Hegseth renames Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg, but with a twist

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Hegseth renames North Carolina military base Fort Roland L. Bragg​

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed an order restoring the name of a storied special operations forces base back to Fort Bragg. The North Carolina base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 as part of a national effort under the Biden administration to remove names that honored Confederate leaders.

The base’s original namesake, Gen. Braxton Bragg, was a Confederate general from Warrenton, North Carolina, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles, contributing to the Confederacy’s downfall.

But a Pentagon spokesman said Monday that Hegseth was renaming the base to honor Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, who he said was a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.

“This change underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation,” spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement.

The choice of the World War II private first class got around a law prohibiting the military from naming a base after a Confederate leader.
In reality, the base had still been widely known as Bragg, the new name having not really taken hold. On Hegseth’s first official day as defense secretary he made a point of calling it Fort Bragg in his first exchange with reporters.

The renaming also adds cost when President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to find savings through it’s Department of Government Efficiency. The 2022 base renaming commission estimated that renaming Bragg, including all the signage, paint jobs on police and emergency responder vehicles and other items, would cost at least $6.3 million. In 2023, the base said the total costs were going to be around $8 million.
 

Hegseth renames North Carolina military base Fort Roland L. Bragg​

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed an order restoring the name of a storied special operations forces base back to Fort Bragg. The North Carolina base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 as part of a national effort under the Biden administration to remove names that honored Confederate leaders.

The base’s original namesake, Gen. Braxton Bragg, was a Confederate general from Warrenton, North Carolina, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles, contributing to the Confederacy’s downfall.

But a Pentagon spokesman said Monday that Hegseth was renaming the base to honor Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, who he said was a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.

“This change underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation,” spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement.

The choice of the World War II private first class got around a law prohibiting the military from naming a base after a Confederate leader.
In reality, the base had still been widely known as Bragg, the new name having not really taken hold. On Hegseth’s first official day as defense secretary he made a point of calling it Fort Bragg in his first exchange with reporters.

The renaming also adds cost when President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to find savings through it’s Department of Government Efficiency. The 2022 base renaming commission estimated that renaming Bragg, including all the signage, paint jobs on police and emergency responder vehicles and other items, would cost at least $6.3 million. In 2023, the base said the total costs were going to be around $8 million.
Sure they're renaming it for Pfc Roland Bragg - sure they are. :rolleyes:
 
Honestly find this funny in a slightly exasperating way. I thought the change from Fort Bragg was unnecessary but whatever. Democracy. I think the change back to Fort Bragg but named after a random soldier with the same name is unnecessary but actually pretty clever.

And they'll switch it back to Fort Liberty in a few years. I hope they hold on to all the signage.
 
Honestly find this funny in a slightly exasperating way. I thought the change from Fort Bragg was unnecessary but whatever. Democracy. I think the change back to Fort Bragg but named after a random soldier with the same name is actually pretty clever.
Unless you ran on cutting unnecessary expenditures. Then you look like a mendacious asshole.
 
As far as useless, stupid exercises in political pettiness go, I actually don't mind this one. I know they think they're being clever with the Bragg thing, but Roland Bragg is the exact kind of person after whom military installations should be named, so on this I give the administration a tip of my cap.
 
They made it easy by re-naming Bragg Fort Liberty. Had they named it after a person it would be a lot harder to take that persons name down and go back to Bragg. Fort Liberty has no constituency. Had they named the place Fort John McCain, taking his name off the facility would be much more controversial.
 
Nobody is fooled by this. Braxton Bragg's incompetance was far more valuable to the Union during the Civil War than all but about a dozen Union generals. But, the sheer incompetance of St. Donald of Mar-a-Lago and all his acolytes seem a good match for Braxton Bragg. Like recognizes like.
 

Hegseth renames North Carolina military base Fort Roland L. Bragg​

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed an order restoring the name of a storied special operations forces base back to Fort Bragg. The North Carolina base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 as part of a national effort under the Biden administration to remove names that honored Confederate leaders.

The base’s original namesake, Gen. Braxton Bragg, was a Confederate general from Warrenton, North Carolina, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles, contributing to the Confederacy’s downfall.

But a Pentagon spokesman said Monday that Hegseth was renaming the base to honor Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, who he said was a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.

“This change underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation,” spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement.

The choice of the World War II private first class got around a law prohibiting the military from naming a base after a Confederate leader.
In reality, the base had still been widely known as Bragg, the new name having not really taken hold. On Hegseth’s first official day as defense secretary he made a point of calling it Fort Bragg in his first exchange with reporters.

The renaming also adds cost when President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to find savings through it’s Department of Government Efficiency. The 2022 base renaming commission estimated that renaming Bragg, including all the signage, paint jobs on police and emergency responder vehicles and other items, would cost at least $6.3 million. In 2023, the base said the total costs were going to be around $8 million.
Dumb shit.
 
Whatever. I think it says a lot that they didn't try to go back to naming it after Braxton Bragg. I mean, of all the junk they've tried to cram down our throats in the span of a few weeks, somehow this guy was a bridge too far. That speaks volumes about why the name was changed in the first place. I think it's obvious that Trump thought "Fort Bragg" sounded cooler and wanted to do whatever to get that name back. It had nothing to do with DEI or erasing history or anything like that.
 
By law, they could not rename the base after a Confederate General. Thus, this amazingly inept workaround.
Whatever. I think it says a lot that they didn't try to go back to naming it after Braxton Bragg. I mean, of all the junk they've tried to cram down our throats in the span of a few weeks, somehow this guy was a bridge too far. That speaks volumes about why the name was changed in the first place. I think it's obvious that Trump thought "Fort Bragg" sounded cooler and wanted to do whatever to get that name back. It had nothing to do with DEI or erasing history or anything like that.
 
Nobody is fooled by this. Braxton Bragg's incompetance was far more valuable to the Union during the Civil War than all but about a dozen Union generals. But, the sheer incompetance of St. Donald of Mar-a-Lago and all his acolytes seem a good match for Braxton Bragg. Like recognizes like.
He was a really odd choice to name a Fort after. He was just a terrible general and an odd duck.

The history of why they named it for him in the first place is somewhat interesting. They were trying to get support on the home front for the US's 's participation in world war I. The civil war wasn't that far in the rearview mirror and The war department thought an easy way to drum up support in the South would be naming various forts for Confederate generals. Braxton Bragg was a North Carolina native and a well-known name, despite being pretty incompetent, so they named it after him.
 
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