I know how you feel, but sometimes you just have to find a way to laugh... 
instead of bursting into uncontrollable tears--
I know a lot of people find it humorous, and I understand why, but I cannot bring myself to appreciate it.
To me, symbolism means something. The American Flag STILL means something to me, I served under it, my father was buried under it. The Pledge of Allegiance means something to me. Many of the traditions of the American military mean something to me.
And the name of a ship means something to me. Thousands of men have fought and died on US naval vessels. A ship does come to mean something to the people who have served and are serving on them. I know people don’t understand, but you talk to any man who served on the USS Enterprise in WWII, and they aren’t going to tell you it was a big hunk of gray metal that floated in the water even if they DID hate serving on it at the time. It was family, in a way. When they had liberty with friends in some of the best and most meaningful times of their lives, years later, that is all associated with that ship in their minds, as if the vessel itself participated, as it did.
They are going to tell you it was home, there was *something* animate in some way about it. It seemed to be living. It meant something. When she was scrapped and cut up for razor blades because no funds could be found to preserve her, grown men cried, the same way men have when watching a ship they have served on sink in front of their eyes. It isn’t just a hunk of metal. It is different.
And many men who have served on many ships, speak about their service on there in a way that means something different
To name a ship in this fashion is a deliberate, arrogant, and contemptuous attempt to insult, ridicule, and diminish the service of any sailor on any ship, because they are, in essence, letting those sailors know EXACTLY what they think of the military in general, that branch of the service, that ship, and every person who serves on it.
There was an Arleigh Burke class destroyer commissioned a little while back, I got to see her under construction over a long period of time, and her name was the USS Michael Murphy. She was named for a US Navy SEAL who gave his life valorously and unselfishly to save the lives of the men he loved and who served as brothers with him.
And now, they will name a ship after Harvey Milk, it may not be regular Navy, and it may not be a warship, but there will be American sailors serving on it, and if it comes to war, those men are going to have to fight and may die on that vessel.
Both Lt. Michael Murphy and Harvey Milk loved men, so to some people, this is just fine. Harvey Milk loved men, and his idea of showing his love was to promote virus infected group sex bath houses, because that is something society just cannot live without.
Lt. Michael Murphy loved men too, his men. The men he served with as brothers, and for whom he gave his own life so that they had a chance to live.
All of you tell me: Whose love is greater, whose love is a travesty, and whose love is deserving of having a naval vessel named after him?
This makes me so angry, I just cannot put into words how deliberately cruel, and denigrating this is, and is specifically meant to be.
It is a travesty, and the most astonishingly loathsome, vile, treacherous and base thing about this is that it is being perpetrated by the highest people in our own military and the highest people in our own government.
I just cannot bring myself to laugh about it.
Thank You for your Service and for that amazing comment.
Which is exactly the same case for me.
But I am being realistic. Were I a sailor assigned to that ship, I'd only report to the hull number.
This is a wicked travesty.
It’s called gallows humor, it gets you through the worst. Of course it’s a travesty, just like making us pay to bring and support the terrorists from a culture that has been at war with ours for a thousand years to commit murder and rape and stain the proud heritage of our father’s fathers.
It’s about advancing a radical agenda and getting “revenge” on the military.
All will be made to bow down to liberalism.
And Harvey Milk did have a thing with the murderous Jim Jones.
I know how you feel, but sometimes you just have to find a way to laugh... instead of bursting into uncontrollable tears--
I am not laughing.
I think this is a sick way to destroy military unit cohisivness.
I agree with you! (Sorry about my tasteless joke.)
Regards,
I'll add something else to this. Many families, shipmates, and former crew members, of past ships often spend years writing letters and petitioning the Sec of Navy for a ships name. It's happened time and time again that some high ranking politician walks in and puts some politicans favorite at the front of the line. It even happened with the USS Gerald R Ford I think former VA Sen Warner was the culprit there.
Harvey Milk was a disgusting person unworthy of any such honor.
Milk was a commissioned officer of the United States Navy. He was the Diving officer on USS Kittiwake, later he taught at the Navy diving and salvage school. yes he was a homo. That is your hang up. He served, he did his duty, just as thousands of other men served and did their duty, never firing a shot at an enemy. I am one those, 25 years in our Navy, a cold warrior, never having seen combat. My old man did serve on a carrier in WWII, as a matter of fact is was sunk by the Japanese. He survived, spend the rest of the war on a Battleship, then did 2 years on a CVE during the Korean war. We have named ships after almost anyone on the planet, including people who never served in the armed forces, and some that were not American citizens. So What.
Bravo Zulu!!! 100%...I’m going to have to ask my brother if he felt that way about the subs he worked on.
amen bro, amen.
I agree with you 110%. Thanks for this outstanding explanation of the issue.
I also think that naming of US naval vessels has gone in a bad direction generally. Still plenty of good ones, of course, but I think that ALL navy ships named after persons should be named to honor great warriors. We have a lot more warriors worthy of such honor than we have ships, so we cannot afford to “waste” the slots on anyone but the warriors. I’m also fine with past traditions of naming ships for battles ofc, or for US cities and states. But NOT for civilians chosen for political reasons!!!!
Your post is wise, and true, and in the spirit of Free Republic’s best. Thank you.
This is all very easy to understand.
The purpose of the Obama Administration’s policies towards the military are based in three areas,
1: Obama’s loathing for anything so American as our military and his desire to diminish and demoralize it.
2: A lessened military gives us less ability to defend ourselves.
3: The military was among the last “society” to welcome gays with open arms, so now Obama, gay or at least bi himself, now seeks to embarrass it as much as possible.
Gays in combat roles, transgenders everywhere, now this. It’s all very understandable once one understands Obama.
It’s very simple; he hates America and everything American. Just wait until he gives Guantanamo back to Castro and decrees, as CIC, the destruction of nuc warheads.