Changing Fort Gordon’s name to Fort Eisenhower has been approved.
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder announced Oct. 6 that Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III issued a “Memorandum on Implementation of the Naming Commission’s Recommendations.”
“I concur with all of the Naming Commission’s recommendations, including the renaming plan. In the words of Admiral Michelle M. Howard, the Naming Commission’s chair, the commission’s goal was to inspire Service members and military communities ‘with names or values that have meaning,’” Austin said in the memo.
The naming commission had released “Final Report to Congress, Part I: United States Army Bases” on Aug. 8 followed by “Final Report to Congress, Part II: U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Naval Academy” on Aug. 29, according to a previous article in The Augusta Press. It submitted its plans well before the Oct. 1 deadline.
Two Georgia posts — Fort Gordon and Fort Benning — are among those to be renamed. The others are Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Bragg, N.C. Fort Rucker, Ala.; Fort Polk, La.; and Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee and Fort Pickett in Virginia.
“Final Report to Congress, Part III: Remaining Department of Defense Assets” covered items not included in the earlier reports, including the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. It also includes estimated costs for renaming all assets.
In May, the commission released the list of names it recommended to rename the Army posts.
The commission recommended Fort Gordon be renamed Fort Eisenhower, in honor of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was also a four-star general in the U.S. Army. The medical center at Fort Gordon is already named in his honor.
“I absolutely think it is a great idea to rename this fort and do away with the name of Gordon,” said Retired Brig. Gen. Jeff Foley, of Evans, who commanded Fort Gordon from 2007 to 2010 in a May article in The Augusta Press. “I am a big fan of that.”
Fort Gordon was founded as Camp Gordon in 1941. It was named for John Brown Gordon, a major general in the Confederate Army who later served as governor of Georgia and as a U.S. senator.
The commission recommended renaming Fort Benning, Ga. to Fort Moore in honor of Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife Julia Moore. Fort Benning was named after Henry L. Benning, a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. He was also a judge on the Georgia Supreme Court, according to previous Augusta Press articles.
The commission recommended renaming Fort Bragg, N.C. to Fort Liberty; Fort A.P. Hill, Va. To Fort Walker, Fort Hood, Texas to Fort Cavazos, Fort Lee, Va. To Fort Gregg-Adams, Fort Pickett, Va. to Fort Barfoot, Fort Polk, La. To Fort Johnson and Fort Rucker, Ala. To Fort Novosel.
The estimated cost to complete the entire process is just over $62.4 million. That includes $21 million for recommendations in part one and $451,000 for those in part two.
“I fully support the efforts and recommendations of the Naming Commission on this important matter, and I am committed to implementing all of the Commission’s recommendations as soon as possible, subject to the expiration of the 90-day waiting period mandated by section 370(g), and no later than January 1, 2024,” said Austin.
