Fort Polk officially Fort Johnson
Photo taken of then Private William Henry Johnson. (US ARMY)
As of yesterday, Fort Polk was officially renamed Fort Johnson, after Sergeant William Henry Johnson. Johnson was an African-American who enlisted into the Army during World War I. He was assigned with a French unit and fought even when he ran out of rounds. He was posthumously awarded both the Purple Heart and the Medal of Honor.
From CNN Politics:
Johnson, who was awarded a Purple Heart and Medal of Honor posthumously, enlisted two months after the US became officially involved in World War I and began his military career in a segregated New York regiment based in Harlem, the Army said in a statement last month.
During his deployment to France, where he was assigned to a French infantry unit, Johnson fought off a German raid with the butt of his rifle that ran out of rounds, as well as “grenades, his fists and a bolo knife to kill four German soldiers” and save a fellow American soldier, according to the Army. He was severely injured and suffered 21 wounds, and was unable to return to his job as a porter after the war.
Johnson was outspoken about the racism experienced by Black soldiers, for which the Army punished him by canceling the speaking engagements that he was assigned after his heroic actions. He died in 1929 of myocarditis following a tuberculosis diagnosis.
“As a Black American whose bravery wasn’t acknowledged at the time, Sgt. Johnson personified the Army values and was the epitome of strength,” said Brig. Gen. Isabel Rivera Smith, the director of joint staff for New York National Guard, in a statement.
The branch-wide push to remove the names of Confederate leaders from military bases came amid increased focus on racial inequalities following George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last year approved a proposal by a congressional commission to rename nine bases in honor of several people of color who made significant contributions with their service.
CNN Politics, ABC News, and others provide more details to this story.
Category: Big Army, Veterans in the news
Rest In Peace, Soldier.
Salute.
Never Forget.
What a perfect diversity and racial guilt selection.
Hot take: being occupied has consequences?
All due respect to the good Sergeant and condemnation to the bastards that didn’t keep their honor undusted, with the number of sins committed upon our Brothers post-The Great War; this is the narrative we should carry into the future?!
I have a great idea! Rename Fort Riley Fort Little Bighorn, move the 7th Cavalry there, and have them perform self-flagellation once a month on the division parade grounds while anyone with verified indian heritage throws rotten fruit at them!
The problem with this slippery slope argument is that I’m not sure it’s hyperbolic enough given the exponential nature of this history-contorting fever a fraction of America is suffering from.
They’ve already been working towards that point. The taking down, and removal, of the Confederate statues was just the beginning… To desensitize a critical mass to removal of the structures under explanation of one evil or another. Our founding fathers are already being denigrated, and being associated with evils. They will eventually push to tear down the statues of the patriots as well.
They have already distorted our history and have been teaching that in many public schools. They want to tear down evidence of the actual history so that those pushing these efforts would be able to redefine our history in addition to our present. This fervor has an objective… Control.
Christopher Columbus statues in Venezuela were not safe from being torn down years before we saw statues being torn down here.
🤔
I avoided my hometown of Richmond, VA in early 2020. I finally drove through around May 2020, avoiding the city itself and bringing plenty of guns. After all, Richmond was one of those places where “peaceful protesters” were attacking cops: Officers in SUV were ‘trapped by protesters’ before attack, police say (wtvr.com).
When my best friend got out of prison later that year, I finally drove down Monument Blvd and saw how much things had changed. The monuments I had visited and admired throughout my childhood were vandalized pedestals lacking statuary, and even Arthur Ashe’s family was concerned about the statue erected in his honor. I’m surprised that Hollywood Cemetery was spared the revisionist axe.
Our history is just that: history. In 200 years, so long as we remain a sovereign nation, I can’t help but wonder how the 2020s will be remembered. By then, if certain demographics have their way, 18th-19th Century America will be remembered only as a stalwartly racist country full of bigoted white men suppressing their women and doing worse to minorities. The 1900s will be considered a time of division and eventual rising up of the Amerikan Peoples, with such atrocities as the Vietnam War and concurrent riots in major cities showing that America was WRONG throughout its earlier history and that our conversion to a Socialist utopia was our
God[insert deity here]-given right, martyred by the likes of St. George Floyd and financed by a certain Hungarian-American billionaire.We learn from history. My family came to Virginia in the early 1600s and were landowners, so I likely have some “bad” ancestors, but those blood relatives do not reflect my attitudes and ideals. Erasing that history and replacing it with modern sentiment only serves to help us forget hard-learned lessons. In another 100 years, will the “slaves” be the wage-earning “majority” races and genders? Seems almost like that’s the intent with reparations and the welfare state.
