Confused? You Should Be.
Doubling down on re-naming US. Army posts BACK to the names we are familiar with, SecDef Hegseth has re-named Ft. Moore to Ft. Benning.
“The Army awarded CPL Benning the Distinguished Service Cross for his extraordinary heroism in action south of Exermont, France, on October 9, 1918,” read a memo signed by Hegseth directing the change Monday. “After the enemy killed his platoon commander and disabled two senior non-commissioned officers, CPL Benning took command of the surviving 20 men of his company, and courageously led them through heavy fire to their assigned objective in support of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.”
So it’s back to being Ft. Benning, just not for that Benning. I guess this follows in the footsteps of his recent decision to rename Ft. Bragg to Ft. Bragg again.
The decision marks the second Army base Hegseth has renamed, after he announced last month he was renaming Fort Liberty, North Carolina, back to Fort Bragg — this time after a World War II soldier and Silver Star recipient, instead of the failed Confederate general. CNN
Under President Biden, beside Bragg and Benning, the following were renamed due to the Confederate nature of their names.
-
Fort Rucker, Alabama, renamed Fort Novosel in honor of Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Novosel, an Army aviator who earned the Medal of Honor for his actions in Kien Tuong Province, Vietnam.
-
Fort Polk, Louisiana, renamed Fort Johnson in honor of Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a member of the famed “Harlem Hellfighters” from the New York Guard. Johnson earned the Medal of Honor for his actions in France’s Argonne Forest during World War I.
-
Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, renamed Fort Walker in honor of Dr. Mary Walker, a Civil War hero and the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor.
-
Fort Lee, Virginia, renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in commemoration of Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams. Gregg, who retired in 1981, is considered one of the Army’s great logistics leaders of the 20th century. Adams commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the first and only all-Black, all-female American battalion deployed overseas during World War II.
-
Fort Pickett, Virginia, renamed Fort Barfoot in honor of Army Tech. Sgt. Van Barfoot, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions near Carano, Italy, while serving with the Guard’s 45th Infantry Division during World War II.
-
Fort Hood, Texas, renamed Fort Cavazos in commemoration of Gen. Richard Cavazos, who fought in Korea and Vietnam and was the Army’s first Hispanic four-star general.” ~ NGAUS Military Living
While not a particular fan of the whole base renaming effort, the only ones I ever set foot on were Benning and Hood, so no real dog in the fight. I was happy with Moore, and indifferent to most of the rest (but for Liberty – thousands of Airborne heroes and the best they could do was Liberty? How Newspeakish.)
One question – it cost $40,000,000 to rename the posts – if we are embarking on some new era of fiscal austerity, why blow another $40 mill renaming ’em back?
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army, Politics
Take the money from Ukraine to rename!
Being the son of a retired Marine (father) and a sailor (mother). And, being Air Force myself, aside from being a taxpayer I didn’t have a dog in the fight. The whole politically correct BS behind the issue irritated me.
I set foot on Ft Hood when my younger sister was assigned there inorder to drive the U-haul when she PCS’d to Ft Benning. No issue with MOH recipient Gen Cavazos or with the Moore’s, though the PCness of including Mrs Moore was a bit pandering for my taste. Other than tradition, fine folks to name a Base after. Same with Ft Eisenhour and the hospital was already named for him.
I thought Ft Liberty was nonsense.
Fixed it for ya.
North Carolina said it cost them $20,000 for the signage change because the previous signs were destroyed (shredded).
I’m pretty sure the $40M to rename a post is bullshit… ($300 hammer anyone?). New office decorations for everyone!
Just like when the Navy said if you cut our (newly increased proposed) budget spending, we won’t be able to fuel our carriers! You’d think THAT critical step would be in the first 10% of your damn budget in the first place?
It is probably similar to how the Air Force builds a base (compared with the Army).
For the Air Force the first thing to go in is the Headquarters building, commissary, hospital, and PX. Followed by the Golf Course, and then the housing, and barracks and unit facilities. If they have money left they then begin to construct the airfield itself. Should they run out, they now go back to Congress and say, well the base is useless without the runway!
The Army build the ranges, the unit buildings, and then the Headquarters. They then put in a Hospital, Commissary, and PX, followed by a movie theater, bowling alley, auto-craft shop, Officer housing. Last is the lower enlisted housing, and finally the barracks if they have enough money. When they go back to congress because they ran out of money for the barracks, Congress tells them to just scale the rooms by 20% and that should fix it… which is why the Air Force gets extra money when assigned to an Army base for housing.
