FORT BRAGG — Fort Bragg will have a ceremony at 11 a.m. March 7 to formally redesignate Fort Liberty as Fort Bragg, the 18th Airborne Corps announced on Tuesday.
America’s largest Army base in number of personnel has been renamed in honor of Pfc. Roland L. Bragg. Roland Bragg was a paratrooper at Fort Bragg during World War II and was awarded a Silver Star for his actions in battle in Europe.
Members of Roland Bragg’s family will attend the ceremony, the announcement says. Roland Bragg died in 1999.
The ceremony will be at the 18th Airborne Corps headquarters at 2-1120 Macomb St., an invitation says. It will be open to the public, and there will be seating for about 200 plus standing room, a spokesperson said.
The ceremony will also be livestreamed on the 18th Airborne Corps’ Facebook page.
“As we officially rename Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg, we honor the legacy and courage of Pfc. Bragg who represented the best of the Greatest Generation,” said Lt. Gen. Greg Anderson, Commanding General of 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, in the announcement. “His bravery during World War II as he rescued fellow paratroopers serves as a model for all who wear the uniform, and we could not be more proud to honor his legacy.
“Generations of Soldiers, Families, and Veterans have a deep connection to the name Fort Bragg, and united together we will redefine it for a new generation,” Anderson said.
The ceremony includes the unveiling of a new 18th Airborne Corps Headquarters’ sign, the announcement says, and the uncasing of Fort Bragg’s colors — its flag.
More than a century of history
Fort Bragg was originally founded as Camp Bragg in 1918, shortly before the end of World War I, to honor Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. Bragg, who previously served in the United States Army, was a slaveholder who joined the South’s rebellion against the United States in 1861 after Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president.
Southern governments, led by Democrats, declared they did not want to live under Republican leadership and feared that Lincoln and the Republicans would abolish slavery.
Fort Bragg became Fort Liberty in 2023 in compliance with a bipartisan law that Congress enacted in 2021 shortly before the end of President Donald Trump’s first term. The law ordered the United States military to rename military bases and other military assets that had been named in honor of participants in the Confederacy.
This law followed protests after a police officer killed George Floyd, a Black man. It also followed years of protests against the continued use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to honor Confederate leaders who made war against the United States in order to maintain the enslavement of African Americans.
In the century since Fort Bragg was named in honor of Braxton Bragg, soldiers, veterans, their families and others argued that the name “Bragg” had lost its original Confederate connotation. They said it instead reflected the courage and service of the many thousands of men and women who served there, with some vigorously protesting the name change from Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty.
Trump promised during his 2024 presidential campaign to bring back the Bragg name. But the 2021 law (which Trump tried unsuccessfully to stop with his veto) prohibits American military assets from ever again being named to honor people who led the Confederacy.
Roland L. Bragg had been considered as an alternative during the renaming process of 2021 and 2022, but the military chose Fort Liberty instead.
Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth on Feb. 10 issued a memo to rename the post in honor of Roland L. Bragg, bringing back the Bragg name without violating the 2021 law. The name change took effect Feb. 14.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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