Virginia’s Fort A.P. Hill was once formally redesignated Fort Walker on Friday morning throughout a rite on base, which happened at the eve of Women’s Equality Day.
According to the media advisory from the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region and U.S. Army Military District of Washington, Fort Walker was once renamed in honor of Dr. Mary E. Walker, who handled wounded Union squaddies at box hospitals right through the Civil War.
Fort A.P. Hill, which is positioned close to town of Bowling Green, Virginia, was once in the beginning named after Confederate Lt. Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill.
The redesignation is part of the Department of Defense’s suggestions to rename U.S. Army installations to remove the names of Confederate squaddies.
The nationwide initiative contains the renaming of 9 U.S. Army bases. Among them, Fort Lee, additionally in Virginia, was once renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in honor of Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams.
In this display take hold of taken from a video, a plaque about Dr. Mary Edwards Walker is proven on the Fort Walker rededication rite on Aug. 25, 2023, in Virginia.
U.S. Army
Gregg, the one dwelling U.S. soldier in fashionable historical past to have an set up named in his honor, attended the Fort Walker redesignation rite on Friday, says the U.S. Army.
The first Black feminine lieutenant common, Lt. Gen. Nadja West, spoke at Friday’s rite and mirrored at the importance of Army set up names.
“Recalling them serves to remind us to challenge us, to inspire us and even unite us.” West said during her speech, “It reminds us of who we are, and why we do what we do,”
West, the previous U.S. Army surgeon common and the primary Black girl to serve in that function, stated Walker printed chances and supplied hope in her adventure to grow to be an Army physician.
“I know that if there was no Dr. Walker there would have been no Dr. West, plain and simple. She blazed a trail that I and thousands of others have been following over a century later,” West stated.
Although Walker was once a civilian and not a commissioned officer in the army, she won a Medal of Honor from President Andrew Johnson for her carrier, in November 1865, in accordance to a U.S. Army news unlock. She is the one girl in U.S. historical past to obtain this honor, consistent with the U.S. Department of Defense.
In this display take hold of taken from a video, the Fort Walker rededication rite is proven on Aug. 25, 2023, in Virginia.
U.S. Army
Maj. Gen. Trevor Bredenkamp, who additionally spoke throughout the rite, stated that Fort Walker is the one military set up to be named only after a girl.
Walker worked as an unpaid volunteer in Virginia throughout the Civil War after she in the beginning implemented to be an Army surgeon, however was once rejected as a result of she was once a girl. Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas appointed Walker as an assistant surgeon in the Army, in September 1863.
Bredenkamp stated throughout Friday’s rite Walker “was devoted to duty and committed to caring for soldiers.”
The new set up names had been advisable by way of a naming fee arrange by way of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the method was once finished in Jan., the DOD stated in a press release.
The factor of the military base names won consideration after protests following the police killing of George Floyd recognized the Confederate statues and bases as an extension of systemic racism, in accordance to the DOD, which mandated that every one 9 installations be renamed by way of the tip of 2023.
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