1-star: Posts named for soldiers, not Confederate cause

Posted 2015-06-25 15:35 by Grunt Report with 0 comments

The Army is responding to an article pointing out that many of its posts — including some of its largest installations — are named after Confederate generals.

The debate comes after the tragic church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, and questions about why the state still flies the Confederate battle flag on its capitol grounds. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has called for the flag to be removed, and several large retailers, including Wal-Mart and Amazon, have announced plans to stop selling the flag and related items.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Rucker, Alabama and Fort Lee, Virginia, are among the posts listed in the article in Time.

“Every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history,” said Brig. Gen. Malcolm Frost, chief of public affairs, in a statement Wednesday. “Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies.”

Frost added: “It should be noted that the naming occurred in the spirit of reconciliation, not division.”

In his article, Mark Thompson wrote: “It’s tough to top the historical amnesia that has let the Confederate flag fly over the South Carolina capitol for more than half a century. But the U.S. Army certainly can give Columbia’s banner a run for its money: it operates posts named for nine Confederate generals and a colonel, including the head of its army, the reputed Georgia chief of the Ku Klux Klan and the commander whose troops fired the first shots of the Civil War.”

Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told Thompson there is “no discussion” underway about renaming the posts.