CNN —
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is bringing the name Bragg back to one of the Army’s largest bases, Fort Liberty, which replaced the namesake of a Confederate general in 2023.
But in a memorandum signed Monday, Hegseth instructed the Army to rename the North Carolina military installation in honor of a different Bragg: Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II veteran who was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for extraordinary bravery during the Battle of the Bulge, according to a statement from Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot.
“This change underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation,” Ullyot said.
Before it was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023, the fort was named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, who drew criticism for his combative personality and poor field performance during the Civil War. A naming commission set up by Congress to study renaming bases noted Bragg is “considered one of the worst generals of the Civil War,” and was “widely disliked in the pre-Civil War U.S. Army and within the Confederate Army by peers and subordinates alike.”
The fort was among nine bases that the congressional commission proposed renaming during President Joe Biden’s term. Removing Confederate monikers from US military bases became a contentious political issue in the final months of Donald Trump’s first term. While Trump vetoed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that included the naming commission, Congress voted to override his veto with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The Department of Defense began implementing the naming commission’s recommendations in 2023. Changing the bases back to their former Confederate names would require congressional approval.
The Defense Department will look to rename other bases whose Confederate-era names were changed under the Biden administration, Hegseth said Tuesday.
“We’re not done there,” Hegseth said of Fort Bragg. “There are other bases that have been renamed that erodes that very same legacy. … We’re going to do our best to restore it.”
Rep. Austin Scott, a Georgia Republican who served on the congressional naming commission, told CNN in a statement Tuesday that Hegseth’s move to rename the base complied with the law and that Pfc. Roland Bragg “was an enlisted American hero worthy of having an Army installation named after him.”
“The other bases, Moore, Cavazos, Novosel, etc., are also named after American heroes. I hope we can move forward with the names we have and put this behind us,” Scott said.
Hegseth, a National Guard veteran and former longtime Fox News host, strongly opposed removing the names of Confederate generals from US military bases and has described the renaming efforts as “a sham,” “garbage” and “crap” in various media appearances, CNN previously reported. He has also suggested they should be changed back, particularly Fort. Bragg.
“We should change it back by the way,” he said emphatically when discussing the military installation on a podcast last year. “We should change it back. We should change it back. We should change it back, because legacy matters. My uncle served at Bragg. I served at Bragg. It breaks a generational link.”
Monday’s memo directs the secretary of the Army to carry out Hegseth’s decision “in accordance with applicable laws and regulations” and to provide the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment with a timeline and resources needed to implement the name change.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer, Andrew Kaczynski and Haley Britzky contributed to this report.
