The U.S. Navy has been internally discussing whether to rename the future USS Doris Miller, the first aircraft carrier honoring a Black American, with President Trump's name reportedly among those under consideration.
For months, Navy officials have increasingly referred to the Gerald R. Ford-class carrier by its hull number, CVN-81, rather than by the name it received in a formal ceremony at Pearl Harbor in January 2020, The Hill reported. No formal decision has been announced. But the shift in internal language, combined with anonymous sources telling CNN that Trump's name is among those being weighed, has drawn sharp attention to a carrier that was supposed to mark a historic first.
The Navy's Office of Information told Nexstar's KWKT in Waco, Texas, Miller's hometown, that it had nothing to share at this time. Official Navy historical records still identify CVN-81 as the future USS Doris Miller. Miller's family told CNN they were not informed in advance about the possibility of the name being removed.
Miller manned a gun he was never trained to use, and earned the Navy Cross
Doris Miller was born in Waco on Oct. 12, 1919, and joined the Navy in 1939. On Dec. 7, 1941, he was serving aboard the battleship USS West Virginia when Japanese forces struck Pearl Harbor. Miller, a Mess Attendant 3rd Class, helped carry wounded sailors to safety and then manned an anti-aircraft gun, a weapon he had no formal training on, and fired at Japanese planes.
He became the first Black American to receive the Navy Cross for his actions that day. He was killed in action in November 1943 when the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay was torpedoed and sunk during operations in the Pacific. He was 24 years old.
A Knox-class frigate, the USS Miller, carried his name from 1973 to 1991. But naming a full aircraft carrier after him was a different matter entirely. Ten of the last fourteen carriers were named after U.S. presidents or members of Congress. Giving one to an enlisted sailor, and a Black enlisted sailor who served in a segregated Navy, broke with decades of tradition. Breitbart reported that the announcement was made on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2020 at Pearl Harbor.
Doreen Ravenscroft, team leader for the Doris Miller Memorial, said at the time:
"Without him really knowing, he actually was a part of the Civil Rights movement because he changed the thinking in the Navy."
Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, who presided over the January 2020 ceremony, framed the naming as a tribute to every enlisted sailor who ever served:
"In selecting this name, we honor the contributions of all our enlisted ranks, past and present, men and women, of every race, religion and background."
The Navy has faced a series of consequential decisions in recent months. Officials have been weighing billions in potential carrier redesign after Trump raised concerns about the Ford-class program's direction.
Steel was already cut for a carrier bearing Miller's name
The commitment to Miller's legacy went beyond a ceremony. Newport News Shipbuilding made the first cut of steel for CVN-81, formally beginning construction of the carrier. The ship is expected to be delivered in 2032. Rear Adm. James Downey marked the occasion by calling it fitting that the Navy would build one of its next great carriers "in the name of one of the finest heroes of the greatest generation," Fox News reported.
Thomas Bledsoe, Miller's great-nephew, said at the steel-cutting event that "the Doris Miller story provides so many lessons to us as Americans."
That a carrier already under construction, already named in a formal ceremony, and already the subject of steel-cutting milestones could still lose its namesake raises a straightforward question: what justification would the Navy offer for stripping a dead war hero's name from the ship he was promised?
The Navy has not provided one. No rationale for the internal discussions has been made public. No official has gone on the record to explain who is driving the conversations or what other names, besides Trump's, may be under consideration. The anonymous sourcing to CNN leaves the public with a report but no accountability.
Meanwhile, the acting Navy secretary has been making major personnel and spending decisions across the service, and the fleet continues to navigate difficult operational questions, from supply concerns aboard deployed ships to the planned early retirement of the USS Eisenhower.
Open questions the Navy has not answered
Several basic facts remain unknown. Has the formal process for renaming a vessel been initiated? Has President Trump or anyone in his administration publicly requested the change? Did the Navy consult Miller's family before the internal shift began? The family's statement to CNN, that they were not informed in advance, suggests the answer to at least the last question is no.
If the Navy wants to honor a sitting president with a carrier, there is nothing stopping it from assigning Trump's name to a future hull. The service has named carriers for living presidents before. Gerald Ford's carrier was christened while he was still alive. So was George H.W. Bush's. No tradition requires displacing one honoree to make room for another.
Doris Miller grabbed a weapon he had never been trained to fire and used it to defend his ship and his shipmates while Pearl Harbor burned around him. He did not live to see thirty. The Navy honored that sacrifice with a carrier that would have been the first in the fleet to bear a Black American's name and the first named for an enlisted sailor's battlefield courage.
If officials want to rename that ship, they owe the public, and Miller's family, a reason. Silence is not a reason. And a war hero's legacy is not a blank hull number waiting for a better name.
