COMMENTARY
Troy Turner is the editor and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com.
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Fred who?
A Google search couldn’t find a single image of him, even with the help of artificial intelligence.
Yet, the United States secretary of defense has decided to strip the honor given to Vietnam war hero Hal Moore and his humanitarian hero wife Julia by renaming Fort Moore back to Fort Benning, this time in honor of a World War I soldier, Army Cpl. Fred G. Benning.
Previously, Fort Benning was named for a Confederate general, but Congress in 2020 ordered Confederate names removed from all U.S. military installations. Thus, Fort Benning to Fort Moore, ceremoniously done in 2023.
Rather unceremoniously, that honor was undone March 3, 2025, with a single stroke of a pen.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shown signing the order to change the name of Fort Moore.
Cut the yo-yo string
Fred Benning deserves a memorial salute for his own heroics. But to name one of the U.S. Army’s largest and most hallowed training grounds after a previously unknown soldier — by stripping the same honor bestowed on one of America’s most respected combat leaders who actually trained on these grounds — is, simply, wrong.
For those unfamiliar with Hal Moore and his legacy, read up; or go find the movie “We Were Soldiers,” in which actor Mel Gibson portrays Moore in the ferocious Vietnam battle that helped define his courage.
Democrats in Congress during 2020 felt it was high time to once again say goodbye to the Confederacy.
Republicans in winning the 2024 election said the Dems went too far in tinkering with history.
And so, Fort Benning became Fort Moore, and now Fort Benning again.
Along with stripping the so-well-deserved honor given to Hal and Julia Moore and in the face of their still-living family members, another point that shouldn’t be overlooked is the estimated cost of $5 million in changing the name the first time, and now again.
If the Democrats ever win back Congress or the White House, will the name change yet again?
Scores of traditionalists, historians, political critics and Southerners cringed when Congress decided to spend millions to, in many eyes, erase history and overdo a call for removing a stain on the military ranks by replacing namesake tributes to Civil War supporters of slavery.
However, removing the Fort Moore name hits home with plenty of Republican supporters, too, who probably would call time-out on this one had they been given a public notice or opportunity to say wait.
Why? Because Republican and Democratic supporters alike know Hal Moore spent much of his Army time at this fort, training men for combat that he knew would not allow many of them ever to return.
Fort Benning was renamed Fort Moore with thousands of witnesses, including the Moore family and hundreds of friends and former service members, on May 11, 2023.
A political yo-yo string took that away less than two years later.
Whatever it means to be a Democrat or Republican today, please: Keep politics out of the military!
Alabama’s delegation should step up
Now that it’s done, let’s hope that yo-yo string is cut. But what about an appropriate redemption in memorial of Hal Moore’s courageous story of combat leadership?
Hal and Julia Moore have many ties to Auburn, Alabama, which is a short distance from the fort just across the Alabama-Georgia state line. They, along with their children and extended family, were well known in Auburn for many years.
That is why Alabama’s Congressional delegation should take a step, right now, in encouraging the powers that be to present the Moore family with posthumous recognition of Hal Moore by awarding him the Medal of Honor.
There are many Medal recipients previously who did far less than what Moore did in the Battle of la Drang, let alone in his role of providing strategic and motivational leadership inspiration to countless military officers who knew or studied him and his lengthy career.
Alabama’s Rep. Mike Rogers chairs the House Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Sen. Katie Britt, Rep. Dale Strong and others also have important ties to military leaders and the current Republican leadership in Congress and the White House.
Now is the time to make right the wrong just done to the Moore family and legacy.
Options to consider
For me, it’s personal. I was with Hal Moore the night before he died.
He passed away at his home in Auburn on Feb. 10, 2017, with most of his family by his side, as they all arrived that weekend to celebrate his 95th birthday, which would have come three days later.
Then-Mayor Bill Ham and I were among the few guests invited for a birthday cake celebration on the night of Feb. 9; me to write a story about it, Ham to present him a city proclamation paying Moore yet another tribute.
Moore was buried in Fort Moore Main Post Cemetery on Feb. 17, 2017, with full military honors and laid to rest beside his wife of 55 years, Julia, who died in 2004.
Fred Benning may or may not deserve to be honored again more than a century after his own heroic service.
These grounds, however, hold memorial to a man and woman who more than deserved to have their name on the signs above the land hosting their final resting place.
Read the history, and do what’s right. Rescind the order to change the name of Fort Moore. If not, at least go another direction: Hal Moore earned and deserves the Medal of Honor.
Give it to him.
Hal and Julia Moore
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Troy Turner is the editor and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com. He can be contacted at [email protected]. His bio can be found here.
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