LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In his first term, President Trump praised the idea of naming an aircraft carrier after African American war hero Doris Miller. Now the Trump administration is considering stripping Miller's name from the ship. Steve Walsh with WHRO in Norfolk, Virginia, reports that reaction has been swift and harsh.
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: Doris Miller was the first African American to earn the Navy Cross after the battle at Pearl Harbor in 1941. In 2020, Trump's acting Navy secretary, Thomas Modly, decided to name an aircraft carrier after the World War II hero, says Modly's former deputy, Steve Deal.
STEVE DEAL: He epitomized everything that we want to feel is honorable and virtuous about being American. There was no doubt at all that he was the person to name that aircraft carrier for at the time.
WALSH: At the Pearl Harbor attack, Miller moved the wounded captain of USS West Virginia to safety. Miller was a messman. At the time, that was one of only a few jobs open to African Americans in the Navy. Though he was untrained, he manned a gun and returned fire until he was ordered to leave. Miller was killed two years later during an attack on his new Navy ship. Deal says no one from the White House questioned the pick. President Trump promoted the decision during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at the White House when he was president in 2020.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Last month, the Navy announced that the next American aircraft carrier will bear the proud name of USS Doris Miller. That's pretty good. They won't give me that honor. That's a big boat. That's a big ship.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: One day.
TRUMP: All right. One day, maybe.
WALSH: That one day seems to have arrived. NPR has confirmed that the Trump administration is considering stripping Miller's name from the future Ford-class aircraft carrier, now under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia. One likely replacement - Donald Trump. Eight of the 11 current aircraft carriers are named after presidents, but it's inconsistent. Two are named after congressional leaders, including former Mississippi Senator John Stennis, says Ty Seidule, a retired brigadier general and former professor at West Point.
TY SEIDULE: I just think it's really ironic that they want to take the name off the Doris Miller, who was a sailor who died in combat who saved his fellow sailors and keep the name the John Stennis who was a segregationist who fought against the values that we cherish as Americans.
WALSH: Seidule was vice chair of a congressionally mandated committee which recommended stripping the Confederate legacy from U.S. bases and ships in 2023. In 2025, the second Trump administration sidestepped the mandate. They put the old names back by renaming the bases for troops that shared the names of the Confederates. NPR has confirmed the administration is also contemplating upgrading Doris Miller's Silver Star to the Medal of Honor. Seidule says it's ironic that Trump is considering the upgrade as the administration considers removing Miller's name from the carrier.
SEIDULE: I see a pattern in the Trump administration, so I certainly think that Secretary Hegseth has ensured that we only name things after certain people and not everyone who makes up this great country.
WALSH: The Secretary of Defense and the White House did not respond to a request for comment. Modly's aide, Deal, was at the ceremony at Pearl Harbor in 2020 when the name was announced, along with Doris Miller's family.
DEAL: The reaction of the enlisted on that ship there in that area was also ecstatic. From every background, race, creed, color, they felt, wow, this is going to be our ship.
WALSH: Currently, the carrier is scheduled to be ready by 2034.
For NPR News, I'm Steve Walsh.
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