STUTTGART, Germany — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday used a visit to an American base in Germany to flag more military base names could be restored after bringing back “Fort Bragg” earlier this week.
“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. It’s an honor to do so,” he said at a press conference.
On Monday, Hegseth signed a memorandum reversing the Biden administration’s decision to rename Fort Bragg as Fort Liberty. The Biden Pentagon renamed the storied North Carolina base in 2023 due to the base being named after Confederate general Gen. Braxton Bragg.
Asked about the renaming, Hegseth said the decision meant “Bragg is back.”
“It means the legacy of an institution that generations of Americans have mobilized through and served at is back. I mean, it’s a shame what was done to vets, service members, their families, who were born there, deployed out of there, lived there…and never called it Fort Liberty because it wasn’t Fort Liberty. It’s Fort Bragg. And so I was honored to be able to put my signature on that,” he said.
He added that the decision was made with the support of President Donald Trump, who he said, “set the tone on this and said, ‘I want Fort Bragg back.’”
Although Hegseth restored the name back to Bragg, it is now named after Army Private First Class Ronald L. Bragg, who fought in World War II against the Nazis.
“We’re honored to support a private first class who received a Purple Heart and the Silver Star at the Battle of the Bulge,”he said.
“We’re honoring a private first class, and I’m proud that we have a Marine corporal as the vice president of the United States, too,” he said, referring to Vice President JD Vance. “Junior enlisted have never seen better days,” joked Hegseth, who retired as an Army major.
“But it’s about that legacy. It’s about the connection to the community, to those who served, and we’re not — as the president has said and I’ve said as well — we’re not done there,” he said. “There are other bases that have been renamed that erodes that very same legacy.”
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