In that case, a Fort Calley is needed too 😉
Do you feel guilty for resenting the fact that a base named after a traitor and incompetent general was renamed after a Medal of Honor winner?
If you do…good. You should.
…
Commissar:
To be honest with you, no one “wins” a Medal of Honor.
Besides, Fort Polk could have been renamed Fort Murphy, after the MoH recipient Audie.
Or Fort York, after Alvin.
Or these other Heroes (take your pick).
https://www.cmohs.org/recipients
Johnson did not receive the MoH until 2015…under BHO.
See where we are going with this?
Possible political motivation.
Look at the Biden Administration…you know as well as we do that folks are holding positions in that Administration not because they are competant to do the job.
It is all because of their race, their gender, their sexual preference…
And look where we are today…
But we can’t continue whitewashing history. Audie Murphy and Alvin York received recognition during their lifetimes for their gallantry. Men like Johnson, along with many of the 442nd RCT Soldiers, were held back by systemic racism and received no such recognition until well after their passing.
We could go in circles about this, but by and large I agree. Race, gender, sexual preference…none of this should play a part in hiring practices or political appointments. The renaming of military installations that were established 80-110 years ago should be a non-issue. Keep the names as they were; we (Soldiers) will continue calling Benning, Bragg, Polk, AP Hill, and so on, names given to them decades ago and stamped into our memories and bodies. Maybe a few generations from now Service Members will finally do lip service to Fort Liberty or Fort Johnson.
On a more nefarious note, I wonder how long it will be before commanders begin UCMJ, or at least counseling, for young Service Members referring to their installation by the “traitors'” names. “SPC Snuffy [he/man], you continuously demonstrate your lack of respect for your fellow Soldiers, our nation’s heroes, and the Army Values by referring to Fort Cavazos using the racist term ‘Fort Hood’. PVT Snowflake [they/she] regards such language as hurtful, and 1SG MaamaLuke [s’he/zim] has warned you on multiple occasions that such language will result in NJP.”
Of course, we also have to look at the cost of renaming, well, everything. From the Division Standards books to plaques on the wall of HQ, the installation gates, and so on, it’s already projected to cost almost $40M. I personally think that’s on the low side, as everyone involved, from politicians and Army Senior Leaders to local contractors, will likely profit from this.
That is quite correct, but being as they are DEAD, I doubt they really care any more.
Do you feel guilty for being a brainwashed progressive/liberal stooge? Do you feel anything but an unearned unproven air of superiority?
Commence complaints about getting the big “Johnson” when sent to Ft Polk now… in 3… 2… 1…
Soldiers gonna be soldiers (espescially if the place still sux)
The Air Force has Fort Seymour Johnson AIr Force Base. When they get a change of assignment they go to North Carolina to Seymour Johnson.
I’m sure the Army and Air Force will argue which Johnson is bigger. Badda bing, badda boom.
😅🤣😂
https://youtu.be/j3EnNP4jB1E
Part 2!
😂🤣😅
https://youtu.be/anAjQHABN1g
Well, this is interesting…
“DeSantis, Pence Campaign on Reversing Fort Liberty Designation”
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/06/12/gop-hopefuls-vow-scrap-fort-liberty-return-confederate-namesake-fort-bragg.html
“Two Republican presidential contenders took aim at the Army’s recent move to rename military bases that for decades honored Confederates who waged war against the U.S., saying that as president they would return to those rebel namesakes.”
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence promised to restore Fort Liberty, North Carolina, to Fort Bragg. The base was renamed this month, scrubbing the name of a Confederate general widely considered among the least successful military leaders in the conflict.”
