Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered that Fort Liberty–re-named such during the post-George Floyd hysteria–once again be called Fort Bragg.
Fort Bragg was named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, who fought generally in the Western theater and was from North Carolina, where the fort is located. Bragg was not a particularly good general, and he didn’t achieve anything noteworthy in civilian life. Fort Bragg was founded during World War I, and my sense is that it and several other facilities were named after Confederate generals as part of the broader effort to reconcile North and South.
So Fort Bragg is back, but this time it is named after a different Bragg:
Pursuant to the authority of the Secretary of Defense, Title 10, United States Code, Section 113, 1 direct the Army to change the name of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, to Fort Bragg. North Carolina, in honor of Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, who served with great distinction during World War II with the United States Army, and in recognition of the installation’s storied history of service to the United States of America.
Born in 1923 in Sabattus, Maine, Pfc. Bragg entered U.S. Army service and was assigned to the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, and was stationed at Fort Bragg during World War II. Pfc. Bragg fought with distinction in the European theater of operations. He received the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, and the Purple Heart for wounds sustained, during the Battle of the Bulge. During these hellish conditions and amidst ferocious fighting, Pfc. Bragg saved a fellow Soldier’s life by commandeering an enemy ambulance and driving it 20 miles to transport a fellow wounded warrior to an allied hospital in Belgium
For nearly a century under the designation of Camp Bragg and subsequently Fort Bragg, tens of thousands of Soldiers trained and deployed increases and conflicts around the world in defense of our nation. Fort Bragg has a long and proven history of equipping, training, and preparing our Soldiers to fight and prevail in any operational environment. This directive honors the personal courage and selfless service of all those who have trained to fight and win our nation’s wars, including Pfc. Bragg, and is in keeping with the installation’s esteemed and storied history.
That is rather neatly done. The re-named base honors a particular soldier named Bragg, but Hegseth specifically adds that it is a nod to the base’s storied place in American history and to the thousands of soldiers who have trained there. In short, a re-affirmation of common sense after the politically-motivated post-Floyd attacks. Those days are over.
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