The Trump Administration Is Right to Re-Redesignate the Army Bases

National Review Online

Monday, June 16, 2025

 

In politics and government, “clever” is not always synonymous with “good.” But when it comes to the matter of the Trump administration’s handling of military bases that had been renamed during the Biden era, the policy is both clever and satisfactory.

 

Back in the summer of 2023, on the recommendation of a congressionally mandated commission, the Biden Department of Defense renamed nine major military bases that had originally been named for Confederate military leaders: Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Gordon, Ga.; Fort A.P. Hill, Va.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Lee, Va.; Fort Pickett, Va.; Fort Polk, La.; and Fort Rucker, Ala.

 

Some of the new Biden-era installation names honored eminently worthy individuals, such as General Hal Moore and his wife Julia Compton Moore, who were the namesake of Fort Moore, the former Fort Benning; the former Fort Gordon was renamed for Dwight D. Eisenhower; five other bases were renamed for winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

But other renamings were less than inspired, as when Fort Bragg was rechristened to honor no one in particular: It became merely Fort Liberty.

 

The Army has now announced that it will redesignate these installations back to their previous and commonly understood names — but with a twist. Fort Benning is back to being Fort Benning, but this time it’s been named for Corporal Fred G. Benning, a First World War hero, instead of Henry L. Benning, a general in the Confederate Army. Fort Gordon is back as Fort Gordon; now it’s named to honor Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, a Delta Force sniper awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions at the Battle of Mogadishu.

 

The Trump administration is right to make these changes.

 

Very few Americans resisted the 2023 installation renamings out of affection for the Confederacy. They resisted because — taken in context — the spate of renamings seemed to be wholly in kind with the woke cultural revolution that swept the country beginning in 2020. Many Americans saw the base redesignations as the camel’s nose under the tent in the left’s goal to throw down Washington, Jefferson, and everything else that is great, and yet imperfect, in our American past.

 

Americans who had spent some of the best and formative years of their lives serving their country at Fort Bragg or Fort Rucker did not appreciate being told that they had served under a benighted system. It is also understandable that many Americans did not feel wholly at ease with a commemoration of men who had rebelled and fought against their own country.

 

The Trump administration’s solution ought to mollify all sides — which of course is a different thing than saying that it will. But most Americans will hear that Fort Bragg is back to being “Fort Bragg” and be pleased that “Fort Liberty” has been set aside as an embarrassing mistake. They will hear that Fort Hood is now named for Distinguished Service Cross recipient Colonel Robert B. Hood — a man who showed extraordinary heroism in action at Thiaucourt, France, as a member of the American Expeditionary Force in the First World War — and carry on content.

 

The Trump administration has acted in accordance with the law, and it has preserved and honored American history. It’s also shown a bit of cleverness and guile, which, yes, is a very good thing, indeed.