A side by side comparison of the entrance to Fort Moore and the old entrance sign when it was called Fort Benning. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Fort Moore, the Army base in Georgia that is home to infantry and armor training, will once again be called Fort Benning but without ties to the Confederacy, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a memorandum announced Monday.
“I direct the U.S. Army to change the name of Fort Moore, Ga., to Fort Benning, Ga., in honor of Cpl. Fred G. Benning, who served with extraordinary heroism during World War I,” Hegseth wrote.
The Army base, founded in 1918, was named for Henry Benning, a local resident who worked as a lawyer and a judge before joining the Confederate army and rising to general. A slave owner, Benning never served in the U.S. Army and worked, even after the Civil War, to promote racial segregation and white supremacy, according to historians.
The base was renamed in 2023 for Army Lt. Gen. Hal and his wife Julie Moore after Congress mandated the Pentagon rid its installations of names and items honoring those who served the Confederacy.
Congress created the Naming Commission in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act — the annual must-pass bill that sets Congress’ policy and spending priorities for the Pentagon — charging the panel with identifying all items in the Defense Department inventory associated with the Confederacy.
In a 2022 report, the panel that oversaw the name-changing process included several Bennings who were nominated for consideration for the post’s name. Only one appeared to have ties to the Army — Cpl. Fred G. Benning.
Born in Norfolk, Neb., Benning enlisted in the Army in April 1917. He served in the Machine-Gun Company, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division of the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I.
Benning was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross — the Army’s second-highest award for battlefield valor — for heroic actions on Oct. 9, 1918, as an 18-year-old fighting in France. After the enemy killed his platoon commander and disabled two senior non-commissioned officers, Benning took command of the surviving 20 men of his company and courageously led them through heavy fire to their assigned objective in support of the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
After returning home, Benning was elected mayor of Neligh, Neb., Hegseth wrote. Benning died in May 1974.
“As we rename Fort Benning, I further direct the Army to honor the legacy of Lt. Gen. Harold ‘Hal’ Moore’s storied military service and Julia ‘Julie’ Moore’s family and casualty notification advocacy in a manner that celebrates their significant contributions to the local community and the Army,” Hegseth said.
The defense secretary last month made good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to restore the name Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty by issuing an order to rename the North Carolina base for a different Bragg — World War II Silver Star recipient Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, instead of its longtime namesake, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.
Under current law, Hegseth cannot name Defense Department assets or properties for individuals tied to the Confederacy.
The children of Army Lt. Gen. Hal and Julie Moore, for whom Fort Moore was renamed in 2023, urged Hegseth to consider their parents’ legacy before removing their name from the post.
“Hal and Julie Moore still represent the values and culture and competencies that Secretary of Defense [Hegseth] is saying he wants in our force and in the [Defense] Department,” said Dave Moore, Hal and Julie’s youngest child who retired from the Army as colonel in 2011 after serving tours in Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan. “The combination of Hal and Julie Moore as namesake gives the Department of Defense the opportunity to embrace honor, integrity, competency, selfless service, and gives the Department of Defense the opportunity to reinforce their support for Army families and Army spouses.
“I think it’s a win for the Department of Defense if they do nothing.”
Hal Moore was a revered warrior who served in the Korean War and earned the Distinguished Service Cross in Vietnam for lifesaving heroics during the war’s first major battle before rising to a three-star general. His wife, Julie, meanwhile held their family together through more than two dozen moves and served as an activist for Army families. The daughter of an Army officer, she was a lifelong volunteer for the American Red Cross, and she is also credited with revamping the Pentagon’s casualty notification process to ensure such news was delivered by uniformed Army officers, after she witnessed families being notified of Vietnam casualties by telegrams delivered by taxi drivers in Columbus, Ga. Both Moores are buried on the Georgia Army post.
Hegseth has said the Army bases should be reverted to Fort Benning and Fort Bragg because they tie generations of soldiers together.
“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. There are other bases that have been renamed that erodes that very same legacy,” Hegseth said last month in Germany. “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 who have connections, and we’re going to do our best to restore it.”
