PANEL RECOMMENDS NEW NAMES FOR 9 BASES
Women, minorities among alternatives to Confederates
The panel established by Congress to identify new names for nine Army installations honoring Confederate military officers presented its recommendations Tuesday, bringing the Defense Department one step closer to stripping the rebel monikers from some of its most prominent bases.
The nine installations, all built during the first half of the 20th century, are located in former Confederate states and often were named with input from regional leaders and groups who sympathized with the rebel cause.
The names recommended by the commission include, for the first time, women and other minorities, a departure from the practice of naming military installations for White men. The recommendations must be submitted to Congress, where some Republicans remain opposed to renaming the bases, as part of a formal report before they can be approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Efforts to rename the bases intensified in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, which reignited a fierce debate over the nation’s identity and its history of racism. The commission was established in January 2021, as part of the annual defense authorization bill,
which required the names to be changed within three years.
“Every name either originated from or resonated with the local communities,” Ty Seidule, a retired onestar Army general who serves as the naming commission’s vice chair, said Tuesday during a phone call with media to announce the list. The panel received more than 34,000 suggestions from the public, Seidule said, from which they selected a shortlist of 3,670 that was then narrowed to fewer than 100 earlier this year.
The panel, composed of former military leaders, recommended that Fort Hood in Texas, honoring Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood, be renamed Fort Cavazos for Richard Cavazos, the Army’s first Latino brigadier general and a Texas native who later commanded III Corps, which is based there.
Fort Lee, named for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, would be renamed after two Black Army officers who broke through racial barriers in the service. When first stationed at Fort Lee, Arthur J. Gregg, who enlisted in 1946 and rose to become a three-star general and the highest-ranking Black person in the military, wasn’t even allowed in the all-White officers’ club. It eventually became the site of his retirement ceremony. Charity Adams, meanwhile, was the first African American woman to become an officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps and commanded a postal battalion overseas during World War II.
William Henry Johnson, a Black Army sergeant posthumously recognized with a Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest combat valor award, for battlefield exploits during World War I would become the new namesake of
Fort Polk in Louisiana.
Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, also named after a Confederate officer, could become Fort Walker after Mary Edwards Walker, a surgeon during the Civil War and the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor. She served on battlefields in the commonwealth and was later imprisoned in Richmond during the war.
The commission also took opportunities to recognize military spouses, recommending that Fort Benning, Ga., named for a Confederate general, to be renamed Fort Moore for Hal Moore and his wife, Julia. Hal Moore received the Distinguished Service Cross for valorous action in Vietnam. Julia Moore played an instrumental role in changing the way the Army notified families of soldiers killed in combat.
Not all of the proposed names elevate the stories of individual service members whose heroism has long lingered in relative obscurity. Dwight Eisenhower, a general and president, was the panel’s pick to inherit Fort Gordon in Georgia. And for Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the commission selected “Liberty” to be the new name.
The commission also was tasked with identifying other military assets with Confederate ties, including street and building names, to consider for renaming as well. It found more than 750 items across military installations.