WASHINGTON (AP) – Fort Bragg will become Fort Liberty. Fort Gordon will be Fort Eisenhower. And for the first time, the army bases will be named after black soldiers and women. An independent commission on Tuesday recommended new names for nine army posts that now commemorate Confederate officers.
The recommendations are the latest step in a broader military effort to counter racial injustice, most recently since the May 2020 police assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is the only base that will not be named after a person. Two others will be named after black soldiers, and three will include women’s names. Fort Gordon in Georgia will be given its most famous name – in honor of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led Allied forces in Europe during World War II.
Other proposed renamings will honor lesser-known heroes, including several who received the Medal of Honor, the highest military award. Fort Polk, Louisiana, will be renamed Fort Johnson, after Sergeant. William Henry Johnson, winner of the Black Medal of Honor, served in the Army during World War I.
Fort Pickett in Virginia will be named after the technical sergeant. Van Barfoot, a World War II Honorary Medal winner, and Fort Rucker in Alabama will be named Fort Novosel, named after Chief Warrant Officer Michael Novosel, a World War II Honorary Medal holder and Vietnam.
Fort AP Hill in Virginia will be renamed Fort Walker, after Mary Edwards Walker, a physician who treated soldiers in the Civil War and later received an Medal of Honor.
Fort Hood, Texas, will be renamed Fort Cavazos, in honor of General Richard Cavazos, who fought in the Korean War, received the Cross of Merit, the second highest military award, and became the first Spanish general with four stars in the army.
Fort Benning, Georgia, will be named after a married couple: Lieutenant General Hal Moore, who served in Vietnam and received the cross for outstanding service, and his wife, Julia, who encouraged the creation of teams to make personal announcements about military casualties.
And Fort Lee, Virginia, will be given a dash name – Fort Greg-Adams – and is the only one to commemorate someone who survives today: Lieutenant General Arthur J. Greg, known as a leader in logistics. Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams – the other half of the name – commanded the first female black part of the army stationed during World War II.
The final report is due in Congress by October 1 and will include the cost of removing and changing names. The renaming process is set out in a law passed by Congress in late 2020. The Secretary of Defense is expected to implement the commission’s plan no later than January 1, 2024.
The proposal to change the names sparked widespread discussion and debate in base communities across the country. Members of the group visited the bases, met with local leaders and residents and relied heavily on their recommendations in choosing the final names, Vice President Tai Seidul said.
For years, U.S. military personnel defended the name of Confederate officers’ bases. As early as 2015, the army claimed that the names were not in honor of the rebel cause, but a gesture of reconciliation with the South.
But after the assassination of Floyd and the ensuing months of racial unrest, Congress passed a comprehensive plan to rename military posts and hundreds of other federal assets such as roads, buildings, monuments, signs and landmarks that honor rebel leaders.
The change in military thinking was reflected in the testimony in Congress of Army General Mark Millie, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a month after Floyd’s death. He said current base names could remind black soldiers that rebel officers fought for an institution that may have enslaved their ancestors.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – the country’s first Black Pentagon chief – spoke directly about his personal suffering with racism. During his Senate confirmation hearing, he said he was serving as a lieutenant colonel in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg when three white soldiers described as self-proclaimed skinheads were arrested in the killing of a black couple walking down the street. .
Investigators concluded that the two were targeted because of their race, and 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 K. Brown, posted an emotional video last June discussing the difficulties he experienced as a young black pilot. Brown, the first commander of the Black Air Force, said he had to prove to white supervisors “that their expectations and perceptions of African Americans are invalid.”
Established in 2020, the Naming Commission met for the first time in March 2021 and began adopting recommendations for names from the public in September. In total, the commission has received more than 34,000 potential names, which it says includes about 3,670 unique names that could possibly be used. This list was later narrowed to about 100 before the last nine were elected for recommendation to Congress.
U.S. Representative Anthony Brown, a U.S. doctor who learned to fly helicopters at Fort Rucker and also spent some time at Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, called the new names a significant step forward.
“All of these bases honored men who didn’t want me or other black Americans to serve in uniform, let alone Congress,” he said. “We cannot ask today’s servicemen and women to defend our country while accommodating and training them and their families in installations that commemorate those who betrayed our country to enslave others and preserve white supremacy.
Panel members said on Tuesday that the decisions were difficult because they had so many characters to choose from. But in any case, they said they have broad consensus from local communities.
In at least one case, however, committee members said locals were adamant that they wanted a name that was not on the final list: Fort Liberty. During the last visit to the panel in Fort Bragg, the people at the meeting “were very, very adamant about the name Fort Liberty,” said Lawrence Romo, a member of the committee. “We paid a lot of respect to what the Fort Bragg community wanted.
Seidule said the group wanted names that “would inspire soldiers to achieve the highest standards required of their nation in peace and war”.
The panel is also considering new names for two Navy ships: USS Chancellorsville and USNS Maury. These and the new names of hundreds of streets, buildings and other assets will be in the final report.
The final report is due in Congress by October 1 and will include the cost of removing and changing names. According to the law, the Minister of Defense is expected to implement the plan of the commission no later than January 1, 2024.
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