“It’s an iconic name and iconic base, and we’re not gonna let political correctness run amok in North Carolina,” DeSantis, who was referencing Fort Bragg, told a crowd at the North Carolina Republican Party convention Friday.”
“We will end the political correctness in the hallways of the Pentagon, and North Carolina will once again be home to Fort Bragg,” he said Saturday at the North Carolina Republican event in Greensboro.”
I bet no one rushes to rename Bragg Blvd.
Probably better to pretend the seedier part of town doesn’t exist, rather than go through all the trouble of renaming it.
I was wondering if Augusta GA will rename the Gordon Highway.
Fayette-‘Nam!
Not taking a single thing away from the Heroics of SGT Johnson, in war or peace, but…. The Destroyers of History Commission, err The Re-Naming Commission couldn’t find a single SOUTHERN Person of Color that they could’ve used? I guess they forgot the original purpose of naming SOUTHERN Military Facilities after SOUTHERN people was to help “…bind up the Nation’s Wounds” and show that we were a Nation United. Or was that a ploy just to get more SOUTHERN men to use as cannon fodder?
News flash for you destroyers of History. Ya missed a base in Louisiana that has Confederate Roots. The Namesake of Barksdale AFB, Eugene Hoy Barksdale, his Grandpappy was (gasp…clutches pearls) Captain James Peter Barksdale of the 59th Virginia Rgmt, Co. E, CSA. I guess those will be the new targets.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5863598/james-peter-barksdale
“I guess they forgot the original purpose of naming SOUTHERN Military Facilities after SOUTHERN people was to help “…bind up the Nation’s Wounds” and show that we were a Nation United.”.. Only the morons supporting these moves KOB, the ones PUSHING this crap know it all too well, it’s just that their intent is the exact opposite…Divide an conquer, all while consolidating power
At least the base wasn’t named after some ankle grabber.
Or Fort Rupal.
Just gonna put this here “Gilbert H. Johnson”
SgtMaj Hashmark? {he asks respectfully}
What a career… what a man
Thank you for the history lesson.
I can’t find a single person they’ve renamed a post for that doesn’t deserve the honor. BUT, the woke nonsense that provoked the changes irritate the hell out of me.
They can call Polk, “Fort America the Beautiful” and it would still suck ass.
Word.
What’s next, renaming states because their names are associated with the south and slavery? Removing their names from graduation rolls at West Point and other schools?
Please.
Fort Polk was named after LTG Leonidas Polk.
“Leonidas Polk (April 10, 1806 – June 14, 1864) was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. He was a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk. He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major-general in the Confederate States Army, when he was called “Sewanee’s Fighting Bishop”. His official portrait at the University of the South depicts him as a bishop with his army uniform hanging nearby. He is often erroneously referred to as “Leonidas K. Polk,” but he had no middle name and never signed any documents as such.”
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/leonidas-polk
Who deserves a base named after them?
A Medal of Honor winner?
Or one of the worst generals of the civil war? And a traitor.
We named bases after confederates to bolster recruitment among southerners that were reticent to join the U.S. Army in the half century following the civil war.
I find it interesting that we often named the bases after notoriously incompetent generals. Hood. Bragg. Polk. Pope. McClellen.
I find it interesting that you think anyone gives a shit what you think — Charlie Brown lookin’ clown.
I bet you want some of their names removed from
the list of graduates of our prestigious military colleges too?
Get a job.
Okay…. McClellan was a Northern general, whose biggest failing was winning the Battle of Antietam. Which after taking 25% of his unit in casualties, declared a truce to allow each side to recover their wounded and dead.
As for the rest, The Democrats insisted upon naming them after Southern generals with short names. It really isn’t that big of a mystery, unless you don’t know anything about history.
That sentence about incompetent generals was a separate thought.
I do find it interesting that we often name bases after sub-par generals.
But neither is true. It’s ok to admit when you make a mistake. IT makes you look more narcissistic when you try to force a way to be right.
