(Headline USA) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed an order restoring the name of a storied special operations forces base in North Carolina back to Fort Bragg and said Tuesday that there will be more name changes coming.
Speaking to reporters in Germany, Hegseth hinted at a wholesale reversal of the broader Biden administration effort in 2023 to remove names that honored Confederate leaders, including nine Army bases.
“As the president has said, and I’ve said as well, we’re not done there,” Hegseth said Tuesday when asked about the decision to revert the base name from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, but changing the service member it commemorates. “I never called it Fort Liberty because it wasn’t Fort Liberty. It’s Fort Bragg.”
Hegseth said the original name is a legacy for troops who lived and served there and that it was a shame to change it. He said he deliberately referred to Bragg and Fort Benning—the Army base in Columbus, Georgia, which is now called Fort Moore—as he entered the Pentagon on his first day.
“There are other bases that have been renamed that erodes that very same legacy,” he said. “There’s a reason I said Bragg and Benning when I walked into the Pentagon on day one. But it’s not just Bragg and Benning. There are a lot of other service members that have connections. And we’re going to do our best to restore it.”
The North Carolina base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023.
Hegseth is renaming the base to honor Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, who the Army said was a World War II hero who earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart for exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.
Army officials said they do not have any cost estimates yet for changing the name again to Fort Bragg.
On Tuesday, the Army released an initial service verification for Bragg, who was born in Webster, Maine, and served as a toxic gas handler from July 1943 to November 1945.
Bragg deployed to England from August 1944 to August 1945 and left the Army in the rank of private first class, Army spokesman Maj. Travis Shaw said.
Bragg’s awards include the World War II Victory Medal, the Silver Star Medal, the Purple Heart Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze stars, a Parachute Badge and a Combat Infantry Badge, Shaw said.
In a video posted on X announcing the renaming, Hegseth said, “That’s right. Bragg is back!”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
