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Even for a pair of contenders desperately trying to defeat front-runner Donald Trump, while also pandering to his supporters, rolling back one of the most prominent of the nine name changes that will occur at bases this year is a dubious cause. It’s important to understand just how dubious and how extreme.
Far from an exercise of political correctness, the provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 that established a process for removing the Confederate taint from the Civil War winner’s military properties was one of the more constructive, moderate responses to the racial reckoning of 2020.
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Though initially proposed by Democrat Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and denounced by GOP lawmakers such as Sens. James M. Inhofe (Okla.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), the base renaming legislation was modified and attracted sufficient GOP support to pass what was then a Republican-majority Senate Armed Services Committee on a voice vote. Republican backers included Sens. Mike Rounds (S.D.), Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Mitt Romney (Utah).
Nevertheless, President Trump paused from disputing his election defeat in December 2020 to veto the NDAA, crucial legislation that presidents rarely obstruct because it sets policy for the entire Pentagon. One of his objections, he said, was the bill’s “politically motivated attempts ... to wash away history." Both houses of Congress promptly overrode his veto by more than the requisite two-thirds margin.
The legislation created the eight-member Naming Commission, which sought input across the country, including in communities near the affected bases. The commission was composed of both Democrats and Republicans. Among the latter was Rep. Austin Scott (Ga.), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. Scott supported the committee’s unanimous recommendation, to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, that Bragg become Liberty.
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The other eight bases will henceforth bear names of military heroes who fought for the United States. For example, Louisiana’s Fort Polk, named for Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk, will become Fort Johnson, for Army Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black World War I soldier and Medal of Honor recipient.
There’s no denying Fort Bragg was an “iconic name,” as DeSantis said, with a nice ring to it — even a pun on the swagger of warriors who train there. Understandable, too, is the attachment of veterans to a name that, whatever its historical significance, belongs to their personal biographies.
As one former soldier who served there told the Associated Press: "It’s always gonna be Bragg, the way we look at it.”
For all that, it would be difficult to imagine a less worthy honoree than Fort Liberty’s now former namesake, North Carolina enslaver Braxton Bragg, a West Point graduate who did serve the United States in the Mexican War but later betrayed his country and commanded troops — not very well, by most accounts — for the Confederacy.
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During the renaming discussion, some suggested the Fort Bragg name be retained by specifying it refers to a Union general, Edward S. Bragg — Braxton’s cousin. The problem is that, even though Edward S. Bragg served his country ably, many others would have deserved the honor as much or more. (It’s unclear whether this expedient would satisfy Pence and DeSantis; neither campaign responded to requests for comment.)
This installation got its original name — Camp Bragg — in the summer of 1918, during the hasty mobilization for World War I, when authorities in Washington thought little of letting Southern White communities attach the names of local Confederate heroes to newly constructed facilities.
The naming of Fort Liberty culminated a congressionally mandated, deliberative process whose intention, however imperfectly achieved, was to unify the country and recognize true patriots. For DeSantis and Pence to re-litigate that now is little more than a politically motivated attempt to wash away history.
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Enacted in response to racial-justice protests in 2020, a new federal law required the renaming of U.S. military bases previously designated in honor of Confederate Civil War officers. In the Fayetteville, N.C., area, near what was then Fort Bragg, there was long but inconclusive discussion of worthy alternative names — until a Gold Star mother, Patti C. Elliott, spoke up at a 2021 community meeting.
She suggested labeling the base, home to the elite 82nd Airborne Division, after the cause for which her 21-year-old son, Spec. Daniel “Lucas” Elliott, gave his life in Iraq on July 15, 2011: “Liberty.”
Her idea persuaded the special commission that Congress had established to rename the bases, and earlier this month, Fort Bragg officially became Fort Liberty. The base commander, Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, recounted Patti Elliott’s role at a brief ceremony to mark the change.
And yet this outcome is unsatisfactory to Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence, who, in separate speeches to the North Carolina Republican convention on June 9, branded the name change “political correctness” and promised to undo it if elected.
Even for a pair of contenders desperately trying to defeat front-runner Donald Trump, while also pandering to his supporters, rolling back one of the most prominent of the nine name changes that will occur at bases this year is a dubious cause. It’s important to understand just how dubious and how extreme.
Far from an exercise of political correctness, the provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 that established a process for removing the Confederate taint from the Civil War winner’s military properties was one of the more constructive, moderate responses to the racial reckoning of 2020.
Though initially proposed by Democrat Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and denounced by GOP lawmakers such as Sens. James M. Inhofe (Okla.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), the base renaming legislation was modified and attracted sufficient GOP support to pass what was then a Republican-majority Senate Armed Services Committee on a voice vote. Republican backers included Sens. Mike Rounds (S.D.), Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Mitt Romney (Utah).
Nevertheless, President Trump paused from disputing his election defeat in December 2020 to veto the NDAA, crucial legislation that presidents rarely obstruct because it sets policy for the entire Pentagon. One of his objections, he said, was the bill’s “politically motivated attempts ... to wash away history." Both houses of Congress promptly overrode his veto by more than the requisite two-thirds margin.
The legislation created the eight-member Naming Commission, which sought input across the country, including in communities near the affected bases. The commission was composed of both Democrats and Republicans. Among the latter was Rep. Austin Scott (Ga.), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee. Scott supported the committee’s unanimous recommendation, to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, that Bragg become Liberty.
The other eight bases will henceforth bear names of military heroes who fought for the United States. For example, Louisiana’s Fort Polk, named for Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk, will become Fort Johnson, for Army Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black World War I soldier and Medal of Honor recipient.
There’s no denying Fort Bragg was an “iconic name,” as DeSantis said, with a nice ring to it — even a pun on the swagger of warriors who train there. Understandable, too, is the attachment of veterans to a name that, whatever its historical significance, belongs to their personal biographies.
As one former soldier who served there told the Associated Press: "It’s always gonna be Bragg, the way we look at it.”
For all that, it would be difficult to imagine a less worthy honoree than Fort Liberty’s now former namesake, North Carolina enslaver Braxton Bragg, a West Point graduate who did serve the United States in the Mexican War but later betrayed his country and commanded troops — not very well, by most accounts — for the Confederacy.
During the renaming discussion, some suggested the Fort Bragg name be retained by specifying it refers to a Union general, Edward S. Bragg — Braxton’s cousin. The problem is that, even though Edward S. Bragg served his country ably, many others would have deserved the honor as much or more. (It’s unclear whether this expedient would satisfy Pence and DeSantis; neither campaign responded to requests for comment.)
This installation got its original name — Camp Bragg — in the summer of 1918, during the hasty mobilization for World War I, when authorities in Washington thought little of letting Southern White communities attach the names of local Confederate heroes to newly constructed facilities.
The naming of Fort Liberty culminated a congressionally mandated, deliberative process whose intention, however imperfectly achieved, was to unify the country and recognize true patriots. For DeSantis and Pence to re-litigate that now is little more than a politically motivated attempt to wash away history.
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