To be fair, Fort Liberty is a shit name. Let's name it Fort Shugart-Gordon. They're the two Delta Force operators who gave their lives trying to protect a downed Blackhawk pilot in Mogadishu.
Fort Liberty is where SFOD-D trains and lives. I'm willing to bet it would mean a lot more to them than some nebulous concept.
I've talked with military members about fort and base renaming. The names are significant because they are named after (mostly generals) service members who are strongly associated with a set of tactics or strategies that the base specializes in.
So instead of fort Green beret you'd have fort "founding father of Green beret" or fort "I trailblazed the green beret playbook"
I still think we need to rename the Confederate name ones because fuck the traitors, but adhering to that naming scheme is important for the armed services.
We also name stuff for heroes. But yeah that's why Fort Benning turned into Fort Moore. He's the guy who was leading the first Air Assaults in Vietnam. But the new names are a little more loose than previous rounds of naming things. Cavazos was not famous for any tactics or strategies. He was the first Hispanic 4 star general.
Since we're finally going a little more common sense, and the alternative is Fort Liberty, I think we can find room for a couple more heroes that embody everything we want our enlisted members to be.
I, personally, am a big fan of brevity. Fort Liberty: Short. Sweet. To the point. 🙂
There is no reason why we couldn't do both! Commission a big plaque, a statue/picture, write it up on the website -- Fort Liberty honors Shugart & Gordon, two Delta Force operators who gave their lives trying to protect a downed Blackhawk pilot in Mogadishu. Just bake it in, tasteful AF.
I just really don't like things that get in the way of primary purpose, or title. For example, I type airport into Google. One of the results, do you mean the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport?? The honorary title, it's longer than the place. Oh, and that airport is on Everett McKinley Dirksen Parkway, and god help you if you misspell that name, because Google won't if you're off by one letter.
Honor all the people you want, as much as you want, with all the weird names you want. Write a whole damn book. Just do it in the credits, not the goddamn title. There's a proper place for everything.
*** On second thought & reading your comments...I do very much like, and appreciate, the sentiment of naming bases directly after honorable people. And it's probably far less consequential to have an odd and/or long name assigned to a military base than it is a road or public transit. Now if you'll excuse me. I need to go to the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport on Everett McKinley Dirksen Parkway. 🤪
Honestly that was my first thought. This sounds like one of those FOB names. My second thought was Liberty, hehehe.... Jokes about the easy base for days.
But soberly, it really seems like a place holder name. Otherwise someone is getting high sniffing their own farts.
the random single toilet bathroom that's got one of those pull-on-pull off hanging lighbulbs and exposed plumbing, a sink that's cracked enough to not be useful, and the entire space generally hasn't seen custodial attention in forever because like 3 people on the staff know about it.
Of all the generals too. Braxton Bragg was terrible. Just truly a shit General. In fact he was so bad you could probably make a better argument for him being an advantage for the Union Army. Hated by everyone who knew him.