The Navy Wants to Strip Doris Miller’s Name Off a Carrier and That Should Never Happen

Let’s be blunt about what’s happening here. The Navy is considering stripping the name of Doris Miller off an aircraft carrier that’s currently under construction. Miller, if you don’t know the story, was a mess attendant during Pearl Harbor who grabbed an anti-aircraft gun he’d never been trained on and started shooting down Japanese planes while dragging wounded sailors to safety. The man earned the Navy Cross, became the first Black service member to receive that honor, and by all accounts was the kind of sailor who embodied everything we claim to value about American courage.

Now Navy leadership wants to name that ship after President Trump instead.

I say this as someone who voted for Trump twice and would do it again. I say this as someone who believes he accomplished remarkable things during his first term and is doing important work right now. But this decision, if it goes through, would be a profound mistake that violates the very principles conservatives are supposed to hold sacred.

Here’s the thing about tradition. It matters. Not because we’re stuck in the past, but because it connects us to something larger than ourselves. The Navy has naming conventions for a reason. Destroyers get named after Medal of Honor recipients. Aircraft carriers typically get named after presidents. Notice I said typically, not always. Because when Trump’s own administration decided to name this carrier after Doris Miller back in 2020, they were making a statement that some acts of heroism transcend the usual protocols.

Miller would have been the first Black person and the first enlisted sailor to have a carrier named after him. That’s not identity politics run amok. That’s recognizing a man who literally embodied the kind of instant courage under fire that most of us can’t even imagine. The guy was serving food one moment and the next he’s manning a weapon he’s never touched, shooting at enemy aircraft while Pearl Harbor burns around him.

You want to talk about American exceptionalism? That’s it right there.

The officials saying Miller might be up for a posthumous Medal of Honor upgrade make this even more absurd. So we’re considering taking his name off the carrier before we even finish honoring him properly? The logic breaks down completely. If he deserves the Medal of Honor (and honestly, he probably always did), then he doubly deserves to keep his name on that ship.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao will ultimately make this call. Both are men I respect. Hegseth is a combat veteran who understands military culture. Cao fled communist Vietnam as a child and became a retired Navy captain. These aren’t bureaucrats playing politics. Which is exactly why I’m hoping they’ll see through whatever pressure is coming from above and recognize this for what it is.

Trump doesn’t need a carrier named after him while he’s still in office. He just doesn’t. The man has Trump Tower, Trump properties across the globe, and a brand that’s known worldwide. His legacy, whatever you think of it, is secure. He’ll get buildings and airports and who knows what else named after him eventually. That’s how these things work for presidents.

But Doris Miller gets one shot at this. One carrier. One chance for the Navy to say that heroism matters more than rank, that actions under fire count more than peacetime protocols, and that we don’t forget the guys who did extraordinary things when it mattered most.

There’s something deeply un-conservative about yanking away an honor that’s already been granted. We’re supposed to be the people who respect institutions and their decisions, who understand that your word means something. The Navy already named this ship. The announcement was made. Changing it now because we’ve got different leadership feels like exactly the kind of arbitrary decision-making we criticize the left for doing.

Limited government means respecting boundaries and norms. Traditional values means honoring commitments made. Individual liberty includes the freedom to earn recognition based on merit and keep it. Every single principle we claim to hold dear gets compromised if we go through with this name change.

The carrier will apparently be among the first to use the steam catapult system Trump ordered instead of the electromagnetic ones. Fine. That’s a legitimate policy decision about technology and capability. Put a plaque on it. Make it clear this was a Trump-era innovation. But don’t take a hero’s name off the hull to do it.

Some things should stay above politics. The way we honor our war dead is one of them. Doris Miller earned his place in history the hard way, and the Navy owes him better than this.

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