but have never been able to confirm that she also had twin 5 in 38 cal dual purpose gun turrets fore and aft-reportedly removed in the 1960’s.