Ft. Hood to officially drop its Confederate name and become Ft. Cavazos

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

March 24, 2023, 2:53 PM EDT

Fort Hood, the sprawling Army base in Central Texas, will be officially renamed Fort Cavazos on May 9, base officials announced Friday. From that day on, Fort Hood will carry the name of Gen. Richard Cavazos, a highly decorated war veteran who was the first Latino four-star general and first Latino brigadier general. It currently bears the name of a Confederate general, John Bell Hood.

The name change was recommended by the Department of Defense's Naming Commission, which was created in 2021 after Congress ordered in a defense spending bill the removal of all imagery and titles honoring the Confederacy. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin ordered the commission's recommended name change last October.

"We are proud to be renaming Fort Hood as Fort Cavazos in recognition of an outstanding American hero, a veteran of the Korea and Vietnam wars and the first Hispanic to reach the rank of four-star general in our Army," Lt. Gen. Sean Bernabe, commanding general of the III Armored Corps and Fort Hood in a statement.

"General Cavazos' combat proven leadership, his moral character and his loyalty to his soldiers and their families, made him the fearless, yet respected and influential leader that he was during the time he served and beyond," Bernabe stated.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/fort-hood-drops-confederate-name-fort-cavazos-may-9-rcna76561

[J_William_Ryan]

1. Very good.

US Military installations shouldn’t be named after treasonous war criminals and defenders of slavery who sought to destroy America.

[Hekate]

2. I am so glad they are doing this

[AverageOldGuy]

3. Stand by . . .

. . . for Republicans in the House of Representatives to demand an investigation, defund Fort Cavazos, and go berserk!!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Ft. Hood to officially drop its Confederate name and become Ft. Cavazos

I am glad that we are going to change the name of this military installation from being named as a traitor to being named for a true hero.

Link to tweet

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/fort-hood-drops-confederate-name-fort-cavazos-may-9-rcna76561?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_lw

Fort Hood, the sprawling Army base in Central Texas, will be officially renamed Fort Cavazos on May 9, base officials announced Friday.

From that day on, Fort Hood will carry the name of Gen. Richard Cavazos, a highly decorated war veteran who was the first Latino four-star general and first Latino brigadier general. It currently bears the name of a Confederate general, John Bell Hood.

The name change was recommended by the Department of Defense's Naming Commission, which was created in 2021 after Congress ordered in a defense spending bill the removal of all imagery and titles honoring the Confederacy. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin ordered the commission's recommended name change last October.

"We are proud to be renaming Fort Hood as Fort Cavazos in recognition of an outstanding American hero, a veteran of the Korea and Vietnam wars and the first Hispanic to reach the rank of four-star general in our Army," Lt. Gen. Sean Bernabe, commanding general of the III Armored Corps and Fort Hood in a statement.

"General Cavazos' combat proven leadership, his moral character and his loyalty to his soldiers and their families, made him the fearless, yet respected and influential leader that he was during the time he served and beyond," Bernabe stated.

[LudwigPastorius]

19. Good.

Hood was a racist who excelled at getting a lot of his men killed.

[LeftInTX]

5. Perfect..He was also in command at Ft Hood for awhile!

Article has an error: He was 88 when he died, not 78

[Cha]

6. Wow.. TY

[efhmc]

7. Live very near this fort.What is the proper pronunciation for Cavazos? Google is not helping.

TY

[3catwoman3]

10. A semi-educated guess here, based on having taken Spanish classes...

…50+ years ago - Cah-VAH-zos.

[jmowreader]

22. Here's a TV news story about him

[SharonAnn]

8. Most excellent news!

[TomSlick]

9. The change is long over due.

General Cavazos is a good choice for the person to be honored.

[Maeve]

11. Cool,cool,cool!

[WestMichRad]

12. Bravo! Very pleased to read this news.

Here's the wikipedia page for Gen. Richard Cavazos:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Cavazos

On a personal note, I have a slim connection to Ft. Cavazos. My brother spent most of his 3-year stint in the Army there, roughly from '68 to '71. After being drafted just days after graduating from college, he managed to get assigned there because he chose to enlist (thus adding a year to his term of service) and thanks to his intelligence and attention to detail, he served most of his stint in a clerical role. By his account, it was a pretty crappy place to spend 3 years, but he was okay with it because it was far better than the main alternative where most Army guys served at that time.

[republianmushroom]

13. like it

[Wounded Bear]

15. K & R...and long overdue...nt

[electric_blue68]

16. Good to hear!

[mountain grammy]

17. Good to see.

[MyOwnPeace]

18. Great move......

I'm SURE there will be a river of RepubliQan tears over this - not to mention the cries of "WOKE" drowning out the positive responses.......

[NNadir]

20. The full article refers to Brig. General Ty Seidule (ret.) who is overseeing the renaming of...

...forts currently named after white supremacist traitors in the 1860s to their country.

General Seidule, a graduate of Washington and Lee University, wrote a wonderful book about coming to terms with the worship of white supremacist traitors who betrayed their country in the 1860's: Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

I've read it.

It's quite a good read. I first became acquainted with General Seidule when seeing a CSPAN conversation with General David Petraeus.

CSPAN Discussion

[LompocDem]

21. my brother on Fort Hood...

he said that was the only army base where you could stand knee-deep in mud and have dust blowing in your face.

[intelpug]

23. mud and dust

They say that also about fort Bliss

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

28. I went to Bliss for basic training. June and July were a bit warm.

Overall, I liked Ft Bliss. Hot during the day, but it cooled down at night. All our runs were on level ground, no hills-with-silly-names like at some other posts. And the barracks floor was concrete, no wax needed.

I remember the dust, but not much mud.

It was a dry heat

[HubertHeaver]

25. He didn't realize tha dust was direct from

the Gobi Desert.

[jmowreader]

24. Fort Cavazos honors a fine man, but I can think of better names for that place

Three months at Fort Hood leads to lifetime admission to Heaven without ever having to set foot in a church, so my recommendation is Fort Asmodeus. There are more appropriate demons, but Asmodeus is unusual enough they might be able to get the sign up on the main gate before the fundies figure out what’s going on.

Please also understand that renaming this post gives PERSCOM at least three months to send people there before everyone realizes it’s the same shithole.

[The Jungle 1]

26. All celebration of southern treason must stop.

We should have never let it happen.

[hatrack]

27. Aside from the treason thing, why name a fort after such a shitty general?

Hood was a good division commander. Then he got promoted . . . .

[JustAnotherGen]

29. It is about time

[Mysterian]

30. Outstanding

I hope Fort Bragg is next.

Edit: I see Ft. Bragg will become Ft. Liberty in June.

[COL Mustard]

31. It's already begun. Fort Pickett was the first. Good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Barfoot

[Kath2]

32. Very cool. I love it.

Way overdue, but very cool.

[moniss]

33. I haven't heard or read

too much on the subject but I believe we should also get rid of any installations named after US military leaders who fought Native Americans. Like Fort Custer in Michigan. Nobody needs that name.

[BumRushDaShow]

34. Here is some info on the Naming Commission

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3260434/dod-begins-implementing-naming-commission-recommendations/

It would be a good next step if the mandate from Congress modified the purpose of that Commission to extend to those like Custer.

It takes persistence (and tragic events that highlights the evil) to get these things changed.