Well, it works like this. The Army said it would take 1$m to rename, then they contracted to civilians to save costs (this is how it really worked.) Costs went up to 40$m. Still, only the main gates were changed. costs…1$m. Because the super efficient civilian contractors were milking as best as they could. So along comes DOGE and Sec Hegseth, rename the bases back, cancel the contracts, and only the leeches go hungry….and these leeches are always fishing for a new catch.
Excellent. Not tired of winning.
This is not about the names of the bases, but about the ideological corruption of the Democrat party that wants to erase our military traditions.
I went to Fort Benning for basic training, and none of the privates with me ever gave an eff about the name of the base.
To all of us, Fort Benning was the home of the infantry and was where all the cool schools were. I didn’t even know who the hell that General Benning dude was.
So money well expent.
expent or spent? English is so hard.
Your own damn fault for purchasing spellcheck software from a bloated spandex clad drunkard selling from the trunk of a 1980’s vintage Jaguar corroding on the shoulder of the River Road exit of the Capital Beltway.
“…wants to erase our military traditions.” That ain’t all they want to erase, Slow Joe.
I’ve made no secret around here that I am a Very Proud Southern American. My family has served this Country since the French and Indian Wars and we have people serving today. One has to look at the reason the Southern Installations were named for Southerners back in the day. It was a continuation, along with The Peace/Reconciliation Monument @ Arlington, to “…bind up The Nation’s wounds…” and get Southerners to join up in the fight against the Kaiser in WWI. The military “leaders” of the early 19teens knew they couldn’t fill the ranks without the Southern Boys, there were too many in the North that had just left Europe and had family there that they would have to shoot at. ‘sides all that, they knew that the Southern Boys could and would fight. The memory of The Great Unpleasantness of 1861-1865 was still fresh. Keep in mind, too, that there were Confederate Veterans that fought in the US Military in the SP/AM War.
All of that being said, if the re-naming of the installations was so important, the least that could have been done is name the places after Southerners…that were from the general area that the installations were in. Ft “Light Horse” Harry Lee for example? How about Ft Amos Rucker? Read the linky below on him and wait for heads to explode. 😀
http://blackconfederates.blogspot.com/2010/07/story-of-amos-rucker.html
ps Amos’s grave is now marked with a Service Marker.
I have no problem with the old names. We honor native Americans who fought bravely against us- check the names of army helicopters. Southerners and native Americans are the people most likely to enlist, and they serve proudly. Eisenhower honored R.E. Lee. Time to end the P.C. nonsense.
Fort Benning was named after Henry Benning MG, CSA who was nicknamed “Old Rock’ because of his calmness in battle.
I had no problem with renaming bases to honor heroes from more modern wars. I agree completely with changing “Liberty” to honor an actual person rather than a concept.
Of the others listed above, the only ones I would support renaming would be Ft. Gregg-Adams and Ft. Cavazos.
While being “considered one of the Army’s great logistics leaders of the 20th century” is notable and laudable, it’s hardly heroic, nor is commanding “the first and only all-Black, all-female American battalion deployed overseas during World War II”; especially because it was a postal battalion, not combat. Purely political. Rename that base after someone heroic.
Likewise, except for field promotions during war, flag officers tend to be politicians more than warriors. Lot’s of people “fought in Korea and Vietnam” and don’t have bases named after them and someone’s hispanic origins are utterly irrelevant in a military setting. Name the base after someone who actually performed in a heroic manner and leave the racist BS out of it.
Bonus points if Hegseth can continue the trend and find other heroes named “Lee” and “Hood” to name the bases after.
As someone else said, you only have to go back one generation in Robert E Lee’s ancestry to find someone worthy of naming a base after.
Here’s a suggestion for Ft. Hood. He’s even from the area. https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-146189/
Here’s another – https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-146146/
Captain Robert E. Lee
Robert Lee – Hall of Valor: Medal of Honor, Silver Star, U.S. Military Awards
His obituary.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148034837/robert-elward-lee
I’m suprised Biden/Harris didn’t create Fort Benedict Arnold
They were considering “Fort Vindman” but Kamala lost. Bigly.
“it cost $40,000,000 to rename the posts”
I would pay twice that to have a post named after me if I had
twice that but I don’t so once scorned twice shy I guess.
Ft. Two-Six Limabeans, it sings!
No PX but the largest Walmart in CONUS….
Which closes Midnight to 0600 because of townie troublemakers.
I wonder what Provo’s Privvy cost.
Those cost overruns are classified, how else can they have the money to pay for transvestite operas of the Transvaal.
King County, WA “renamed” itself back in the ’80’s after Martin Luther King, Jr. because the original guy named King the county was named after was a slave owner. Maybe if Biden’s advisors had done what the SecDef is doing with the post names, we wouldn’t be going through all of this.