By Congressman Pat Harrigan, USMA ’09
Last Friday, I stood in Fayetteville with Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, Sen. Ted Budd (R., N.C.), and Rep. Richard Hudson (R., N.C.) to witness the restoration of something that never should have been taken away: Fort Bragg.
For a century, Fort Bragg has been the home of America’s most elite warfighters. The 82nd Airborne Division, U.S. Army Special Forces, and the Global Response Force have trained and deployed from this installation to fight and win the nation’s wars.
The name Bragg became a symbol of military excellence, not because of its origin, but because of the Soldiers who carried it onto battlefields across the world.
Bragg paratroopers led the way in Normandy. They fought through the jungles of Vietnam, the mountains of Afghanistan, and the cities of Iraq.
They have answered the nation’s call in every major conflict for the past hundred years, and they built the reputation of Fort Bragg through their victories and sacrifices.
In 2023, Washington bureaucrats attempted to erase that history.
They spent six million taxpayer dollars renaming Fort Bragg, believing they could rewrite military tradition with the stroke of a pen.
They ignored the generations of Soldiers who fought and died under that name.
They disregarded the legacy of those who made Fort Bragg into what it is today.
They expected America’s warfighters to accept it and move on. They were wrong.
Fort Bragg is back, now bearing the name of Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II paratrooper who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Under enemy fire, he stole a German ambulance to save a wounded Soldier. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for his actions on the battlefield. His name now stands as a tribute to every warrior who has called Fort Bragg home.
The renaming of Fort Bragg was never about progress, it was about control.
The easiest way to weaken a people is to separate them from their past.
That is what Washington tried to do — erase the name, replace it with something hollow, and expect the warfighters who built its reputation to forget what it meant.
But warriors do not forget.
I know because I was one of them.
As a West Point graduate and Green Beret, I trained at Fort Bragg and deployed from it. I served alongside men who carried its name with them into battle, and I have buried brothers who were never able to come back to it. No bureaucrat could erase what this place means, no matter how hard they tried.
For years, we have watched as politics has seeped into the military, diverting focus from lethality and readiness. As priorities have changed, so have outcomes. The force that left Afghanistan in 2021 was not the same military that entered twenty years earlier.
When political agendas override combat effectiveness, wars are lost. The renaming of Fort Bragg was one more step down that path.
But last Friday, that path was reversed.
Fort Bragg was never just a name, it was a standard. It was a legacy built by generations of warfighters who trained here, fought here, and gave their lives in service to this nation. That legacy has been restored.
Bragg is back, and this time, it stays.
Rep. Pat Harrigan represents North Carolina’s 10th District in Congress.
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