CNN: US aircraft carrier may be named after Trump

The US Navy is working to rename an aircraft carrier under construction that was set to honour a Black sailor, Doris Miller, though there have been internal discussions about renaming it in honour of US President Donald Trump, CNN reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The report said it would be an unprecedented move to name an aircraft carrier after a sitting president.

During President Donald Trump’s first term, the Navy announced that the Ford-class carrier would be called the USS Doris Miller, recognising an enlisted sailor who helped defend US forces from Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour.

The Navy is looking instead to rename another warship after Miller, according to one of the sources, and is recommending him for the Medal of Honour, the highest decoration for military valour. The final authorisation for the award is up to Congress and approval from Trump.

The effort to rename the USS Doris Miller has been underway since earlier this year, the sources said.

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao and his office have also been looking into updating the official guidance for how ships should be named and specifying who they can be named after, including presidents, two of the sources noted.

Amid conversations over the ship’s name, the Navy has effectively stopped referring to the ship as the USS Doris Miller internally and is only calling it by its hull number, CVN-81, one of the sources stated.

A recent White House executive order on shipbuilding also referred to the ship only as CVN-81, tasking the Secretary of Defence and Secretary of the Navy to report back with a plan to replace the ship’s electromagnetic aircraft launch system with steam and hydraulic systems.

The Navy is under a time crunch to finalise the name of the carrier as the ship’s keel-laying ceremony is expected at the end of this year. The ceremony is a public event marking an important step in a ship’s construction. The ship is not expected to be delivered until 2034, USNI News first reported, due to shipbuilder constraints.

Doris Miller had served in the US Navy since 1939. He worked as a mess attendant and had no training in operating anti-aircraft guns. However, during the attack on Pearl Harbour, he took control of a machine gun and opened fire on Japanese aircraft before helping evacuate the wounded.

In 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz awarded him the Navy Cross. About a year later, Miller was killed in the Battle of Makin after his ship was struck by a Japanese torpedo.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov