Fort Bragg Name History: Bragg, Liberty, and Back Again
The installation is Fort Bragg today. It was Fort Liberty from 2 June 2023 until the Secretary of Defense ordered the name restored on 10 February 2025, with the ceremony on 7 March 2025. A House committee voted in June 2026 to change it back, but that has not become law.
Last verified
Is Fort Bragg changing its name again?
Not yet, and not automatically. On 25 June 2026 the House Armed Services Committee voted 29-27 to adopt an amendment from Rep. Marilyn Strickland that would restore Fort Liberty and the 2023 names of eight other Army posts. Republicans Don Bacon and Carlos Gimenez crossed party lines to support it.
That amendment rides on the annual defense bill. It has not passed the full House, it has not passed the Senate, and it has not been signed. Separately, H.R. 1214 in the 119th Congress would put the Fort Bragg designation into statute. Until one of those becomes law, the installation stays Fort Bragg.
Full Fort Bragg naming timeline
| Date | Name | Authority | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camp Bragg | U.S. War Department | Established outside Fayetteville as a World War I field artillery training site, named for Confederate general Braxton Bragg. North Carolina History | |
| Fort Bragg | U.S. War Department | Camp Bragg became Fort Bragg, marking its conversion from a temporary camp to a permanent installation. North Carolina History | |
| Fort Liberty | U.S. Army, following the congressional Naming Commission | Redesignated Fort Liberty as part of the Department of Defense programme to remove Confederate names from installations. It was the only one of the nine renamed posts not given a person as its namesake. U.S. Army | |
| Fort Bragg | Secretary of Defense memorandum | Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum restoring the name Fort Bragg, this time designating WWII paratrooper Pfc. Roland L. Bragg as the namesake rather than Braxton Bragg. U.S. Department of Defense | |
| Fort Bragg | U.S. Army redesignation ceremony | The installation formally redesignated as Fort Bragg in ceremony. Roland Bragg, a Maine native who enlisted in 1943, served with the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, and trained at the post that now carries his name. U.S. Army | |
| Fort Liberty proposed | House Armed Services Committee (not yet law) | The committee voted 29-27 to adopt an amendment from Rep. Marilyn Strickland restoring the 2023 names to Fort Bragg and eight other posts. Republicans Don Bacon and Carlos Gimenez crossed party lines. The amendment rides on the annual defense bill and still needs the full House and the Senate. WUNC |
Why the name is Bragg again
The 2025 name honors a different person than the 1918 name did. The original Camp Bragg was named for Confederate general Braxton Bragg. The restored name designates Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II paratrooper.
Fort Liberty is renamed Fort Bragg, effective immediately.
- Braxton Bragg (1817-1876)
- Confederate general. Namesake of the 1918 Camp Bragg and of the installation until 2023.
- Pfc. Roland L. Bragg
- World War II paratrooper from Maine, enlisted July 1943, served with the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps. During the Battle of the Bulge he drove a captured German ambulance roughly 20 miles to get a wounded soldier to an Allied hospital in Belgium. Namesake since 2025.
When it was called Fort Liberty
From 2 June 2023 to 7 March 2025, roughly 21 months. The redesignation followed the congressional Naming Commission established to remove Confederate names from Department of Defense property. Fort Liberty was the only one of the nine renamed posts given a value rather than a person as its namesake.
Anything published in that window — road signs, unit pages, mailing addresses, news archives, school records — may still read Fort Liberty. That is a dating signal, not an error.
Which name to use in writing
- Use Fort Bragg for anything current: orders, addresses, directions, and reporting on the installation today.
- Use Fort Liberty only when quoting or citing something from between June 2023 and March 2025, where the name is part of the record.
- Avoid writing both names together as one label. It reads as two installations to search engines and answer engines, which is why this site names the entity Fort Bragg and records Fort Liberty as a former name.
For access rules, unit context, and visitor passes, see the Fort Bragg planning guide.