Also Bragg wasn’t that bad. His biggest problem was that he was saddled with Polk and Hindman. Polk was a bit of an idiot and felt like he shouldn’t be taking orders from Bragg and whined to Jefferson Davis at every opportunity. Slow rolled and disobeyed orders that cost them dear. Hindman was a do-nothing. By the time he got rid of them he had to fight Grant and his army was badly outclassed and out numbered.
They could rename an Army post to “Fort White Guilt” and you’d still bitch!
Once again you stupid fuck, you don’t win a decoration. You earn it. It is not the lottery, it is not a game show, it is not a contest, it is not a race, get the picture? Did your parents have any children that lived?
How about we scrub the names of pedophiles like Harvey Milk from our naval vessels and put more men like this on them instead of spending mega millions to rename perfectly good bases?
Fucking waste of time.
Too cheap, not enough profits for the politicians involved in the renaming (local, state, and federal level) of large installations with thousands of things to change on each. A naval vessel requires only a bit of paint, some letterhead changes in Microsoft Word, and maybe a few plaques. The ship hats (or whatever they’re called) can be mass produced in China for pennies each.
No, we need those expensive gate signs, new signs at HQ, everything in the PX rebranded (buy this “Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Moore, GA” t-shirt before we ship your son to Ukraine), and reeducation classes for the thousands of currently-serving SMs who continue to refer to Fort Pickett, Fort Lee, or other hateful and hurtful names.
Oh, and we can’t forget the money that can be recouped through Article-15s for stubborn young men and women who are proud to serve on the same base their parents, grandparents, and earlier generations did. “82nd Airborne, huh, so you’re at Fort Bragg, Private?” “No, I’m at Fort Liberty. I was a Sergeant last week but the CSM heard me talking to my dad about how proud I was to be at Bragg. Lesson learned…I get chaptered next week.”
And I’m sure those expensive signs will be made by some “Minority Owned” businesses about as legit as APL who get the contracts by bribing the right pols and bureaucrats.
FUCK this White guilt plague being festered by the left, just more psychological manipulation of their base.
You’re probably
white, I mean, right. Hiring local businesses based on their qualifications and bids cannot be permitted for this renaming project. Why hire Cracker Johnny’s Sign Company in Leesville for $25k when Cracker Johnny might be a descendant of some of those evil men who fought for the Confederacy? Instead, let’s pay that management company from Detroit to oversee some local temp agency workers do the work. The budget for the contract is $50k? No problem, $50k it is for the contract (plus per diem and travel expenses for the Detroit men). Payroll time: Boudreaux and Thibodeaux, great work! Here’s your $7.25/hr. Meanwhile, Cracker Johnny’s $25/hr. professionals are looking for the next McDonald’s project.White Guilt is the catch-all term for the 21st Century. As a straight Caucasian male I’m not only evil and the bane of all mankind, but also must be reminded that whiteness is the root of all evil and that what’s theirs (everyone besides people like me) is theirs, what’s mine should be theirs, and what I may earn or amass in the future will likely be theirs one day.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson on this day in 1868 issued pardons to all Confederate soldiers who fought in that conflict. The president extended “unconditionally, and without reservation … a full pardon and amnesty for the offence [sic] of treason against the United States, or of adhering to their enemies during the late Civil War, with restoration of all rights, privileges, and immunities under the Constitution and the laws.”
It wasnt until the war was long over, and they were all PARDONED, that these bases were named. Not as a tool to recruit “southern boys”, but as a way to bring folks together.
And no one — not even blacks elected to political office — sought to remove statues or names of Confederates until…. the 2020’s?
Hah! The virtue signaling is strong and their logic is weak.
All of this comes from sitting back and doing nothing while stupid became trendy. We should have done as we did before and punished it instead of encouraging it.
Regarding the renaming …. here are some of the generals being replaced:
Fun fact from the official autopsy, not the bought and paid for one : ole George Kirby wasn’t murdered …he overdosed on fentanyl and meth…that’s all.
I know a lot of folks have commented already, but I’ll leave my two cents. I’m would not necessarily be opposed to changing names of bases, but I’m opposed to giving the mob anything it asks for. You come at me with riots and threats, you can go F yourself, come at me with a well thought out argument and have a rational discussion about it, then we can do business. The way they did all this – with the threat of violence – taints the whole process.