Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated that he would revert the name of military bases back to their previous names that had been changed initially due to their connections to the Confederacy.
Under the Biden administration, the military renamed nine U.S. military bases after Confederate leaders. According to the Pentagon, the effort cost more than $60 million. It is unclear how much it will cost to restore the bases’ names.
Hegseth signed a memorandum on Monday to bring back Fort Bragg, which had been changed to Fort Liberty in 2023. He said the new namesake is U.S. Army paratrooper Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II veteran who was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his bravery during the Battle of the Bulge, and that it was not a reference to Confederate general Braxton Bragg, whom the base was originally named after.
When signing the order, Hegseth proclaimed “Bragg is back.”
“We’re not done there,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We’re gonna do our best to restore it. It’s an honor to do so.”
“It’s a shame what was done to vets, service members, [and] their families who were born there, deployed out of there with airborne troops here, some of which spent 25 years at Fort Bragg, and never called it Fort Liberty, because it wasn’t Fort Liberty. It’s Fort Bragg,” the secretary added. “It’s about that legacy. It’s about the connection to the community, to those who served. And we’re not, as the President has said, and I’ve said as well, we’re not done there. There are other bases that have been renamed that erodes that very same legacy.”
It is unclear if Hegseth will seek to restore the bases’ previous names with new namesakes who served in the U.S. armed forces or if they will represent the Confederate leaders whom the bases were named after originally.
The issue of renaming military bases that had Confederate leaders’ namesakes was a contentious issue during the final months of President Donald Trump’s first administration, which the Pentagon ultimately began implementing the naming commission’s recommendations in 2023.
In addition to Fort Bragg, the Pentagon changed the names of Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia to Fort Moore and Fort Eisenhower; Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee, and Fort Pickett in Virginia to Fort Walker, Fort Gregg-Adams, and Fort Barfoot; Fort Hood in Texas to Fort Cavazos, Fort Polk in Louisiana to Fort Johnson, and Fort Rucker in Alabama to Fort Novosel.
Both Trump and Hegseth had publicly called for the bases to revert to their original names.
A major theme of the first month of the Trump administration has been the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, and its efforts to uncover wasteful spending.
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DOGE is expected to review the Pentagon’s spending, and Hegseth has shared his support for the effort.
“We welcome DOGE to the Pentagon, and I hope to welcome Elon to the Pentagon very soon, and his team working in collaboration with us, there are waste redundancies and head counts in headquarters that need to be addressed,” Hegseth added.