Fort Benning renamed Fort Moore

The Pentagon’s ongoing efforts to remove Confederate-related names from military bases continued with the renaming of the US Army’s Fort Benning, now called Fort Moore. It was a historic moment, not only for a soldier, but also for his revolutionary wife.

Hal Moore was the commander of American troops during the bloody 1965 battle in the Ia Drang Valley – the first clash between American and North Vietnamese soldiers.

“I can’t really describe to you the hell we were in,” Moore told Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Archives of that battle. He remembers the “smoke and dust” and the “screams of men shouting ‘mama’ or ‘doctor'”.

Moore has since died, but Bob Edwards was also there as C Company Commander.

“C Company had started the day with five officers and 106 men, and by 10 there were no more officers wounded. There were 42 men killed,” Edwards said.

Despite losing nearly half the business, “the line held,” Edwards said.

Edwards and his soldiers were based at what was then called Fort Benning in Georgia. Now he goes by the name Moore.

“But it’s not called Fort Hal Moore. It’s a family. It’s both Hal Moore and Julie,” Edwards told CBS News.

Julie Moore, whose first name is Julia, was outraged by the impersonal telegrams the US military used to notify the families of the dead.

“She raised hell with the army,” Hal Moore once said. “She made a big fuss to end this inhumane practice.”

Thanks to Julia Moore, the dreaded news of a serviceman’s death is now being delivered in person. And she is now the first Army wife to have a base named after her.