FORT BRAGG, NC – An independent commission on Tuesday recommended new names for nine Army posts commemorating Confederate officers, including the change from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Fort Liberty.
The recommendations are the latest step in a broader military effort under the Biden administration to address racial injustice, most recently following the May 2020 assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is named after General Braxton Bragg, a senior Confederate Army general. It would be renamed Fort Liberty, the only base named after a concept, with eight others renamed mostly by people with ties to military history.
SEE ALSO: The story behind the appointment of Fort Bragg as the Pentagon considers the change of base name
At VFW Post 6018 in Fayetteville, veterans shared their reactions to the name change.
“I can see the importance of people wanting to pass it and I would totally support changing the name to something other than Braxton Bragg,” said Jack Pines, who spent most of his career at Fort Bragg.
Bragg was originally from Warrenton and served as an artillery commander in the U.S. Army prior to the Civil War.
“I’ve never found (the name) weird where it is. It’s here in North Carolina. You can drive up to 95, how many miles up to 95, you can see the (Confederate) flag,” Pines said.
Benjamin Washington, who also served in the military, added: “People noticed it 50 years ago, but they never wanted to talk about it. Except to keep what they had.”
Last year, Congress passed legislation to change the name of all U.S. military installations to the name of Confederate leaders for 2023.
“There’s always a time for change, and we’ll leave it at that. Because what happened in the past happened, but now we have a chance to change it,” Washington said.
Others adopted the name Freedom.
“There is a reason why freedom is written in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, associated with our currency and related to our national symbols, statues and monuments,” said Ty Seidule, a retired brigadier general. of the United States Army which is part of the Nomenclature Commission. “Throughout our history, freedom remains the greatest value. Since the nation created a standing army to provide common defense, the greatest battles of this army have been for freedom. In the Revolutionary War , U.S. soldiers fought to establish our nation’s freedom, and in the Civil War, they fought for freedom for all Americans, and in World War II, they fought to expand freedom to a great extent. part of the world.
“This place is home to the Air Force Special Forces and the Army,” he added. “The 82nd Air Song, which I sang so proudly when I was there, has a phrase that says ‘We are all Americans’ and proud to be so. Because we are the soldiers of freedom.” And freedom is also the motto of the Special Forces. “
Seidule said The Naming Commission received more than 34,000 recommendations and was directly involved with the communities surrounding each of the nine sites.
Outside of the camera, two veterans disagreed with the push to change the name, which he had been carrying since 1918, with one pointing to the financial costs of doing so.
“Part of our mission in Congress is to give a full account of the costs. We have not yet prepared it, but we will do so in the final report, which is due to be presented to Congress on October 1,” Seidule said. , he explained. from there, it would go to the Secretary of Defense, who has the authority to formally direct the name change.
The list recommends naming the bases for the first time after black women and soldiers.
Fort Polk, Louisiana, would be renamed Fort Johnson, after Sgt. William Henry Johnson, winner of the Black Medal of Honor who served in the military during World War I.
Fort AP Hill in Virginia would be renamed Fort Walker, after Mary Edwards Walker, a doctor who treated Civil War soldiers and later received a Medal of Honor.
The other bases to be renamed are Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Rucker in Alabama, Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia, and Fort Lee and Fort Pickett in Virginia.
The panel has recommended that Fort Hood, Texas, be renamed after Richard E. Cavazos, the first Latin to reach the rank of four-star general in the military.
Fort Gordon, Georgia, will be renamed after General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the army general who led all Allied forces in Europe during World War II and who later became president.
Fort Lee, Virginia, will be named after two people: Arthur Gregg, a former three-star general involved in logistics, the only living individual for whom a base will be named, and Charity Adams, the first African-American woman to become an officer. of the Auxiliary Corps of the Army of Women. Fort Pickett, Virginia, will be named after Van Barfoot, who received the Medal of Honor for his heroism during World War II and is of Native American descent.
Fort Benning, Georgia, will be renamed Lieutenant General Hal Moore, a pioneer of air cavalry whose history from the Vietnam era was commemorated in the book and film “We Were Soldiers.”
Fort Rucker, Alabama, will be named after Michael Novosel, a Medal of Honor winner who flew fighter jets during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
For years, U.S. military officers had defended the name of the bases with Confederate officers. As recently as 2015, the Army argued that the names did not honor the rebel cause, but were a gesture of reconciliation with the South.
But after Floyd’s assassination and the months of racial unrest that followed, Congress pushed for a comprehensive plan to rename military sites and hundreds of other federal assets such as roads, buildings, monuments, signs and points. of reference honoring rebel leaders. .
The change in Army thinking was reflected in the testimony in Congress of Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a month after Floyd’s death. He said base names may be a reminder to black soldiers that rebel officers fought for an institution that could have enslaved their ancestors.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the country’s first head of the Black Pentagon, has spoken bluntly about his own personal brushes with racism. During his confirmation hearing in the Senate, he spoke of serving as a lieutenant colonel with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg when three white soldiers, described as skinheads, were arrested in the murder of a black couple walking down the street. .
The investigators concluded that the two were targeted because of their race and that a total of 22 soldiers were linked to skinheads and other similar groups or were found to have extremist views.
The current head of the Air Force, General Charles Q. Brown, released an emotional video last June in which he talked about the difficulties he experienced as a young black pilot. Brown, the first chief of the Black Air Force, says he had to work very hard to show white supervisors “that their expectations and perceptions of African Americans were not valid.”
Established in 2020, the Naming Commission first met in March 2021 and began receiving name recommendations from the public in September. In all, the commission received more than 34,000 potential names, which it said included about 3,670 unique ones that could possibly be used. This list was later reduced to about 100 names before the nine finals were chosen to be recommended to Congress.
At the time, the commission said its mandate was to select names that “adequately reflect the courage, values, sacrifices and demographics of the men and women of our armed forces, given the local or regional importance of the names. and its potential to inspire and motivate service members. “
The panel is also considering new names for two Navy ships: the USS Chancellorsville and the USNS Maury.
A final report is due to be submitted to Congress on October 1 and will include the costs of removal and name change. By law, the Secretary of Defense is expected to implement the commission’s plan by January 1, 2024 at the latest.
Michael Perchick of ABC11 and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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