Proposal would rename Georgia military base after Vietnam veteran Bardstown

There is pressure to rename a US Army post after a Bardstown veteran and his wife.

The campaign began after a new federal law was passed, demanding that all military bases named after Confederate generals be renamed. There are currently 10 posts that should be renamed, including Fort Benning in Georgia, which many hope will one day be called Fort Moore.

The proposed name would honor the late Lieutenant General Hal Moore and his wife Julie. The Kentucky native is known to have won the first major battle in Vietnam, while his wife Julie is known to have changed the way the military informs family members of war victims.

When Moore’s sons heard about the campaign on social media to name the army post after their father’s name, they were honored and said they wanted to be sure it included their mother.

“We have received a lot of interest on social media to have Fort Benning renamed in honor of our father, General Hal Moore,” said Steve Moore. “We rejected this because without a mom he was only half of the person everyone thought he was. We refused to allow the base to only bear daddy’s name. It must be named after the two because they were an inseparable pair. “

Steve says honoring the couple would be a tribute to the military family and the sacrifices everyone makes for the good of the country.

Steve tells WLKY that his father was always known as a “rock star” among military men and women, but Hal Moore later won Hollywood fame when his book, describing his service in Vietnam, was turned into a blockbuster film starring Mel Gibson. We were soldiers released in theaters in 2002.

Steve says his mother wrote a letter to director Randy Wallace in 1999 to give him the context of the film. In it, she commented on the widows of Vietnam saying: “As it was at the start of the war, they were proud of what their husbands had done and could feel that they had died for a good cause. I ‘ Thought of them so much later when all the protests started and all the hatred spread, what did they have then to justify their sacrifice?

Steve was 13 when his father returned from Vietnam, and says he still remembers the heavy emotional toll it took on the family. “Military families have had to live with it – watching protests rejecting service to loved ones. It was just a mess at the time, ”he said. “I think what resonated most with Americans in the book and film was that he ultimately showed the soldier’s challenge in warfare and showed the soldier to be as good as he gets. ‘had never been in this war. ”

Moore has been honored countless times by the legislatures of the states of Georgia, Alabama, and his native Kentucky. “When dad came back from the Vietnam War, the mayor of Bardstown wanted to organize a ‘Hal Moore Day’ but dad refused and wanted to call it Vietnam Veterans Day because he was always about his. troops, not always on his own, “he said. Moore has also been named a Kentucky colonel twice.

Even after his retirement, Steve says his father often returned to the post to make introductions. “Besides the fact that we love Fort Benning, I was born there, mom and dad are buried there because they loved him so much, and that’s one of the main reasons he should be named for them.” , said Steve.

Moore died in 2017, just three days away from his 95^ebirthday. Wife Julie Moore died of cancer in 2004. The couple are buried together at Fort Benning.

The name change commission is expected to travel to Fort Benning this summer to speak to members of the community. The Moore family’s proposal is among the top three nominees.

Steve encourages Kentuckians to contact state and federal lawmakers and asks them to sign a joint letter to the nominating commission recommending that Fort Benning be renamed Fort Moore.

You can read more about the campaign here: https://fortmoore.com/