NY Times Headline/Story

 

Army Bases That Honor Confederate Traitors Could Soon Be Renamed for These Heroes

The names “embody the best of the United States Army and America,” a commission established by Congress wrote in announcing its choices.

Times article names two of interest to Alabama:

 

Fort Novosel (Fort Rucker*, Ala.)

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Novosel Sr.

In two tours of duty in Vietnam, Michael Novosel Sr. rescued more than 5,500 wounded soldiers as a medevac pilot, earning the Medal of Honor for one particularly heroic episode. One of those rescued soldiers was his own son, Michael Novosel Jr., an Army aviator whose helicopter was shot down in 1970. (A week later, Michael Jr. returned the favor, rescuing his father from a disabled helicopter.)

Mr. Novosel, the son of Croatian immigrants, joined the Army Air Corps in 1941 and rose to the rank of captain by 1945, flying B-29 strategic bombers. He then transferred to the newly created Air Force and remained in the reserves until the 1960s. When Mr. Novosel was denied an active-duty assignment to serve in Vietnam, he gave up his rank as a lieutenant colonel and joined the Army as a warrant officer and helicopter pilot.

In one rescue mission in 1969, Mr. Novosel rescued 29 South Vietnamese soldiers under heavy enemy fire. He and his crew were forced out of the landing zone six times and had to “circle and return from another direction to land and extract additional troops,” according to his Medal of Honor citation.

By the end of the day, his helicopter had been riddled with bullets. In his own retelling of the episode during an interview with the Library of Congress, Mr. Novosel said he was shot in his right hand and leg during his last rescue of the day — momentarily causing him to lose control of the helicopter — but escaped along with his crew and the last of his evacuees.

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Credit...Associated Press

Fort Moore (Fort Benning, Ga.)

Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Julia Moore

Many Americans know Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore as the stern and resolute Colonel Moore played by Mel Gibson in “We Were Soldiers,” the gritty and somber war film that dramatized the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam. The general’s wife, Julia, played by Madeleine Stowe in the movie, had a significant role on the home front during that battle.

On Nov. 14, 1965, Colonel Moore led his 450 troops to the infamous Landing Zone X-Ray, where they were ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers who outnumbered the Americans 12 to 1. Bloody hand-to-hand combat ensued, but Colonel Moore and his men held their positions for three days. Colonel Moore had vowed that he would leave no one behind. He kept his promise, and his actions earned him the Distinguished Service Cross.

At the same time, Ms. Moore offered emotional support to the families of the dead and wounded at Fort Benning. Death and injury notices were sent by telegram at the time, delivered by taxi drivers. Ms. Moore began accompanying the drivers and offering her condolences to the families. Her complaints and concerns led to the creation of the Army’s casualty notification teams, and uniformed soldiers now deliver the news of death or injury to families.

( *There is still a restaurant/former B&B on Birmingham's Southside named for Rucker.)