So long Fort Bragg, welcome Fort Liberty: The Pentagon's naming commission recommendations take effect
Fox News
The process of removing Confederate names from military bases and replacing them with new ones has started. The military's Naming Commission has announced the first 9 U.S. army bases to be renamed.
The commission was led by retired Admiral Michelle Howard, the highest-ranking woman in U.S. Navy history. Howard said the goal was to inspire today's soldiers and communities. "We wanted names and values that underpin the core responsibility of the military, to defend the Constitution of the United States,'' Howard said in a statement. Liz Friden is a Pentagon producer based in Washington, D.C.
The commission’s recommendations came in three parts, Part I was U.S. Army bases. Nine bases will face name changes including Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which was named after Braxton Bragg, a slave owning Confederate general known for his bad temper. Many historians have said Bragg was one of the worst generals of the Civil War, having lost most of his battles. Fort Bragg was named in 1918 during the Jim Crow era. The U.S. government used the names as an olive branch for Southern families, whose sons the military hoped to recruit. Fort Bragg has been home to the U.S. military's elite special forces and Airborne units and will now be known as Fort Liberty in commemoration of the American value of Liberty.