Hegseth Renames Military Base 'Fort Bragg,' But Not After Confederate General

The cost of renaming the base just a few years ago totaled around $8 million.

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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. It sets up a potentially costly, complicated and delicate process that could run afoul of the law.

“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.”