Donald Trump Cheapens History and Memory With the Renaming of Military Bases

(Source: CNN)

I didn’t think they would go through with it. I really thought that last month’s renaming of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg (minus the honoring of a Confederate general) would be the end of it. It’s much easier to revert the name of a base that honors an idea rather than a real person.

How, I wondered, would President Donald Trump and Sec. of Defense Pete Hesgeth justify, for example, renaming Fort Moore? Hal Moore served in the Army from 1945 to 1977, and commanded the Army’s 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment. In 2002, Moore was portrayed by Mel Gibson in the Hollywood movie, “We Were Soldiers.” His wife, Julia Moore, who the base also honors, was key to the creation of teams that do in-person notifications of military casualties.

It turns out that they didn’t think twice about it. I assume that the other bases will also revert back to their former names at some point.

The challenge will be to find former service men and women with the same last names as the original honorees, who are worthy of such an honor.

Notice, however, how this cheapens the entire process. It bears all the markings of Trump, who apparently views even the question of honor and memory as nothing more than a means to an end. This is the same guy, who placed a historical marker on his Virginia golf course to commemorate a fake Civil War battle.

(Source: The Denver Post)

Of course, politics is inescapable when it comes to the naming of federal property, but this reduces the process to a mockery and treats the new honorees as nothing more than political fodder.

The nine military bases that have recently been in the spotlight were originally named in honor of Confederate leaders between 1917 and 1942. The names reflect a broader Civil War memory that largely united white Americans around an assumption that Confederate and United States soldiers, along with their commanders were all honorable men and should be honored as such.

In short, they were all Americans.

Here is President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957 recognizing Robert E. Lee in his list of the four greatest Americans.

Whether you agree with the original names for these military bases or not, they emerged organically from a culture that recognized the shared bravery of Civil War soldiers.

This is what happens when you choose to ignore the respective causes for which they fought along with the roughly 180,000 Black Americans, who helped to defeat the Confederacy.

But what we need to recognize is that public memory is constantly evolving over time. This has been the case going all the way back to ancient Greece and Rome. The factors shaping public memory, including who to honor with monuments and statues, are too numerous to mention. [Check out Erin Thompson’s book, Smashing Statues, if you are just beginning to think about public memory surrounding statues.]

Sometimes the shift is gradual and intentional, but often it comes during moments of sweeping change and revolution.

“Pulling Down the Statue of George III” in 1776 (Source: Encyclopedia Virginia)

Apart from the flurry of monument removals that took place between 2015 and 2024, our understanding of the Civil War and how we choose to commemorate and remember it in our public spaces has gradually changed over the past few decades. But other than a few monuments that were torn down by protesters during this period, communities have taken the time to discuss and decide whether their respective monument landscapes need to be changed.

In the case of the renaming of the nine military bases, the process was intentional as well. A bi-partisan commission was created by Congress in 2021 to review all military assets that honored Confederate generals. The commission carried out its mission, issuing three separate reports and recommending necessary changes.

In regard to the military bases, a list of suggested honorees was offered for consideration. These names were not chosen because they happened to have the right last name (though it is certainly the case that both Cpl. Fred G Benning and Pvt. Ronald Bragg are worthy of being honored), but because of their stories and the extent to which they represent a much larger cross section of the public that has served honorably and bravely in our armed forces.

The question of what to name our military bases should not be treated merely as a political football or as an opportunity to “own the libs.” The men and women who have gone off to war, who served honorably and who paid the ultimate sacrifice deserve much better.

Hal and Julia Moore are the first to be dishonored by the Trump administration, their memory cast aside simply because they had the wrong last name. They will not be the last.