Pentagon Begins Process to Purge Confederate Names from Military Bases, Property
The Pentagon is moving forward to satisfy a congressional directive in the 2021 defense policy bill that will result in the renaming of at least 10 Army bases and possibly two Navy ships that honor the Confederacy.
On Friday, Acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller appointed four members of what will eventually be an eight-member congressionally mandated panel: the lengthily named Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.
Those members include Sean McLean, a White House associate director from California; Joshua Whitehouse, a former Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who now serves as a White House liaison to the Defense Department; Ann Johnston, acting assistant secretary of defense for Legislative Affairs, from North Carolina; and Earl Matthews, principal deputy general counsel for the Army and a colonel in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
Congress voted Jan. 1 to override President Donald Trump's veto of the Fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act – a $740 billion defense policy bill that includes a provision for the Defense Department to create a special commission tasked with putting an end to the longstanding U.S. military tradition of honoring Confederate leaders.
The Pentagon has three years to put into action a plan from the commission to "remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America … from all assets of the Department of Defense," according to language in the NDAA.
Pentagon officials have been reluctant to discuss the issue but have acknowledged the directive now that it has become law.
"It is extremely early in the process," Peter Hughes, a Pentagon spokesman, told Military.com in a statement Thursday. "To be clear, the DoD is tracking the requirement in the NDAA. … At this time, it is too early to say what the plan will entail, and any information would be pre-decisional."
The NDAA provision requires the Pentagon to form an eight-member commission to create a plan for renaming or removing certain Defense Department assets. The defense secretary was allowed to appoint four members of the commission; the other four will be appointed by the chair and ranking member of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, according to the legislation.
The Pentagon had 45 days from the NDAA's enactment to form the commission, which is then required to hold its first meeting in 60 days, the language states. The commission, which is required to deliver its first written report by Oct. 1, is responsible for creating a list of all military properties that need to be removed or renamed; a cost estimate for carrying out the changes; and an approved criteria for coming up with replacement names where they're needed, according to the bill.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/08/pentagon-begins-process-purge-confederate-names-military-bases-property.html