A roadside plaque honors soldiers and sailors in Nobleboro, Maine, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Nobleboro. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Is it an honor or a cynical end run? When it comes to the former — and apparently future — Fort Bragg, that’s in the eye of the beholder.

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.

Initially named after Southern Gen. Braxton Bragg, the post was stripped of the name in 2023 amid a drive to remove symbols of the Confederacy from public spaces. The new Fort Bragg would ostensibly honor Army Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II paratrooper and Silver Star recipient from Maine.

“That’s right,” Hegseth said, thrusting the document ordering the name change toward a camera with a defiant look on his face. “Bragg is back.”

It's unclear if the change will actually take place. It took an act of Congress — overriding President Donald Trump's 2020 veto — to remove Confederate names from military installations. Hegseth's order sets up a potentially costly, complicated and delicate process that could run afoul of the law.

Republican state Rep. Donnie Loftis of Gaston County said he was thrilled by Hegseth's move.

“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. “When you hear ‘Fort Bragg,’ you think of Delta Force, you think of JSOC, (Joint) Special Operations Command. You think of 18th Airborne Corps. You think 82nd Airborne.”

But for Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin, who supported changing the previous Bragg name, the move makes no real sense.

“It seems to contradict the administration’s commitment to efficiency and cost savings," said Colvin, who is Black and a Democrat. "Furthermore, the renaming process which included Gold Star families who felt Liberty was a true reflection of what our service men and women defend day in and day out.”

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.”

“Of course, those who want to continue to commemorate one of the worst generals of the Civil War can continue to do so by ignoring the fact that the base is named after a different 'Bragg,’” said Brundage, who focuses on the post-Civil War South. “This name alchemy won’t work for some of the other bases, however."

Roland Bragg’s family was as surprised as Colvin at the news.

Bragg's daughter, Debra Sokoll, told The Associated Press that she learned of the renaming Tuesday morning from reporters. She later spoke with Army officials, who told her they were honoring her father.

Sokoll said she wasn’t sure what the Army’s motive was for it.

“But I’m awfully glad they are,” she said. “I think it’s amazing.”

She and her husband, Chris Sokoll, say it's not an honor her father would ever have sought out. He was a hardworking man who lived a quiet life, and there are no markers or monuments honoring him in Nobleboro, Maine, where he is buried under an unassuming headstone.

Gen. Braxton Bragg, a native of Warrenton, North Carolina, was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles. 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.

Roland Bragg was a resourceful mechanic, building mover and family man whose passion was his children, said Debra Sokoll. During the Great Depression, he would ride his bicycle 20 miles (30 kilometers) to Maine resort towns to sell vegetables to summer tourists, Sokoll said.

According to his 1999 obituary, Roland Bragg — who served with the 17th Airborne Division — was briefly captured by the Germans.

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.”

But that might not sit well with everyone.

Patti Elliott was on the renaming commission that recommended the change to Fort Liberty. Her son, Spc. Daniel “Lucas” Elliott, a 21-year-old military police officer, was killed in 2011 by an improvised explosive device in Iraq.

Because she is now national president of the American Gold Star Mothers, Elliott said she is prohibited from engaging in “political conversations.”

“Since President Trump made that 'promise’ last year (to restore Confederate names), I have had several news outlets reach out to me asking for my thoughts, and I’ve had to turn them all down,” the Youngsville, North Carolina, woman wrote in an email Tuesday. “Believe me, I have opinions, but at this time, I have restrictions on voicing them.”

The Army said in 2023 that changing the post's name to Fort Liberty would cost $8 million. So, with Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency scouring federal bureaucracy for places to cut costs, how does Loftis justify spending what will likely be a similar amount to rebrand the fort again?

“Well, we could have saved that, had we not changed it to begin with,” said Loftis, a chairman of the House Homeland Security and Military and Veterans Affairs. “However, it was changed, and I’m pretty sure Elon Musk and the DOGE folks could save us $9 million somewhere from the money we’ve seen through USAID (the Agency for International Development).”

The North Carolina Department of Transportation anticipates its portion of the project would cost over $200,000, DOT spokesperson Andrew Barksdale said. About 80 such signs were replaced or updated to Fort Liberty in 2023, according to DOT. No timeline for completion has yet been set, he said.

Loftis acknowledged that some might see the latest renaming as a political stunt. But he said the end justifies the means, if it avoids a drawn-out administrative process.

And he’s happy to trade a Confederate Bragg for a Yankee one.

“That guy was a hero. He earned his Silver Star," he said. "That’s what makes America great.”

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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025