Army making right move on base names

When the North Vietnamese and U.S. armies clashed for the first time in November of 1965, the stateside Army was caught flat-footed by reports of battlefield deaths.

The Army had not yet established casualty notification personnel. Instead, cab drivers — clutching fistfuls of “I deeply regret to inform you …” telegrams — rolled into the base housing complex at Fort Benning, Ga.

Julie Moore — wife of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Division — was appalled, to put it mildly. These were her husband’s men, and the Army had botched the job of delivering the devastating news to their families.

So she did it herself. The wives of two other battalion commanders did the same.

Julie Moore then shamed the Army into establishing proper two-man notification teams.

The Army has announced its intention to name Fort Benning in memory of Hal and Julie Moore, among several other Army bases to be renamed.

The recommendation to do so had long been championed by war correspondent Joe Galloway, who was in Vietnam with Moore and co-wrote a book with him.

If approved by the Defense Department, the changes would erase the names of nine Confederate officers from the signs and letterheads of Army posts.

• Fort Benning, which would become Fort Harold and Julia Moore, was named for Confederate Brigadier Gen. Henry Benning.

• Fort Bragg, N.C., which would become Fort Liberty, is named for Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.

• Fort Gordon, Ga., would be named for President Dwight Eisenhower, who commanded Allied forces in Europe during World War II. The base is now named for Confederate Maj. Gen. John Brown Gordon.

• Fort Polk, La., would be renamed for Black World War I Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. William Henry Johnson. It is now named for Confederate Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk.

• Fort Pickett, Va., would be renamed for Tech. Sgt. Van Barfoot, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient. It is now named for Confederate Maj. Gen. George Pickett.

• Fort Rucker, Ala., would be named for Chief Warrant Officer Michael Novosel, who received the Medal of Honor as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. It is now named for Confederate officer Edmund Rucker.

• Fort A.P. Hill, Va., would be named in honor of Civil War veteran Mary Edwards Walker, the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor. It is now named for Confederate Lt. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill.

• Fort Hood, Texas, would be named in honor of Gen. Richard Cavazos, the Army’s first Latino four-star general. It is now named for Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood.

• Fort Lee, Va., now named after Confederate General in Chief Robert E. Lee, would be renamed Fort Gregg-Adams, in honor of logistics expert Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams, who led the first Army’s first female World War II Black unit.

The renaming process — which gained momentum after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 and ensuing protests — has been controversial. As with the removal of statues and monuments to Confederate leaders, opponents of renaming the bases have claimed that it somehow erases or revises history.

But the changes are appropriate. We can remember Lee even if an Army base in Virginia is no longer named after him.

Naming Army bases after men who led troops into battle against it is a continuing insult to the memory of troops who remained loyal during the Civil War and fought and died on behalf of the Union.

What’s worse is that, except for Rucker, Hill and Hood, all of the bases’ current namesakes owned slaves and engaged in a war against the United States in defense of slavery.

Naming military bases after men who owned enslaved people and led troops into battle against the Army to preserve slavery is a continuing insult to Black troops who serve in the military to this day.

This change is necessary, and the recommendations are, in every case, a vast improvement over the current military base names.