After watching the relative non-event of former President Trump’s indictment and the subsequent press conference by New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg, I’ll confess that I had a rather impertinent thought when I came across an article from one of the local TV news sites showing that the signs announcing you’ve arrived at my hometown are already being dismantled.
So far I’ve resisted the urge to weigh in with my take on the looming change to my hometown’s name as part of the larger effort of purging the names of people who served in the Confederate Army from current military installations.
First and foremost, I truly get it that the times have changed and names that were chosen many years ago to court the support of the the people of the southern states that were going to be hosting these military installations would be a constant reminder of the Jim Crow laws and segregation that were the lasting legacy of the Civil War.
I get it that honouring people who swore allegiance to the Confederacy and took up arms against their own country to defend a way of life that included enslaving human beings is not something our current society wishes to perpetuate.
But I do have to say that it seems that Ft Bragg has kind of gotten singled out for the worst instance of this rebranding exercise.
If you notice, all of the other installations were named after noteworthy people who had some sort of connection to that particular base.
Don’t get me wrong…I’m as big a fan of the concept of liberty as the average American and I really love the work of that lady in green in New York harbour who is far more welcoming to immigrants and refugees to our country than pretty much any President’s administration (Republican or Democrat) in my lifetime and beyond.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
“The New Colossus” — Emma Lazarus
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
But are you seriously going to expect me to accept that we couldn’t find some noteworthy person who had a connection to Ft Bragg that would be an even more excellent choice as the name of America’s largest and arguably most famous Army base?
I remember one of the first names that was mooted was General Roscoe Robinson Jr and after looking over his CV, he’d have been an excellent choice for Ft Bragg. First African-American to command the 82nd Airborne Division and first African-American four-star general.
Talk about ticking *ALL* of the boxes!
That was a name that we could all get behind without any hesitation!
Fort Liberty just seems to rock the MEH by comparison.
So then I got to thinking, naming the base after General Braxton Bragg was an epic troll in 1918 well before trolling became a high art. Maybe this is the naming commission returning the favour over a hundred years later?
Braxton Bragg was widely considered to be the worst general the Confederacy ever sent into the field and that’s even allowing for the dubious theories that he was often sabotaged by his subordinate Maj General Leonidas Polk.
What is undeniable is that the vast majority of battles he fought ended in retreat or outright defeat. He was despised by his officers and soldiers for his generally poor strategic skills, his quick temper, and overzealous discipline that tended to destroy what little morale his army had. It was a miracle that he wasn’t shot by his own men before Jefferson Davis tired of him and relieved him of his command to serve in the rather humiliating position of being a military advisor with no direct authority.
I can imagine the guys who were naming the brand spanking new artillery training ground just west of Fayetteville in 1918 trying desperately to keep a straight face as they’re proposing to name the place “Camp Bragg”.
And failing miserably! 🙂
I’ve come to accept the inevitability that I’m likely to see the new signs the next time I drive to Fayetteville and honestly, I’m not sure if I’m going to laugh, cry, roll my eyes in an epic eyeroll, or a combination of all three.
I believe the renaming exercise is a ginormous waste of money and resources (currently estimated to cost $62.5m of which the most expensive base to rename is by far…you guessed it…Ft Bragg!) that could have been better spent on educating people on the context of the names and provide much needed funds for supply and maintenance of materiel for our soldiers.
I hate to admit that I actually agreed with President Trump’s veto of the defence authorisation act for 2021 even though we know the real reason for that veto wasn’t his faux outrage at base renaming which had no real effect upon his life unlike those of us who were born on those bases but rather his desire to trash Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 so that he could take on websites critical of his administration.
Even so, I wasn’t terribly sad to see the House and Senate quickly override his veto knowing that with all of the statues being pulled down that the renaming was going to happen sooner or later so we might as well just get it over with.
So yes, they can rename Ft Bragg to Ft Liberty but what name do you think is going to come to mind when someone asks me where I’m from?
What do you think I’m going to actually tell them?
Whatever the powers-that-be want to call the place, I was born on Ft Bragg and I’ll be proud of that until the day I’m gone.
Until then, given they’re doing such a big rebrand of my old hometown, I’ll be more than happy to suggest they licence a new mascot to proudly advertise the new name: Captain Liberty from the live-action “Tick” series! 😉
