Gov. Ron DeSantis is pledging if elected president in 2024 to restore the name of a Confederate general to a North Carolina military base.
Mr. DeSantis told a North Carolina Republican Party convention on Friday he would push to restore the name Fort Bragg to a key military base within the state.
“I also look forward to, as president, restoring the name of Fort Bragg to our great military base in Fayetteville, North Carolina,” said Mr. DeSantis, Florida Republican. “It’s an iconic name and iconic base, and we’re not gonna let political correctness run amok.”
Fort Bragg was renamed Fort Liberty earlier this month. Congress voted to change the base’s name in 2021 as part of that year’s must-pass military policy bill. Lawmakers said that having a prime military installation named after a leading general of the Confederacy was inappropriate.
Mr. DeSantis described the decision to rename as an insult to veterans who had served at the base.
“They’re proud of their service there,” he said. “It’s an iconic name and iconic base.”
Fort Liberty, which employs more than 29,000 military personnel, was established in 1918. For much of its history, the base was known as Fort Bragg after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.
Bragg has been labeled by military historians as one of the worst generals on either side of the Civil War because of his record of losing more battles than winning.
Fort Liberty was the latest in a string of Army installations to undergo a name change. The Pentagon announced a plan to scrub forts, bases, ships and other sites of names honoring the Confederacy and its military leaders in the aftermath of a Minneapolis police officer murdering George Floyd in May 2020.
Few bases carry the historic weight of Liberty, home to the iconic 18th Airborne Corps and its most famous division, the 82nd Airborne. By population, it’s the largest military installation in the country, with over 53,000 active-duty troops stationed there and another 14,000 civilians working on site.
The new name won’t affect the day-to-day functioning of the base, military officials say.
Still, the name change has met resistance from some veterans who say it’s a shining example of the Pentagon’s runaway woke agenda. They argue that this prioritizes political correctness above the effectiveness of America’s armed forces. Defense Department officials vehemently reject those charges.
The base initiative stretches beyond simply changing names. At each base, crews have worked to scrub all references to Confederate figures. In the case of Fort Liberty, that meant finding every plaque, picture, road sign or other reference to the rebel general.
• Ben Wolfgang contributed to this report.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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