‘Fort Ridgway’ memories: In Fayetteville, I found a great community

This past week, I retired from the Army after 27 years of service. While I’ve served all around the world — Korea, Germany, Southwest Texas, Florida, much of the American southeast — the most memorable and meaningful time in the Army was at the Home of the Airborne and Special Operations.

Most people in the Army who know of me recognize my name from my time as spokesman and public affairs officer on Fort Bragg. It’s from these positions that my then-stagnant career was given a second life. It was most certainly the most successful five-year period of my adult life.

I had an unusual route to Fayetteville: While most Army officers with extensive Bragg/Liberty time arrived at the post early in their careers and never left, I did not get to the post until my 18th year in service. My arrival came at a momentous time: 2016, one year prior to the centennial anniversary of the 82nd Airborne Division.

I arrived with trepidation, knowing that most of my peers had extensive service on the base and were well-integrated into the Fayetteville community. My wife and I had also heard the community derisively referred to as “Fayette-Nam,” a holdover from an era of municipal waste and urban violence that no longer exists in the community.

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What I found almost immediately is that I’ve never served at an Army base that carries the pride, esprit de corps, companionship and respect for legacy as this one. I’ve found that no community — not outside of forts Bliss, Stewart, Benning, Sill, or Polk — considers itself a part of its installation and its soldiers and families alike as the residents of Cumberland, Hoke, Moore and Scotland counties.

Further, we found that this is a community that takes pride in its industrial growth, tranquility and familial atmosphere. The hospitality we found in Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Pinehurst, Southern Pines and Hope Mills is unmatched in any of our 14 other military assignments.

Consequential moments

We arrived at a time of transition from the Global War on Terror to the Great Power Competition. From counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan to preparation for major theater war in Indo-Pacific. Throughout this transition, the community and military leaders leaned on the rich legacy handed down by generations of paratroopers.

My time as a senior Army spokesman at Fort Bragg and then Liberty was filled with consequential moments. Many current Paratroopers remember them:

• The 2017 All American Week — a grand celebration of the 100th anniversary of America’s most prestigious military organization.

• Dragon’s Lair — The installation’s enormously popular "Shark Tank"-style innovation contest for paratroopers.

• The inception of the 82nd Airborne Division holiday concert, a tradition that began under my watch in December 2017 and continues with great success to this day.

• The conversion of Towle Stadium into the Fort Bragg Thunderdome for the 2018 mixed martial arts tournament.

• The death of legendary paratrooper Rock Merritt, a man who embodied the ethos, history and values of the installation.

• I wrote a 2017 Memorial Ceremony speech that is still remembered and that continues to inspire and evoke emotion.

• Yes, as many recall, I was the woebegone Fort Bragg spokesman navigating through the disastrous October 2020 Twitter scandal (and, no, I was not the author of the carnal tweets at the center of the storm).

‘Fort Ridgway’

I left Fort Bragg in the spring of 2021, just as the Congressional Naming Commission was identifying a new moniker for the installation. I privately advocated for Fort Ridgway: Matthew B. Ridgway was the most important paratrooper in American history and his impact on the world extends beyond his time on Bragg and to his service in the Far East and across Europe at critical moments for our nation.

Further, Ridgway had a salubrious impact on American society: As commander of all United Nations forces during the Korean War, Ridgway forced the racial integration of all units under his command in 1951. This process shamed the Army into belatedly and begrudgingly acting on President Harry Truman's military desegregation order of 1948.

Like many paratroopers, I hold the name “Liberty” in derision — the installation’s rich culture and distinct lineage deserves a name more meaningful than an easy bromide. Certainly, “Bragg” never made sense — the shameful legacy of failed Confederate General Braxton Bragg was an embarrassment for a post that has served our national interests so well for so long.

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“Liberty,” however, is as bad or worse — our most storied installation deserves a name commensurate with its legacy. “Liberty” just doesn’t get it done. The renaming of the installation will stand as a missed opportunity to match the installation with a sobriquet that offers a measure of pride to its troops, veterans, families and community members.

In my mind, the post is now and forever Fort Ridgway; let the title of this opinion piece stand as my protest against a thoughtless decision that should be formally reconsidered.

Nonetheless, Fort Liberty is what we’ve got — at least until our military’s political overlords determine to change the name again.

Meanwhile, I depart military service with memories of early mornings on Ardennes, collecting my T-11 main on Sicily Drop Zone, Iron Mike, the wonders contained in the 82nd Airborne Division Museum, waiting endlessly in a mass of paratroopers at Green Ramp.

It’s those memories that will carry me through the rest of my days.

Retired Army Col. Joe Buccino is a former spokesman and public affairs officer on the former Fort Bragg, now Fort Liberty.

Note: An earlier version of this column included an incorrect rank for Col. Buccino and a misspelling of Gen. Ridgway's name. Both were editing errors.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: ‘Fort Ridgway’ memories: In Fayetteville, I found a great community