Name Harvey Milk Awarded 30 June 2016 | Namesake Harvey Milk Type oiler | |
Builder National Steel and Shipbuilding Company | ||
USNS Harvey Milk will be the second of the John Lewis class of underway replenishment oilers, operated by the Military Sealift Command to support ships of the United States Navy.
Construction of the lead ship of the class, USNS John Lewis, is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2018 at General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego. According to the Naval Vessel Register, construction of both ships was authorised on 30 June 2016.
In July 2016, US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus advised Congress that he intended to name the Military Sealift Command's John Lewis-class oilers after prominent civil rights leaders, with the second to be named for gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Milk served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War aboard the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake and held the rank of Lieutenant (junior grade) at the time of his honorable discharge. The ship was officially named at a ceremony in San Francisco on August 16, 2016. It is the first U.S. Navy ship named for an openly gay leader.