Fort Hood, Texas Getty Images / Drew Anthony Smith
Here’s the List of 87 Potential New Names for Confederate-Named Army Posts
The congressionally mandated commission will send its final recommendations in October.
The federal Naming Commission has released a list of 87 potential names for nine posts named for Confederate generals.
The list—which includes historical military figures, recent Medal of Honor recipients, and more—was drawn from a total of 3,670 unique names among the 34,000-plus submissions the congressionally mandated commission received via its website and during members’ visits to the posts and surrounding communities, according to a Thursday press release.
The Army posts being renamed are Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Rucker, Alabama; Fort Polk, Louisiana; Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia; and Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee, and Fort Pickett in Virginia.
“It’s important that the names we recommend for these installations appropriately reflect the courage, values and sacrifices of our diverse military men and women,” Michelle Howard, the retired Navy admiral who chairs the commission, said in the statement. “We also are considering the local and regional significance of names and their potential to inspire and motivate our service members.”
The list of 87 names the commissioners will choose from includes many that soldiers and veterans would recognize, like Omar Bradley and President Dwight Eisenhower. Some of the options would rename a post for two people, such as Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart, Medal of Honor recipients in the Battle of Mogadishu. Other Medal of Honor recipients on the list include Audie Murphy, Alwyn Cashe, and Sadao Munemori.
Several women are also on the list, including Emily Perez, Mary Walker, Harriet Tubman, and Mildred Kelly.
Created by Congress in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, the commission is authorized to make recommendations not just for the nine Army posts but of any military installation or asset—think ships, buildings, or roads—that honor those who served in the Confederacy.
The commissioners plan to have more engagements with post officials and their communities to discuss the names, according to their website. They will send their final recommendations and a renaming plan to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees by Oct. 1.
One installation that will not be renamed is Fort Belvoir in Virginia, which was renamed in 1935 after a Colonial-era plantation. The commissioners concluded that it did not fit the criteria set by Congress to receive a new name, according to the release. The commission will recommend that the Defense Department undertake their own renaming review for Belvoir.