The Department of Defense has selected four people to serve as its representatives on the commission studying the naming of military bases and other DoD items commemorating the Confederate States of America.
Retired Navy Adm. Michelle Howard; retired Marine Corps Gen. Bob Neller; Dr. Kori Schake, director of Foreign & Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute; and retired Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, emeritus professor of history, U.S. Military Academy, will serve on what's commonly called the Confederate Base Naming Commission, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced on Saturday.
Related
"Each of these individuals possesses unique and relevant experience in and out of government that I know will inform this important effort. I am enormously grateful for their willingness to serve the nation again, and I thank them in advance for the wise counsel I am confident they will provide," Austin said in a statement.
The commission has been tasked with identifying properties that must be renamed as well as symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that must be removed.
It will also develop a formal plan to rename or remove all relevant properties. That plan is to be presented to Congress by October 2022.
Related
The debate around the DoD's various properties honoring Confederate officers resurfaced following the killing of George Floyd last year. Floyd’s death sparked a nationwide movement against racial injustices. Specifically, the question of renaming the Army's ten installations named for Confederates was revisited as it has been several times in the past.
The Army originally said it would be open to "discussions" about renaming the installations -- before former President Donald Trump announced that he would not consider it last year. The Marine Corps and Navy ban Civil War paraphernalia on their installations.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
Want to get more connected to the great resources Connecting Vets has to offer? Click here to sign up for our weekly newsletter.