Should US military bases named after Confederates be renamed?

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition." -Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, 1861

It's not a matter of YES, it's a matter of when. While I respect their military prowess as Generals, there are plenty of American heroes who fought for our country who are deserving of greater honor. Audie Murphy has a gym named after him on the same base, that trains all our infantryman and armor leaders, which is named after a traitor - Benning.

The whole Confederacy has been romanticized by the South. There are still people who think the major issue for the Confederacy was states rights, or that Lee was a gentlemen who liked Northerners and fought on behalf of Virginia, or that Slaves were proud to fight in all black companies in the South. Pick up any of the popular literature today, "The Year of Glory" or the "Year of Desperate Struggle" or "Rebel Yell", "Grant: The Man Who Saved the Union" , "Fierce Patriot" etc; and you'll see modern historical analysis has all but dispelled most of this romance. They revolted, they lost. I respect them as I respect Erwin Rommel, Heinz Guderian and Napolean (I.E: None of us have attended training at Camp Guderian). They aren't people I name buildings after, build monuments to, or ask my citizens to aspire to be like.

Confederate relics are in a long-time going from public and government property. Let people fly confederate flags from their belt buckles and their back yards, and let them honor their Generals in history books.

Not only no but HELL NO!!!!!!!!!
Every time an incident happens people get their panties in a bunch. So every time something politically bad happens your going to rename a ship, or installation?
Why not just change the history books while your at it, do like they used to do in Japan, hide the truth about what happened.
Its horrible when scumbags, cowards and terrorists use a flag or symbol of their hate.
Given time anything can be politically offensive to anyone and its completely ignorant to even bring up renaming those bases mentioned above. Its ignorant and disrespectful.

Although the history debates have been interesting, since the primary headbanging has been between the officers...let's break it down in their "style" (a.k.a. BLUF = Bottom Line Up Front:
As I teach my recruits, words matter. Most of the histrionics, hurt feelings & chest thumping could have been avoided if we had all latched onto one thing. Capt Porter wants all military bases named after MOH awardees, period. Never mind if they SHOULD be renamed as the original post asked, IF that were to magically happen in our politically correct world gone mad...that's his preference. Got it, just as good an idea as any (and probably better than most).

The Confederacy, though short-lived, is a part of our history. There's a reason those bases were named for those people. Before we even consider changing the names, someone should research the reasons behind those names being used in the first place.

No, they should absolutely not. The only time a base needs renamed is if it was shut down and reinstated again. I'm stationed at such a base, NAS Fort Worth JRB, formally known as FMC Carswell. Now, there may be other reasons an installation is renamed that are legitimate, but because people are too sensitive to handle the names, that's a bit too much. You're never going to make everyone happy, but the military has gone from being a rock to being more of an umbrella. Trying to suit everyone all at once, but still people get rained on.

Then what remove the names of anyone who owned slaves from our history also?

Here's a short list of some of the more famous slave owners we all should recognize:

George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison
James Polk
Zachary Taylor
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S Grant


Lots of big names on this list....some even on our (gasp) currency

People need to understand we cannot undo our past.....we need to learn from it and move forward.

HELL NO.

No question the answer is NO!

No. Regardless of how the apologists and activists feel, the Civil War and the Confederacy are still part of our history good or bad.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." ~ George Santayana

If every administration played around as much as this one, nothing would ever get done. PC horsecrap would be the nation's business while serving would be less and less inviting.