North Carolina state Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican who served as an enlisted soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division at the installation in the 1970s, said he was “tickled pink” about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's action Monday to restore the name Bragg to what is currently Fort Liberty.
W. Fitzhugh Brundage, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said his first thought was that “someone obviously did a creative name search to identify a Bragg who was not a reviled and incompetent Confederate general.”.
Roland Bragg, who has no known connection to the state of North Carolina or the fort that may soon bear his name, received the Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.
“Military people do not conjure up in their mind history of a Confederate soldier,” said the 30-year veteran of the Army and North Carolina National Guard who spent a lot of time at the southeast North Carolina preserve.
Defense spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement that restoring the name Fort Bragg “underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation.”.
