The eight-member commission tasked with reviewing Department of Defense assets that commemorate the Confederacy has started submitting reports to Congress.
The recommendations are being made in three separate reports.
The first report, “Final Report to Congress, Part I: United States Army Bases,” was released on Aug. 8. It provides Congress with the re-naming recommendations for the nine Army posts on the list.
Two Georgia posts — Fort Gordon and Fort Benning — are among those that may 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.
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The list was released in May; however, this 104-page report explains the commission’s methodology, reasons for the final selections and cost estimates to rename the 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.
In explaining the selection, the report said, “Dwight D. Eisenhower is exemplary amongst his generation in both senses of the word. On the one hand, his story is representative: most Americans from his generation also were workers and witnesses to America’s rise from a nineteenth-century nation still closing its western frontier to a twentieth-century superpower advocating for democracy throughout the world. Yet on the other hand, it is exceptional: few Americans ever played more numerous or central roles in that process than Eisenhower himself.”
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.
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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 report said it would cost just over $21 million to rename the posts.
The second report submitted is “Final Report to Congress, Part II: U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Naval Academy.” It is a 16-page report that has recommendations on items to be renamed and projected costs.
At the U.S. Military Academy, the commission found a dozen assets it recommends be renamed that commemorate Confederate Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, Gen. William J. Hardee and Gen. Robert E. Lee; Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Lt. Gen. Joseph Wheeler; Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and Maj. Gne. Fitzhugh Lee; and Cmdr. John M. Brooke (Confederate States Navy).
The recommendation is to have the Secretary of Defense authorize the Secretary of the Army to begin renaming the assets using an existing memorialization process which includes dedication for living individuals and naming property after famous battle and events. Projected cost is $424,000.
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The commission found just three assets at the U.S. Naval Academy it recommended be renamed, Buchanan House (USNA Superintendent’s Quarters) and Buchanan Road: named for Adm. Franklin Buchanan and Maury Hall (USNA Engineering Building): named for Cmdr. Matthew F. Maury.
The commission also suggested the academy follow its standard memorializing procedures and recommended the Navy Secretary to begin that process. The projected cost is $27,000.
The members of the commission, created by the William M. Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, Retired Adm. Michelle Howard, who chairs the commission, and Retired Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, Vice-Chair; Retired Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick; Jerry Buchannan; Retired Marine Corps Gen. Robert Neller, Lawrence Romo and Dr. Kori Schake. The only elected official on the commission is Georgia Congressman Austin Scott (R-Ga.).
The third and final report will address any remaining Department of Defense assets not included in the first two sections.
That final section must be submitted to Congress no later than Oct. 1.
The entire report will be posted online at www.thenamingcommission.gov/report; parts one and two are available there now.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
