Fort Bragg in North Carolina will be renamed Fort Liberty if the recommendations are approved by Congress. The other bases would honor some of the Army’s most distinguished heroes. These are their stories:
Fort Johnson (Fort Polk, La.)
Sgt. Henry Johnson
Pvt. Henry Johnson was deployed to Europe during World War I in a famous Black regiment known as the Harlem Riflemen. The US armed forces were segregated and Hellfighters were not allowed to fight on the front lines with other US troops. Instead, Black soldiers fought under the orders of their French allies. That put Private Johnson and his unit on the front lines, “against all odds — Black Americans wearing French uniforms,” in the early morning hours of May 15, 1918, as German troops overwhelmed his outpost at the edge of the Argonne Forest, according to with in a biography provided by the naming committee. Private Johnson threw grenades until he had no more to throw. He then fired his rifle until it jammed. He then hit the enemy soldiers with the stock of his rifle until it split. Then hack at the enemy with his bolo knife. After the Germans retreated, daylight revealed that Private Johnson had killed four enemy soldiers and wounded about 10 to 20. He had suffered 21 wounds in the battle. For their actions, Private Johnson and his partner on duty that night were the first Americans to be awarded the Croix du Guerre, one of France’s highest military honors. Nearly a century later, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Sergeant Johnson the Medal of Honor. He served near the front lines in Fredericksburg and Chattanooga and regularly crossed battle lines to treat civilians. He was captured by Confederate forces in 1864 and exchanged for a Confederate surgeon four months later. After she was denied an honorary military rank at the end of the war, Union generals successfully petitioned for her to receive the Medal of Honor for “patriotic devotion to the sick and wounded.” Throughout her life, Dr. Walker proudly presented herself as a feminist who did not conform to gender norms. She refused to agree to “obey” her husband in her wedding vows and kept her last name, according to the National Park Service. She wore men’s clothing during the war, claiming it made her job easier. After the war, she posed for photographs in suits and a designer hat, often with the Medal of Honor pinned to her lapel.
Fort Barfoot (Fort Pickett, Va.)
Col. By Barfoot
On May 23, 1944, in the foothills of the Italian Alps, Sgt. Van Barfoot single-handedly silenced three machine gun emplacements, disabled a German tank with a bazooka, blew up an artillery gun with a demolition charge and captured 17 enemy soldiers. In addition to everything else that day, he rescued two badly wounded American soldiers, carrying them about a mile to safety. “Any of these actions could merit a high award of valor,” the naming committee wrote for Col. Barfoot, a Choctaw soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor and hailed in the media as a “one-man army” for actions that the day. He served 34 years in the Army, including tours in Korea and Vietnam. Later in life he again gained national attention for successfully fighting his homeowner’s association to keep an American flag flying in his front yard.
Fort Gregg-Adams (Fort Lee, Va.)
Maj. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg & Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley
Fort Gregg-Adams would honor two pioneering African-American support officers, Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley. The naming committee noted the “too often heralded excellence” of the logistics and support units, many of which to this day are staffed primarily by black troops. Colonel Adams commanded the 6888th Central Mail Directory Battalion, a segregated unit of the Women’s Army, responsible for delivering mail to American soldiers during World War II. In 1945, 6888 was sent to England and then to France – becoming the first large unit of black servants to be deployed overseas – where it processed nearly two million pieces of mail each month. At the end of the war, Colonel Adams was the highest-ranking black woman in the military, according to a National Park Service biography. At the height of his career, an article in the Washington Post reported that General Gregg was the highest-ranking black officer in the military, serving as director of logistics for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as deputy chief of staff for logistics for the Army in the late 1970s and early 80s. He also participated in the desegregation of the military installation that would bear his name in part, and was one of the first Black officers to join its officers’ club. In February 1953, during the Korean War, Lt. Cavazos charged through enemy mortars and gunfire, with “complete disregard for his own personal safety,” to retrieve a wounded enemy soldier, earning the young officer a Silver Star. Three months later, Lieutenant Cavazos led three separate raids on enemy positions and returned to the field five times to rescue his wounded – earning his first Distinguished Service Cross. In Vietnam in 1967, Colonel Cavazos “completely disregarded his own safety” and led an attack “with such force and aggression” that enemy fighters abandoned their positions, earning him his second Distinguished Service Cross. During his career, General Cavazos also earned other awards and citations, including two Legions of Merit, five Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
Fort Eisenhower (Fort Gordon, Ga.)
Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the Army
Dwight Eisenhower served as Supreme Allied Commander in Africa and Europe during World War II — leading the liberation of North Africa, the invasion of Italy, and the D-Day landings. After the war, he was elected the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. Eisenhower rose through the ranks of the Army during the war, rising from lieutenant colonel in early 1941 to four-star general by February 1943. A year later, he became one of only five officers ever to be appointed “general” five star the army.”
Fort Novosel (Fort Rucker, Ala.)
Chief Warrant Officer Michael Novosel Sr.
In two tours of duty in Vietnam, Michael Novosel Sr. rescued more than 5,500 wounded soldiers as a medevac pilot, earning the Medal of Honor for a particularly heroic episode. One of those rescued soldiers was his son, Michael Novosel Jr., an Army aviator whose helicopter was shot down in 1970. (A week later, Michael Jr. returned the favor, rescuing his father from a disabled helicopter .) Mr. Novosel, the son of Croatian immigrants, joined the Army Air Corps in 1941 and rose to the rank of captain by 1945, flying B-29 strategic bombers. He then transferred to the fledgling Air Force and remained in the reserves until the 1960s. When Mr. Novosel was denied an active duty assignment to serve in Vietnam, he gave up his rank as a lieutenant colonel and joined the Army as a warrant officer and helicopter pilot. On a rescue mission in 1969, Mr. Novosel rescued 29 South Vietnamese soldiers under heavy enemy fire. He and his crew were forced to leave the landing zone six times and had to “circle and come back from another direction to land and extract additional troops,” according to his Medal of Honor citation. By the end of the day, his helicopter was riddled with bullets. In his own retelling of the episode during an interview at the Library of Congress, Mr Novosel said he was shot in the right arm and leg during his final rescue of the day – causing him to momentarily lose control of the helicopter – but he escaped. with his crew and the last of his evacuees.
Fort Moore (Fort Benning, Ga.)
Major General Harold G. Moore and Julia Moore
Many Americans know Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore as the stern and determined Colonel Moore played by Mel Gibson in “We Were Soldiers,” the gritty and grim war film that dramatized the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam. The general’s wife, Julia, played by Madeleine Stowe in the film, had an important role on the home front during this battle. On November 14, 1965, Colonel Moore led his 450 troops into the infamous X-Ray Zone, where they were ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers who outnumbered the Americans 12 to 1. Bloody hand-to-hand combat ensued, but Colonel Moore and his men held their positions for three days. Colonel Moore had sworn that he would leave no one behind. He kept his promise and his actions earned him the Distinguished Service Cross. At the same time, Ms. Moore offered emotional support to the families of the dead and wounded at Fort Benning. Notifications of death and injury were then sent by telegram, delivered by taxi drivers. Mrs. Moore began accompanying the drivers and offering her condolences to the families. Her complaints and concerns led to the creation of the Army’s casualty notification teams, and soldiers in uniform now pass on the news of death or injury to families.
