Myron Pitts: Fort Liberty? No, let’s choose one of our heroes for Fort Bragg’s new name
“Fort Liberty.”
That is the proposed new name for Fort Bragg that a congressional commission came up with after many months of discussion and, allegedly, community input.
With all due respect, and as a Fayetteville native: I can’t stand it.
The name sounds generic. The name sounds dull.
Related reading: Why the congressional Naming Commission chose Fort Liberty for Fort Bragg
The Army post soon to be formerly known as Fort Bragg is anything but generic. That post, which began as Camp Bragg in 1918, has a long and storied history that has a veritable hall of heroes. To ignore all of them and choose a name that sounds like it came from a focus group represents a massive missed opportunity.
Ty Seidule, a retired Army one-star general and vice-chair of the Naming Commission, said in a news conference Tuesday: “We listened very carefully to local sensitivities,” in picking the name.
Really?
There were more than 34,000 submissions to the Naming Commission, a list that was eventually narrowed to 87 possible names. “Liberty” was not on the shortlist, Seidule himself says. The eight people on the commission made the choice, he said.
The commission is not necessarily the final word on the name change. It will submit a final report to U.S. Congress by Oct. 1. So, there’s your assignment. If you are similarly unimpressed by the new name, reach out to Congressmen Richard Hudson, whose district includes Fayetteville, and North Carolina’s U.S. Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis.
Meanwhile, I am still scratching my head as to how we got here — to Fort Liberty.
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The goal of the name changes, approved as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, was to remove names connected to the Confederacy from Fort Bragg, eight other Southern installations and other federal assets. That part makes sense.
The rebels fought against the United States of America, and on behalf of the enslavement of Black Americans, so they fought against freedom itself. Their names shouldn’t have been on U.S. installations from the giddy-up.
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As for a new name, I was far from alone in assuming Fort Bragg had an embarrassing wealth of choices, and the only question was who it would be. I looked forward to the Naming Commission's announcement right up until it landed with a thud on Tuesday afternoon.
Now we learn Fort Bragg will be the only one of the nine Southern installations that will NOT be named for a person if the Naming Commission has its way.
That is not a distinction that anyone around here wanted, far as I know.
On the contrary, over the years, I have seen dozens and dozens of perfectly fine names suggested in response to articles I wrote back when a name change for Fort Bragg was only an idea.
They included unassailable possibilities like Gen. Roscoe Robinson Jr., who commanded the 82nd Airborne and was the first African American to become a four-star general; and Gen. Matthew “Bunker” Ridgeway, the 82nd’s first commander and Supreme Allied Commander Europe in World War II.
They included several Medal of Honor recipients, as well. The Naming Commission accepted such a suggestion as a guide for other Army posts. The commission recommended that Fort Pickett, Virginia; Fort Polk, Louisiana, and Fort Rucker, Alabama, all be named for Medal of Honor recipients.
Not to mention, Fort Bragg’s history includes those paratroopers who fought in the D-Day invasion in World War II and in many other wars, and the Special Forces operatives over the years and who are on point at this very hour, the leading edge of national defense.
Seidule said the Liberty name came out of local community meetings. He said it embodies the Special Forces motto, “To free the oppressed” and an 82nd Division song that goes, “We’re all American and proud to be, for we’re the soldiers of liberty.”
Initial social media reaction on The Fayetteville Observer Facebook page and in my Facebook group, Community Conversations with Myron, have not been favorable toward Fort Liberty.
One person called the choice, “lazy.”
One man wrote the name reminded him of the fictional military base on “F Troop,” a 1960s satirical sitcom; someone else responded that the post from the show was named Fort Courage. “Courage” by the way, unlike Liberty, did make the naming commission’s short list.
Deanna L. Rosario wrote: “I literally saw no one comment that we should call it Liberty. We should have kept it as Bragg but for Edward S instead of Braxton.”
It was a reference to a mini-movement to “rename” the base for Braxton Bragg’s Union Army cousin — a move that Rep. Hudson himself favored in an opinion piece.
Many people in the Facebook comments support keeping the name just as is, which is not by law an option. Some vowed they will still call it Fort Bragg, to which I say, fine. Knock yourself out. I am sure there are folks who still call Fayetteville Technical Community College, “FTI.”
Other people are more resigned to the Bragg name change.
I asked N.C. Rep. John Szoka, a veteran, about it.
He said: “If we have to rename Fort Bragg, which Congress decided we have to do, Fort Liberty is fine. I think after a few years people will get used to it.”
He added, however, that something will be lost either way.
During his years of service, Szoka said he worked with military officers from numerous countries: “In every case, there were two U.S. Army posts that they all knew, Fort Bragg and Fort Hood. Fort Bragg for the 82nd Airborne and Special Forces and Fort Hood for armor and mechanized infantry divisions. The mention of those two posts' names always had the same response: great respect for the capabilities and power projection that they possess.”
In my view, that part does not have to change with the name.
The way I see it is that a later generation of foreign officers will all know about Fort Cavazos, the proposed name for Fort Hood, after Gen. Richard Cavazos, a decorated hero of the Vietnam War.
They will also know about Fort Liberty, named for liberty, or if the community actually does get some input, after one of our own heroes.
Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fort Liberty? No, let’s choose a hero for Fort Bragg’s new name
