Thursday, March 28, 2024

Fort Hood name change process underway

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In the not too distant future, the U.S. Army base known for decades as Fort Hood will likely have a new name.

At the direction of the U.S. Congress, the Department of Defense has been ordered to "remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America."

A naming commission is recommending possibilities for Congress – which will make the ultimate decision on the name change.

Both Coryell County Judge Roger Miller and Gatesville City Manager Bill Parry – both U.S. Army veterans – said that members of the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance (of which Parry was formerly executive director) had voiced a preference that the base not be named for a person, despite some quality candidates who are on the list. In addition to the people for whom the base could be named, other options include Fort Central Texas in reference to its geographic location and Fort Courage, in reference to a highly prized military attribute.

The people for whom the base could be named are former military personnel including: Brigadier General Charles Young, General Donn Starry, Sergeant First Class Paul Smith, Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers, First Lieutenant Audie Murphy, Sergeant First Class Eduardo C. Gomez, Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cohen, General Richard Cavazos, and Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez.

Parry recently gave a presentation to the Gatesville Lions Club about the name change. Parry said local residents can also take a survey listed in the city website (https://www.gatesvilletx.com/) indicating their top choices for a new name for the Army base.

"I am completely confident (the change will take place) regardless of whether people agree with it or not," Parry said.

There is an October 2022 deadline for Congress to select a new name for the base, the Department of Defense is supposed to implement the name change by January 2024.

Fort Hood is one of nine military installations located in states stretching from Virginia to Texas that are named for someone with a connection to the Confederacy, which fought against the United States from 1861-1865.

Parry detailed the original naming of the base, which was called Camp Hood before becoming Fort Hood. It was named for John Bell Hood of Kentucky, who spent most of his service in the U.S. Army in Texas until the Civil War. When Hood's native state declined to secede from the U.S., Hood declared himself a Texan and led the Texas Brigade during the Civil War.

Hood was known for his daring, and his troops suffered high casualties during the war.

"They along with the Stonewall Brigade (of Virginia) were known as the shock troops of the Confederacy," Parry said.

While the decision to rename the base has attracted both support and criticism, the base's name is not something that is at the forefront of the military personnel stationed there, Parry said.

"Ninety-eight percent of soldiers at Fort Hood don't know or care who John Bell Hood is," he said, adding that they are just focused on doing their jobs "and are not hung up on it."

Hood was not the only person listed as a potential candidate for the naming of Camp or Fort Hood in the early 1940s. Other possibilities included Major General Robert Lee Howze of Overton, Texas, who won a Medal of Honor for his services in the Indian wars and was a division commander in World War I; Major General William S. Graves who served during the Spanish-American War, the Philippine insurrection and in Siberia; and James Fannin, a Texas soldier who was killed during the Goliad massacre of 1836.

In February 1942, Gatesville members of newspaper publisher and community leader Frank Mayborn's area industrial committee suggested the base be named in honor of General Lesley J. McNair, who was commander of Army ground forces in World War II. However, one of the criteria in the naming process in the early 1940s was that the namesake for the military base not be a living person, and McNair was alive at the time the base was named. He died in France in 1944, the victim of "friendly fire."

Parry said Gatesville community leaders actually supported the base being located at North Fort Hood, which they said was "more accessible, had better water, a better sewage system, was more healthful and had greater economic security."

During the renaming process, more than 34,000 responses have been submitted with 89 names on the initial list, which have been narrowed to the 11 currently being considered.

April 30 is the deadline for local committee input. The Heart of Texas Defense Alliance will then provide a regional voice making a name recommendation to Congress, which may or may not be the name eventually chosen.