In tonight’s deep dive, sources tell ABC News that Navy officials are considering stripping a Black war hero’s name from a new aircraft carrier to name it after President Trump instead. Doris Miller was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. His family was there when the carrier was christened in his name on Martin Luther King Day in 2020 during Trump’s first administration. The White House correspondent Karen Travers has been tracking his story for us. She has more. Alex, the White House is not commenting on this. The Pentagon and the Navy are also not commenting. But sources familiar say these discussions have been underway and have been taking place throughout the summer about whether to rename the USS Doris Miller after President Trump.
Now this would be unprecedented to name this carrier after a sitting president. Of course, carriers are named after former presidents, but we haven’t seen something like this. Miller was an incredible war hero. He was a cook aboard the USS West Virginia who is credited with shooting down a Japanese aircraft despite having no formal training. The family of Miller is, of course, reacting with disappointment today. One relative said that these talks of potentially stripping his name off the carrier are like a stab to the heart Alex All right Karen thank you And for more on all of this I want to bring in naval historian David Winkler David thank you so much for your time And I want to get your take because this carrier, which is still under construction, it was christened during Trump’s first administration.
Is it often that ships like this get renamed? There have been name changes, you know, due to events such as, for example, the aircraft carrier Coral C, the first aircraft carrier Coral C, CB, CBB 42, was renamed Franklin D. Roosevelt after the death of President Roosevelt. So sometimes during construction, a ship will be renamed. What’s unusual in this case, of course, is we’re talking about naming a ship for an executive who is currently in office. Well, and you were talking about how that’s unusual.
It’s not just unusual to name a ship after an executive that’s sitting in office, But there also a rationale if I understand correctly as to why you might wait until someone has passed on before naming a ship after them Yeah that in fact this tradition of now naming ships for living people is really in recent decades. Used to be you needed, you know, rule one is you needed to be dead six feet under before you had a ship named after you. So that began to change in the 1990s. You had Admiral Arleigh Burke, for example. You had a few ships that were named, for example, Carl Vinson, who is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He was like 100 years old. And, you know, they named the ship. It wasn’t, you know, put in this. It wasn’t even under construction. It was just named.
But Arleigh Burke is the first actual individual who was alive at the time his ship was commissioned. He just happened to live to 100. So since the 1990s, we’ve had a series of ships that have been named for past presidents, George Herbert Walker Bushes comes to mind. John Warner, the late John Warner had a submarine named for him. John Lehman for example So that kind of has changed in recent years Well I want to focus in on the story of Doris Miller It an incredible story He was a cook aboard the USS West Virginia when the Pearl Harbor attack happened. Can you tell us a little bit more about his heroics that day? Well, he was down below and, you know, he was a cook.
And basically when the Japanese, you know, came launch air attack, he went up, broke out some ammunition, loaded up a machine gun, and started firing away at the incoming Japanese aircraft. I believe the captain was wounded. He took an effort to take care of the skipper and take him to safety. So it certainly was doing something he wasn’t really trained to do. And of course, he was one of many that day who performed with valor. And he subsequently was recognized with the Navy Cross six months later. Yeah. David Winkler, hey, thank you so much for your context today. Okay.
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