Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Army to change the name of Fort Moore back to Fort Benning, this time honoring Cpl. Fred G. Benning, a World War I hero awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, according to a Pentagon announcement.
The directive returns the Benning name to the Columbus, Ga., installation less than two years after it was redesignated Fort Moore in 2023 as part of a congressionally mandated process to remove Confederate names from military bases. The post was originally named for Confederate Gen. Henry L. Benning; the 2023 change honored Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia, an Army family advocate. The new namesake, Cpl. Benning, shares the surname but is a different figure.
The Defense Department said Cpl. Benning served in the Machine-Gun Company, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division, American Expeditionary Forces, and distinguished himself during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. On Oct. 9, 1918, south of Exermont, France, after his platoon commander was killed and two senior noncommissioned officers were disabled, he led the 20 remaining soldiers through heavy fire to their objective, actions for which he received the Distinguished Service Cross.
Fort Benning is home to the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence and trains thousands of Infantry, Armor and Ranger soldiers each year. The department framed the move as a recognition of the installation’s warrior ethos and the legacy of service members who have trained there for decades.
The Secretary of the Army has been directed to begin implementing the change immediately. The department did not provide a detailed timeline or cost estimate for the transition in the announcement.
