Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signs a memo reversing the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg while flying in a C-17 to Stuttgart, Germany, Feb. 10, 2025. (Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Navy)
Fort Liberty, the Army’s largest post, is once again Fort Bragg, but without the Confederate tie.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the base renamed Monday while enroute to Stuttgart, Germany, from Joint Base Andrews, Md., aboard an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, according to Pentagon chief spokesman John Ullyot.
“Bragg is back,” Hegseth said after signing the order that changes the name to Fort Roland L. Bragg, according to a video on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
The name change refers not to Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, for whom the base was named in 1918, but to Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, “a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge,” Ullyot said in a news release.
“This change underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation,” the release states.
Bragg, a building mover and sawmill operator from Sabbatus, Maine, was an Army paratrooper in Europe who “saw considerable action during World War II” and died in Nobleboro, Maine, at age 75 in 1999, according to his obituary on MaineMason.org.
Bragg, a Mason, was captured briefly during the war by a German soldier, also a Mason, who let Bragg escape, his daughter Linda French said in the obituary.
“The guy said, ‘hit me over the head and take off,’ and he did and took off with an ambulance,” French said in the obituary. Bragg drove the ambulance, with other prisoners on board, through enemy fire to safety.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signs a memo reversing the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg while flying in a C-17 to Stuttgart, Germany, Feb. 10, 2025. (Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Navy)
The North Carolina base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 after a yearslong process mandated by Congress at the end of President-elect Donald Trump’s first term to rid the military of ties to the Confederacy.
Trump promised on the campaign trail last year that he would reinstate Fort Bragg as the Army post’s name and work to return Confederate-linked names to eight other Southern bases changed in 2023.
Stars and Stripes reporter Wyatt Olson contributed to this report.
