A storied Army post originally named after Confederate Gen. Henry L. Benning, then renamed Fort Moore as part of the Biden administration’s purge of military base names that honored rebel leaders, will now revert to its original moniker.
Sort of.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday signed a memorandum renaming the Georgia site as Fort Benning. However, the fort’s official namesake will now be Army Cpl. Fred G. Benning, a World War I veteran awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1918 for his battlefield heroics in France.
“This change underscores the installation’s storied history of service to the United States of America, honors the warfighter ethos, and recognizes the heroes who have trained at the installation for decades and will continue to train on its storied ranges,” Pentagon officials said in a statement.
Fort Benning was renamed Fort Moore in January 2023 in honor of Army Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia Compton Moore. Gen. Moore commanded U.S. forces in the first large-scale battle of the Vietnam War. His book, “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young” was made into the 2002 movie “We Were Soldiers,” where he was portrayed by actor Mel Gibson.
The Defense Department in February 2025 returned Fort Liberty in North Carolina to its original name of Fort Bragg. But rather than honoring Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, the base’s namesake is Private 1st Class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II veteran who received the Silver Star and the Purple Heart after fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.
“The legacy of an institution that generations of Americans have mobilized through and served at is back. It’s a shame what was done to vets, service members [and] their families who were born there, deployed out of there [and] lived there,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said after signing off on returning Fort Bragg to its original name. “I was just with airborne troops here, some of whom spent 25 years at Fort Bragg and never called it Fort Liberty because it wasn’t Fort Liberty, it was Fort Bragg.”
While on the campaign trail in Fayetteville, North Carolina, President Trump criticized the decision by the congressionally-mandated naming commission to change the name of the post from Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty.
“We did win two world wars from Fort Bragg, right?” he told the crowd. “We’re going to get it back. We’re going to bring our country back.”
The naming commission focused on nine Army posts, located mostly in the South, that were named for Confederate military leaders. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Trump administration would seek to return posts like Fort Hood in Texas or Fort Gordon in Georgia — both originally named for Confederate leaders, to the original names but for different people.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.