Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has, for the second time, reversed the renaming of a US military base, saying that Fort Moore in Georgia should revert back to being called Fort Benning, the AP reports. The move reflects an ongoing effort by the Pentagon to overturn the Biden administration's 2023 decision to remove names that honored Confederate leaders, including for nine Army bases. But the drive to revert to the former names means finding service members with the same name as the Confederate leaders. Previously, Fort Benning was named for Brig. Gen. Henry L. Benning, a Confederate officer during the American Civil War who stridently opposed the abolition of slavery. Now, Hegseth said, Fort Benning will be named in honor of Cpl. Fred G. Benning, a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross who served in France during World War I.
The renaming of bases is resulting in decisions that insult the military heroes whose names were selected in the 2023 process, including Lt. Gen. Harold Gregory Moore Jr. and his wife, Julia. Moore is a revered military leader who earned the Distinguished Service Cross for valor and fought in the Battle of Ia Drang in the Vietnam War. And Julia Moore was key to the creation of teams that do in-person notifications of military casualties. It's not clear how much the renaming will cost, but the expense comes as the Trump administration is trying to find savings through Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. (Hegseth previously reverted Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg.)