The US Navy is working to rename an aircraft carrier still under construction that was set to honour Doris Miller, three sources familiar with the internal discussions told CNN, which reported the story first. NBC News reports, citing two US officials, that Navy leadership has been discussing renaming the ship after President Donald Trump. CNN puts it more carefully: it is unclear what the Navy wants to change the name to, though two of its sources said there had been internal conversations about renaming it for Trump. Naming an aircraft carrier after a sitting president would be unprecedented.
Miller was a mess attendant aboard his ship at Pearl Harbor who took an anti-aircraft gun he had never been trained on during the Japanese attack. He is credited with shooting down at least one aircraft and with dragging wounded sailors to safety, and he was the first Black service member to receive the Navy Cross, the Navy's second-highest decoration. The carrier would have been the first named after a Black person and the first named after an enlisted sailor. The decision to name it for him was made during Trump's first term: the then acting Navy secretary, Thomas Modly, announced it in January 2020 at a Martin Luther King Jr Day ceremony at Pearl Harbor, saying Miller was the son of a sharecropper and an American sailor, so designated by the uniform he wore — the same uniform all sailors wore and still wear, regardless of race, ethnic background or political persuasion.
Miller is now under consideration for the Medal of Honor. NBC reports it has not been approved by the White House; CNN reports the Navy is recommending him and that final authorisation rests with Congress and Trump's approval. One of CNN's sources said the Navy is looking to rename a different warship after him instead. Thomas Bledsoe, Miller's great-nephew, told CNN the family had not been informed either of the name change or of the renewed effort on the Medal of Honor. The family has been working towards that medal for years, he said, and he called the recommendation very positive.
Internally the ship has effectively stopped being the USS Doris Miller. One source told CNN the Navy now refers to it only by its hull number, CVN-81, and a recent White House executive order on shipbuilding likewise called it only CVN-81, tasking the defence and Navy secretaries to report back on replacing its electromagnetic launch system with steam and hydraulics. NBC reports that the ship, the fourth Ford-class carrier, could be among the first to carry the steam catapult system Trump ordered.
There is a deadline. CNN reports the Navy is under time pressure to settle the name before the keel-laying ceremony expected at the end of this year, a public event marking a step in construction. Delivery is not expected until 2034, because of shipbuilder constraints, as USNI News first reported.
Naming authority sits with the Navy secretary, though defence secretaries are often deeply involved in decisions about carriers — which puts this one with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao. CNN reports that Cao's office has also been looking at updating the official guidance on how ships should be named and who they may be named after, presidents included. NBC reports that destroyers are often named after Medal of Honor recipients while carriers are usually named after presidents. The Navy directed CNN's questions to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, whose spokesperson said there was nothing to announce; NBC reports the Navy did not immediately respond to its request for comment.
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