There is a large military base on the other side of Fayetteville. For all my life, until recently, it was called Fort Bragg. Everyone around here knew about Fort Bragg. We probably knew someone who was stationed there, or knew someone who worked at Fort Bragg. (My grandfather worked on the base as a carpenter for a while.)

Fort Bragg was simply Fort Bragg. We knew that Fort Bragg was one of the largest military bases in the world. And if there was trouble in a foreign country, and United States intervention was necessary, soldiers from there would probably be the first to go. We were proud to have the base in this area, and of the soldiers who served there. (We still are.)

We never thought of how the base got its name. I had heard that Fort Bragg was named after a Confederate general, and thought that it was strange that you would name a U.S. military base after someone who fought against the United States. Braxton Bragg was a Confederate general from Warrenton, N.C. Military historians state that he wasn’t a particularly good general, either. But in 1918, the base was formed and named Camp Bragg, later Fort Bragg. It is believed it was named such in order to somehow appease folks from this area who were still smarting from the Civil War. (I don’t know how naming it such made their lives any better.)

The huge majority of folks didn’t know of the origin of the base, and didn’t care. Fort Bragg was simply Fort Bragg. But that was until a few years ago, when under pressure, the U.S. military decided to rename military installations that had connections to Confederates in the Civil War.

So Fort Bragg was renamed Fort Liberty. It cost the Dept. of Defense over $6 million to make the change, and that’s just for Fort Bragg. It cost the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation (NCDOT) over a half million dollars just to change the road signs. Other than pointing out racism from the Civil War and our past, what good did it do? Imagine if instead, those millions of dollars had been used in local underserved areas.

Now Fort Liberty is going to be Fort Bragg once again. Now, instead of being named for Braxton Bragg, the base will be named in honor of Private First Class Roland Bragg, who was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart for heroism during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. (Yes, it’s a way to go back to the old name without the Confederate soldier stigma.)

But that change will also come with a cost. Unless they didn’t throw out some of that old Fort Bragg stationary, the cost to change back will again be in the millions. (I wonder if they need Elon Musk’s okay since he’s making government cuts everywhere, supposedly trying to save money.) And, unless they stored those old road signs in a warehouse, it’ll probably cost the NCDOT another half million to put Fort Bragg signs back up. That’s a half million of taxpayer’s money that the NCDOT could use to repair a road or bridge damaged by Hurricane Helene in the mountains of N.C.

It didn’t make sense to name a United States military base after a Confederate general, whose goal during the Civil War was to divide the Union. But it didn’t make sense to waste taxpayer’s money to change the name of the base that has been in existence over a hundred years, when an overwhelming majority of the population didn’t know the origin, or didn’t care. But now it doesn’t make sense to waste taxpayer’s money once again to change it back when those funds are urgently needed elsewhere.

No matter what the name of that military base, some of the best soldiers in the world are there, and will be ready once again when called upon. Personally, I’m okay with it being called Fort Bragg once again, mainly because that’s what I’ve been used to all my life. But there’s someone up in the mountains right now that needs a road fixed or a place to live. And they could care less what you call that base on the other side of Fayetteville.