America is purging itself of references to and depictions of problematic symbols and individuals. Few will mourn the demise of the stars and bars during NASCAR races, but the drive to realign has now extended the names of some of the country’s most prominent military bases.
From CBS News:
The Senate Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the annual military spending bill that would require the Defense Department to change the names of military bases and assets named for Confederate leaders.
A source familiar with the proceedings confirmed to CBS News that the GOP-led panel on Wednesday approved the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) offered by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts via voice vote. According to a summary of the NDAA released by the committee Thursday, the measure requires the Defense Department to rename posts and assets — streets, aircraft, ships, and other equipment — either named for Confederate officers or that honor the confederacy within three years.
According to the Evergreen State New York Times, there are at least 10 bases with questionable monikers that will likely be at the top of the renaming commission’s list including such high profile facilities as Fort Bragg, Fort Hood and Fort Benning.
We’d like to do everything we can to make this process easier. Toward that end, here are a few suggestions for new names for some of the targeted bases.
Fort Colt
Legendary inventor Sam Colt’s revolver design vastly improved on existing guns and quickly became popular with the US military. He got a big boost when the government bought 1000 of his wheel guns for troops in the Mexican-American war. His designs were also also exemplars of egalitarianism. As has often been noted, God created men and women, but Sam Colt made them equal.
Fort Browning
John Moses Browning is arguably the greatest firearms designer in history, inventing guns and systems that are still in use to this day. As our own Joe Grine wrote, the guns most often associated with John M. Browning are the famed Winchester lever-action guns that “won the west,” the ubiquitous Colt 1911 automatic pistol, and U.S. military machine guns such as the celebrated .50 caliber M2 “Ma Deuce,” the .30 caliber M1919 medium machine gun, and the .30 caliber M1918 BAR automatic rifle.
Fort Stoner
Eugene Stoner worked for ArmaLite Rifle in the 1950’s and perfected the design of the AR-10 for the US military. As ammo.com notes, the Army soon charged Stoner with modifying the AR-10 into what became the AR-15. This would use the smaller .223 Remington cartridge, though it was somewhat enlarged for Army SPCS. In addition to becoming “America’s rifle,” the AR-15 eventually became the M16, which became the standard-issue service rifle for the United States Army in 1969. Not to mention the M4. The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the country, has come to be known as America’s rifle.
Fort Garand
John Garand is responsible for the design of the rifle that General George Patton called the “greatest battle implement ever devised.” Though his design was finished too late for use in World War I, the federal government, against all odds, had the good sense to keep him working on and improving it at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts. He patented the .30 caliber M1 rifle in 1932 and the rest, as they say, is history.
That’s only four suggestions honoring great Americans who, we’re sure all will agree, have clearly contributed to the cause of freedom both at home and abroad. We could go on, but we assume the august commission members who are tasked with the job will have their own ideas for a few names, so we’ll leave the rest of the base renaming to them.
Any other suggestions?