Meet Fort Cavazos. As of Tuesday, the set up previously often called Fort Hood, Texas, that has been on the middle of a number of nationwide controversies will not be named after a Accomplice basic.
The brand new identify honors Gen. Richard Cavazos, a Texas-born Mexican American who twice earned America’s second-highest army honor in the course of the Korean and Vietnam wars. Each situations of Cavazos’ heroism concerned rallying his troopers in opposition to an entrenched or ambushing enemy, typically exposing himself to fireside and a minimum of as soon as refusing an order to depart his troopers behind.
This newest designation is a part of the Protection Division’s push to rename installations honoring the Confederacy; Fort Cavazos is considered one of 9 Army installations being renamed after the Pentagon’s Naming Fee delivered suggestions to the secretary of protection.
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Fort Hood — which has gained nationwide media consideration for strings of soldier suicides and murders — is residence to the Army’s III Armored Corps, a company that makes up the lion’s share of the service’s heavy armored models.
“We’re proud to be renaming Fort Hood as Fort Cavazos in recognition of an impressive American hero, a veteran of the Korea and Vietnam wars and the primary Hispanic to succeed in the rank of four-star basic in our Army,” Lt. Gen. Sean Bernabe, III Armored Corps commanding basic, stated in a press launch. “Basic Cavazos’ combat-proven management, his ethical character and his loyalty to his troopers and their households made him the fearless but revered and influential chief that he was in the course of the time he served, and past.”
Fort Hood was initially named after Accomplice basic John Bell Hood. As of final yr, the Army estimated that the renaming of the bottom would value about $1.5 million.
Given Hood’s troubling latest historical past, together with the dying of Spc. Vanessa Guillén in 2020 that launched an investigation into the best way management dealt with sexual assaults and homicide investigations, some aren’t satisfied that the brand new identify will lead to a lot change for the set up’s repute.
“Now they will rename the set up, so hopefully that is going to remove the unfavorable PR,” Sean Timmons, a Texas-based managing accomplice for the Tully Rinckey legislation agency and a former choose advocate basic at Fort Hood, instructed Navy.com in an interview final month. “However it’s simply going to be a brand new identify and the identical enterprise as typical practices. It is not going to alter something.”
Final month, Navy.com reported that two feminine troopers died in March on the set up. Each had died by obvious suicides, but the Army reported just one publicly.
Army leaders seem excited to welcome a brand new, contemporary chapter within the set up’s in any other case troubled historical past by honoring the “Texas-born hero of the Korean and Vietnam wars,” as an Army press launch referred to Cavazos, and his acts of gallantry in fight.
“Destiny introduced Richard E. Cavazos into the American Century,” the Naming Fee’s remaining report learn. “However valor and management characterised his profession of army service inside it.”
The son of a World Warfare I veteran, Cavazos joined the Reserve Officer Coaching Corps and commissioned as an infantry lieutenant towards the start of the Korean Warfare.
“It was throughout that warfare’s closing days that he first distinguished himself as a frontrunner, rallying his males to make three separate fees on a effectively entrenched enemy place,” an Army press launch stated. “Afterwards, he returned to the sphere 5 separate instances to personally evacuate his wounded males earlier than accepting remedy for his personal accidents.”
Cavazos would go on to serve within the Vietnam Warfare as a battalion commander, once more distinguishing himself in fight.
“He was an atypical military officer in Vietnam,” Invoice Price, who served below him, stated in a U.S. Army museum interview. “Most battalion commanders stood within the rear or in a helicopter above to direct the battle. … [He] had nothing to do with that. He fought on the bottom along with his troops throughout battle. … He was on the bottom with us as we have been dealing with the North Vietnamese Army.”
Then-Lt. Col. Cavazos counterattacked the enemy at Loc Ninh, Vietnam, main an assault in opposition to a fortified place and once more exposing himself to fireside.
Along with incomes two Distinguished Service Crosses, Cavazos earned two Legions of Advantage, a Silver Star, 5 Bronze Stars, the Purple Coronary heart and a bevy of different awards. He commanded III Corps at Fort Hood and have become the primary Hispanic American to attain the rank of four-star basic, in keeping with the fee’s report.
After serving for 33 years within the Army, Cavazos retired in 1984. He handed away in 2017 on the age of 88, in keeping with the service.
— Drew F. Lawrence might be reached at drew.lawrence@army.com. Observe him on Twitter @df_lawrence.
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