U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reversed one of the more Orwellian policies inflicted upon the U.S. military in recent years by changing the name of Fort Liberty, N.C. back to Fort Bragg.
This change was part of the "Naming Commission" which still seeks to erase much of the history of the United States, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.
Perhaps even more wasteful, the commission wastes time of those rightfully entrusted with providing for and honoring our national defense.
The name of Fort Bragg had its origins from Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.
The names of Confederate generals were commonly used to name military posts in the southern United States for several reasons, to include gaining local support and recognition, as well as a gesture of reconciliation.
Many of the forts in question were named when there were still many living Civil War Veterans on both sides.
These Veterans, though in their latter years, attended their final reunions and re-enacted their battles against each other before embracing the very Americans whom they had attempted to kill decades before in the Civil War.
Ironically, there was one Army post named after northern general in the American South, Ft. McClellan, Alabama after George B. McClellan, who was not a great commander.
This writer doesn't care about McClellan or Bragg.
What this writer cares about, and strongly, is the pride that came from serving Fort McClellan and Fort Bragg.
Four months after leaving active duty, and having just completed my first full time semester of college, this writer saw that Fort McClellan, Alabama was closed as an active-duty post.
When that happened, the sadness was not because of George McClellan.
What was missed were the memories of this writer's first real stay away from home, the beauty of the American South, and even of the drill sergeants yelling; not to hurt us but to prepare our company for the rigors of combat.
A few years later, this writer was deployed out of Ft. Bragg to go to Afghanistan.
Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg was far from this writer's mind.
Make no mistake, the pride about being at a post where so many Special Operations and other professionals were at and, where my father went to basic training in 1966, was clear.
Let's be clear, there is not a large-scale racism problem in the military perpetuated by "white rage."
Are there radicals and idiots in any large organization, whether they be white, Black, Hispanic, Asian, etc.?
Racism on all sides should be dealt with.
But not throwing the baby with the bathwater in so doing.
Segregation had a definite effect on the lethality of our Armed Forces.
The ending of that sin was begun by then-President Harry Truman’s executive order and implementation of that order was finished under President Dwight D. Eisenhower (the latter president often being "forgotten" in the area of civil rights).
There is no evidence that the names of bases, whose last names were Confederate generals, had a negative impact on our warfighting.
What was evident is the drop in morale from the name changes as well as the subsequent recruiting challenges.
Also not helped by all the other social engineering issues, failure to win wars, double standards for senior leaders versus enlisted and scaling back of standards such as eliminating Shark Attack and not being allowed to call trainees "Private" or "Lower Enlisted."
Ironically, the left is now saying things such as "Look at the waste of money on a name change."
Really?
This writer recalls a few conservatives saying that years ago not only during the name change but the multimillion-dollar process that proceeded it!
Thankfully, Secretary Hegseth did not have to name an Orwellian sounding Naming Commission costing millions of dollars.
Our new defense secretary simply used common sense.
If the left had not been so bent on changing the name, they would have discovered there was a World War II hero named Roland Bragg, who ironically had served at Ft. Bragg, that was a suitable name.
That's what Secretary Hegseth saw and did.
His common sense is a welcome change and indicative of the need of our military to focus not on DEI but our president’s warfighting priorities; to make our military lethal to the poimnt of readily deterring war.
If failing that, the military should utterly destroy the enemies of this country, on the physical battlefield, in the air, on the seas, as well as in the realms of space and our emergent cyberworld.
(A related story may be found here.)
*Views in this article are those of the author and not any government agency.
Larry Provost has written for Townhall, Fox News, The Baltic Times and InFocus (Jewish Policy Center) and has appeared on several television outlets, including "FOX News @Night with Shannon Bream." He holds degrees from several colleges and is a veteran of the World Trade Center search and rescue, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He and his wife are adoptive parents. Read more Larry Provost reports — Here.
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