Defense Department changes Fort Moore's name back to Fort Benning
The Pentagon announced Monday that Fort Moore, formerly named Fort Benning for a Confederate general, will again be named Fort Benning, although it will now honor a different Benning.
Defense Secretary Hegseth in a statement said the base will now honor Cpl. Fred G. Benning, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his extraordinary heroism in action during World War I, when he served in the U.S. Army in France in 1918. Benning died in 1974. The base was originally named for Lt.-Gen. Henry Benning, a Confederate general and Southern secessionist who opposed freeing slaves.
A congressionally mandated commission, the Naming Commission, recommended in 2022 that nine bases, including Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, should receive new names.
Eight of the bases were subsequently renamed for people, and Fort Bragg was given the name Fort Liberty.
In 2023, Fort Benning was renamed Fort Moore to honor a couple, Hal and Julie Moore, marking the first time a military spouse had received such a recognition. The Naming Commission recommended the Moores because of Hal's 32-year-career in the Army and Julie's support as a spouse, as well as their devotion to helping Army families even after they retired.
"Their story is representative of millions of other military families throughout our history, who have often endured many travels and movements, putting the nation's needs ahead of their personal preferences," the Naming Commission's final report said of the Moores.
While Hal was deployed, Julie took issue with the impersonal telegram notifications that delivered the news of the death of a loved one, so she took it upon herself to accompany cabbies to deliver notices and offer condolences. Her efforts led to the creation of the modern casualty notification teams who do this difficult job today.
"She raised hell," Hal Moore said in an oral history kept in the Vietnam Archives at Texas Tech University. "She raised a fuss all the way up to stop that inhumane practice."
Defense Secretary Hegseth signaled on his first day at the Pentagon that the name changes were coming when he referred to Fort Liberty and Fort Moore by their original names of Fort Bragg and Fort Benning.
After he directed Fort Liberty to be renamed Fort Bragg, Hegseth said, "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."
Steve Moore, one of Hal and Julie Moore's sons, wrote an essay in a military newsletter, the War Horse, after Fort Bragg was renamed, expressing disappointment about the possibility the Pentagon would restore Fort Benning's name.
"Those who advocate for changing the name to honor a person solely because they happen to be named "Benning" ignore the values and character of Hal and Julie Moore as well as their courage, competency, and dedication to the nation and Army families," Steve Moore wrote.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Historic Army locomotive finds new home in Abilene
ABILENE (KSNT) – Abilene is welcoming in a 1940's-era Army locomotive this week that will be added to the list of other historic engines which call the town home. The Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad (ASVRR) announced on June 12 that it has added a restored Alco/GE 44-ton locomotive to its collection of historic locomotives. The engine, which goes by the name of 'IKE,' was constructed in 1940 for use by the Army. The ASVRR reported the engine was originally purchased by the Arkansas Interurban line in Wichita, Kansas and later served the Army in San Bernadino, California. The locomotive takes its name from Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the U.S., who was serving in the Army in the same time frame as the engine was in service. Found an arrowhead in Kansas? Archaeologist urges you to leave it alone Staff with the ASVRR and Heritage Rail Management began extensive renovation work on the locomotive in 2024. This included the addition of new wheels, a new engine, mechanical upgrades and a new coat of paint. Mary Jean Eisenhower, granddaughter of Dwight, officially christened the locomotive on Sunday, June 8 at the 1887 Rock Island Depot in Abilene. You can learn more about what Abilene has to offer with historical attractions by clicking here. 'Castle on the Kaw' for sale at $888,000 in Topeka For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
30 Mass. National Guard troops with historic ties to Revolution marching in DC Army parade
WASHINGTON — Thirty National Guard soldiers from Massachusetts are in Washington this week, marching in Saturday's controversial — and costly — Army parade. They are members of the 1st Battalion, 182nd Infantry Regiment, headquartered at the Melrose Armory. They are part of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 42nd Infantry Division, headquartered in Syracuse, N.Y. 'As one of the four oldest units in the U.S. military, soldiers from the 1-182 Infantry were among the Massachusetts militia who first formed the ranks of the Continental Army on Cambridge Common in 1775,' said Lt. Col. Landon Mavrelis, commander, 1st Battalion, 182nd Infantry Regiment, in a statement. The 42nd 'Rainbow' Division is one of the eight Army National Guard divisions in the parade, said Eric Durr, spokesman for the New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs. Eleven of the Army's 19 divisions are participating. The 42nd was created during World War I by taking National Guard units from 26 states and creating a special division that could go quickly to France in the fall of 1917. The division was organized in Garden City, Long Island, and was nicknamed 'The Rainbow Division.' The division's first chief of staff, Douglas MacArthur — who later commanded American forces in World War II — said the division would 'stretch across the country like a rainbow.' 