Yahoo Autos Fort Bragg to rename Reilly Road, plus other updates on the renaming to Fort Liberty
FORT BRAGG — While Fort Bragg will not be renamed after a person, soldiers who served on post will be remembered and honored in a daily march when the installation becomes Fort Liberty in June, officials said.
The name change comes after the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act mandated that the Naming Commission identify assets, including Army installations, that commemorate the Confederacy. The local post is among nine Army installations identified for a name change.
During a media round table Tuesday, Officials said nine roads on post will also have names changed.
Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, said Reilly Road on post will be renamed after former Command Sgt. Maj. Rock Merritt, a World War II paratrooper who was the first senior enlisted advisor of the 18th Airborne Corp.
Command Sgt. Maj. T.J. Holland, the current senior enlisted advisor for the 18th Airborne Corps, said Bragg Boulevard will also be renamed on post. State officials will have to decide whether to change the state highway’s name off-post, Holland said.
Liberty March
Donahue and Col. John Wilcox, Fort Bragg’s garrison commander, said a Sunset Liberty March will kick off June 1 and start a new tradition to honor veterans and service members who died in defense of the U.S.
The march, Donahue and Holland said, was inspired by Europeans who trace the steps of World War II allied soldiers and paratroopers who participated in the Waal River crossing in Nijmegen and helped liberate their county decades ago.
The march will begin daily at Liberty Plaza, which will have memorials and markers along a more than half-mile route.
The memorials will feature the post's history and conflicts soldiers participated in, starting with when it was designated as Camp Bragg, officials said.
“(It’s) every day at sunset, not once a year, not twice a year,” Donahue said.
Veterans, Gold Star family members and members of the community can sign up and pick a day to march to honor a fallen service member or veteran, said Don Nauck, director of the Task Force Liberty Committee.
Donahue said the Sunset Liberty March is about bringing the community together.
