Final U.S. Army base removes Confederate name

The last of the U.S. Army bases named for a Confederate general was formally introduced as Fort Eisenhower Friday.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth arrived at the Augusta, Georgia, installation in a vintage World War II Jeep like the ones used to cart around war hero and 32nd president Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to Task & Purpose.

Eisenhower commanded Allied Forces battling the Axis powers in Europe. The Republican leader then served two terms as president, giving his final address to U.S. troops as their commander-in-chief at a parade ground near the newly named fort before leaving office in 1961.

Fort Eisenhower, which houses the Army’s Cyber Command, was originally named to honor former Georgia Sen. John Brown Gordon, who went to war for the Confederacy and is believed to have headed the state’s Ku Klux Klan.

Base commander Major Gen. Paul T. Stanton remembered Eisenhower at Friday’s ceremony, where he said he was thrilled to rename the base after the five-star general who died in 1969.

“To reuse your 1952 campaign slogan, ‘It’s time for a change.’” Stanton said. “We like Ike.”

Friday’s event concludes the Department of Defense’s mission to rename the nine military bases bearing the names of Confederates who fought against the Union by the end of the year.