President Trump on Tuesday announced the Pentagon will restore the names of the seven remaining military installations formerly named after Confederate generals after two others had been reverted back earlier this year.
“For a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Picket, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rutger, Fort Poke and Fort AP Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump told attendees at a Fort Bragg, N.C. celebration marking the Army’s 250th anniversary.
The bases are currently known as Fort Barfoot in Virginia, Fort Cazavos in Texas, Fort Eisenhower in Georgia, Fort Novosel in Alabama, Fort Johnson in Louisiana, Fort Walker in Virginia, and Fort Gregg-Adams, also in Virginia, respectively.
“It’s no time to change,” Trump told the crowd. “And I’m superstitious, you know? I like to keep it going, right?”
The promise fulfills a campaign pledge by Trump, who vowed to revert bases back to their original names after a Congressionally mandated commission recommended new titles for nine military bases in 2022.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this year ordered the names of two bases, Fort Liberty and Fort Moore, reverted back to Fort Bragg and Fort Benning.
Hegseth brought back the original names but said they were being used to honor different individuals and not Confederate generals they were originally named for.
In the case of Fort Bragg, it takes its title after Private First Class Roland Bragg, a decorated Army paratrooper who served in World War II, rather than Confederate general Braxton Bragg, who lost several costly Civil War battles before leaving the service to run a sugar plantation that used slaves. Hegseth ordered that change in February.
Fort Benning, meanwhile, now pays tribute to Cpl. Fred G. Benning, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during World War I while serving with the U.S. Army in France. The base was originally named for Lt. Gen. Henry Benning, a Confederate general who opposed freeing slaves.
The Pentagon chief made that change in March, removing the moniker meant to honor Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife Julie Moore, who committed their lives to the Army and helping military families – most famously through setting up survivor support networks and casualty notification teams still used to this day.
The switch overs follow more than five years of political tug of war to rid military installations of names honoring Confederates, starting in late 2020 when the annual defense authorization bill first banned the Defense Department from naming assets after Confederate symbols.
At the time, Trump, who was at the end of his first term, vetoed the defense legislation known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) partly over the base-renaming provision, but the veto was overridden by Congress.
That was followed by the 2021 NDAA that mandated a commission to recommend new names for the nine military bases, with the installations officially receiving their new titles in ceremonies throughout 2023.
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