'The legacy forged by Rainbow Division soldiers on battlefields across France marked the 42d ID as one of the premier divisions of the American Expeditionary Force. We are honored to represent our predecessors, and all brave Americans who fought in that conflict 100 years ago,' said Major Gen. Jack James, the commander of the 42nd Infantry Division. James will lead the contingent along with a color guard. Another 30 soldiers from the 42nd Infantry Division Band, headquartered at the Camp Smith Training Site near Peekskill, New York, also will march. The parade officially commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Army's founding in 1775. But the date Saturday also coincides with President Donald Trump's birthday, raising questions about the appropriateness of soldiers participating in what could be a political event. The parade is expected to cost $45 million. The Massachusetts soldiers left for Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and will return Sunday, according to the New York Guard. According to a statement from New York State, soldiers will be housed in an empty Department of Agriculture office building and an unused General Services Administration warehouse, just as they were for the inauguration. The soldiers will receive meals ready-to-eat, or MREs, for breakfast and lunch, and a hot meal for dinner along with per-diem of about $69. The cost is being picked up by the Army. Getting the construction industry 'Sublime ready' with or without the federal government With a makeover, Uncle Sam rises again for East Longmeadow's 4th of July Bankruptcy protection ends for ESG Clean Energy, Holyoke generating plant linked to Scuderi engine Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
How three pizza restaurants predicted Israel's attack on Iran
You can understand why the stress of an all-nighter at the coalface in the Pentagon might lead to an urgent need for carbs, but the next time the world is on the brink of a major conflict, the US Department of Defense might consider sending out for burgers. Their pizza deliveries have become the subject of intense speculation. An account on X, Pentagon Pizza Report, has taken to monitoring the traffic at pizza takeaway spots in Arlington County, Virginia, home of America's military headquarters. And such is the apparent reliability of the so-called 'pizza index', it is now being cited by Open-Source Intelligence sleuths who usually rely on live flight-tracking data, and satellite imagery of troop movements, to spot the early signs of military strikes. On Thursday night, at around 7pm Eastern Standard Time, any establishment slinging dough within three miles of the Pentagon saw a sudden spike in footfall. 'As of 6:59pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity.' Only about 10 minutes later, there was a significant drop in footfall in each of these locations. It was as if a gap between meetings had prompted a flurry of takeaway and delivery orders which then tailed off again as work resumed. At 23:55 (by which time most restaurants had closed) one takeaway which stays open until midnight suddenly showed 'busier than usual' activity. 'With minutes left before close District Pizza Palace which is not too far from the Pentagon is experiencing a huge surge in traffic.' Last-minute orders before staff would be forced to resort to whatever was left in the vending machines, perhaps? It's understandable – no one wants a Bounty in a crisis. Five miles away, the Domino's locations near The White House were also experiencing 'above average levels of traffic'. Meanwhile, it was crickets at the local post-work watering holes. Come 10pm and Freddie's Beach Bar, 'the closest gay bar to the Pentagon' had 'abnormally low traffic for a Thursday night. Potentially indicating a busy night at the Pentagon.' And a busy night it was. An hour and a half after the 7pm spike at the pizza restaurants near the Pentagon, explosions were heard in Tehran and Israel's defence minister Israel Katz said the country had launched a 'preemptive strike against Iran.' Asked what 'heads-up' the United States received about the attack, Trump later told the Wall Street Journal: 'Heads-up? It wasn't a heads-up. It was, we know what's going on.' Puerile, perhaps, to use Google's restaurant footfall data to track the ebb and flow of tension in the Pentagon, which houses 24,000 military and civilian employees, and the White House Situation Room, as Israel launched air strikes on Iran. But over the years, pizza delivery patterns in central D.C. have, bizarrely, proven to be an indicator of major geopolitical events. So much so that in an interview in 2010, Wolf Blitzer, who was CNN's military affairs reporter before becoming White House correspondent in 1992, said: 'I always knew there was some sort of crisis going on in the West Wing after hours when I saw the arrival of pizzas. Bottom line for journalists: always monitor the pizzas.' On August 1 1990, pizza orders are said to have spiked as Saddam Hussein prepared to invade Kuwait the following day. When Operation Desert Storm was launched in 1991, Frank Meeks, who owned 59 Domino's franchises in the Washington area, told news outlets his orders soared every time military action was imminent. In 1998, he told the LA Times, there was a similarly busy night during Clinton's impeachment hearings. Meeks claimed that there were telltale signs when a crisis was afoot: the top brass and military analysts took comfort in extra cheese and meat toppings. In December 1998, with Operation Desert Fox (a major bombing campaign against Iraq) underway, 'the White House ordered 32 per cent more extra-cheese pizzas than normal', the Washington Post reported. Meanwhile, some say the pizza theory dates back to the Cold War, when Soviet intelligence services were said to have monitored deliveries, deeming a spike to be a sign the US was on manoeuvres. It sounds far-fetched, although those paying close attention to the recent rising tensions between Israel and Iran may have learned more from monitoring @PenPizzaReport than the X account of US defence journalists. On April 13 2024, there was a spike in traffic at the capital's pizza restaurants shortly after Iran launched drones into Israeli territory. Google says its live charts showing how busy individual restaurants and takeaways are is based on 'aggregated and anonymised data' from the devices of those who share their location history with the search giant. That, in theory, could include both customers picking up their own takeaway orders, and drivers working for food delivery firms. The charts themselves offer little detail about the surge in footfall. Did the military top brass send Pentagon interns out to fetch their pizzas on Thursday night? Or did Uber Eats have a particularly busy evening? The Domino's at 2602 Columbia Pike – the closest to the Pentagon, with a 3.8 rating – is an eight-minute drive away. Faster, you'd imagine, on a delivery bike, and a good 50-minute walk. You can't keep the generals waiting for their potato wedges. Who knows what button they might press when they're hangry. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
