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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 10 august 2022
Renaming Army bases that honor Confederates would cost $21M

By BEN FINLEY Service Cross, and his wife
Associated Press Julia, who prompted the
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Re- creation of teams that do
naming nine U.S. Army in-person notifications of
posts that honor Confed- military casualties.
erate officers would cost Renaming the base would
a total of $21 million if the cost just under $5 million,
installations rebrand every- the report stated. The ef-
thing from welcome mar- fort would target anything
quees and street signs to from the wording on air-
water towers and hospital field doors to the name
doors, according to an in- of an airstrip. It would also
dependent commission. include removing Confed-
The Naming Commission erate names from paver
released its final report on stones on a walk to a me-
recommending the new morial that honors U.S.
Army base names to Con- Army Rangers.
gress on Monday. It includ- Fort Bragg, which is home Fort Bragg is seen on Feb. 3, 2022, in Fort Bragg, N.C. An independent commission said Monday,
ed a 17-page list of assets to the 82nd Airborne Divi- Aug. 8, 2022 that renaming nine U.S. Army posts that commemorate Confederate officers would
that are tied to the Con- sion, was named after a cost $21 million.
federacy, from the decals “slave-owning plantation Associated Press
on 300 recycling bins at owner and senior Confed- ter Floyd’s death. He said may have enslaved their address assets at the mili-
Fort Bragg in North Caro- erate Army officer,” the re- the current base names ancestors. tary academies and other
lina to the sign for a softball port said. could be reminders to Black The Naming Commission places within the Depart-
field at Fort Hood in Texas. Braxton Bragg is “consid- soldiers that rebel officers said subsequent install- ment of Defense.q
The report is the latest step ered one of the worst gen- fought for an institution that ments of the final report will
in a broader effort by the erals of the Civil War; most
military to confront racial in- of the battles he was in-
justice, most recently in the volved in ended in defeat
aftermath of the May 2020 and resulted in tremendous
police killing of George losses for the Confederate
Floyd in Minneapolis. Army; highly consequen-
The renaming process was tial to the ultimate defeat
laid out in a law passed by of the Confederacy,” the
Congress in late 2020. The commission wrote.
secretary of defense is ex- Renaming the base to Fort
pected to implement the Liberty would cost about
commission’s plan no later $6.3 million, the report said.
than Jan. 1, 2024. It would include rebrand-
Monday’s report provided ing 45 police vehicles and
detailed — and sometimes 15 emergency services ve-
unflattering — descriptions hicles, such as fire engines
of the Confederate offi- and ambulances.
cers whose names would The other bases recom-
be removed as well as the mended for renaming are
accomplishments of those Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee and
whose names would re- Fort Pickett in Virginia; Fort
place them. Fort Bragg is Gordon in Georgia, Fort
the only base that would Hood in Texas, Fort Polk in
not be named after a per- Louisiana and Fort Rucker
son. It would be called Fort in Alabama.
Liberty. For years, U.S. military of-
The commission wrote that ficials had defended the
Fort Benning in Georgia naming of bases after Con-
was named after a “law- federate officers. But in the
yer, ardent secessionist, bit- aftermath of the Floyd kill-
ter opponent of abolition ing, and the months of ra-
and senior officer in the cial unrest that followed,
Confederate Army.” Congress ordered a com-
The report stated that Hen- prehensive plan to rename
ry L. Benning “is on record the military posts and hun-
as saying that he would dreds of other federal as-
rather be stricken with ill- sets such as roads, build-
ness and starvation than ings, memorials, signs and
see slaves liberated and landmarks that honored
given equality as citizens.” rebel leaders.
The commission recom- The change in the military’s
mends renaming the base thinking was reflected in
after a married couple: congressional testimony
Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, who by Army Gen. Mark Mil-
served in Vietnam and re- ley, chairman of the Joint
ceived the Distinguished Chiefs of Staff, a month af-