President Trump orders seven U.S. Army bases to revert to former names, including renaming Texas’s Fort Cavazos back to Fort Hood.
SAN ANTONIO — President Donald Trump has ordered seven U.S. Army bases to revert to their former names, including Texas’s Fort Cavazos in Killeen—restoring its previous title, Fort Hood.
But the move is not a return to honoring Confederates, as some feared. Instead, the bases will be renamed after different U.S. military figures who happen to share the same surnames as their Confederate predecessors.
Trump’s directive circumvents a 2021 law banning base names honoring Confederate officers. While technically complying with the law, critics say the effort risks overshadowing the achievements of modern heroes—like General Richard E. Cavazos, Medal of Honor recipient and the Army’s first Hispanic four-star general.
“It’s the only base in the world named after a Hispanic American,” said Ramiro Cavazos, President and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and great-nephew of General Cavazos. “To change this now is very disheartening, numbing for our family.”
General Cavazos, a native Texan, was a Medal of Honor recipient and once commanded the post now bearing his name. The renaming from Fort Hood to Fort Cavazos was seen as a long-overdue tribute to Latino military service.
“If everything is based on merit, General Cavazos had this base named after him because he was the commander of this base,” Ramiro Cavazos said.
Under Trump’s new order, the base will again be called Fort Hood—but this time in honor of Col. Robert B. Hood, a World War I hero with no ties to the Confederacy. Still, critics see the move as a symbolic rollback of progress.
“Some of these bases were originally named after people who served the Confederacy, who were in favor of slavery and were not loyal to the United States of America,” Cavazos said.
The decision impacts seven bases across the country, erasing names recently selected to reflect a more inclusive military legacy. Among those replaced are individuals who broke racial, gender, and cultural barriers.
“With this change, they got rid of three African Americans, one Hispanic, three women, and one Native American,” said Lawrence Guzman Romo, LULAC National Vice President for Veterans and a former member of the congressionally appointed base renaming commission.
“You want minorities to come and enlist and become officers, but yet you won’t allow us to have heroes,” he said.
Romo emphasized the original renaming process was community-driven and merit-based.
“There were no diversity quotas or anything,” he said. “All the selections the naming commission picked were the number one selections of every community. That’s the bottom line.”
The Cavazos family says they’re proud of the name and the legacy behind it—no matter what the signs say.
“I think we’re prouder still because it shows the value of the Cavazos name,” Ramiro Cavazos said. “If it’s being removed for political reasons, it shows it represents the best of our community.”
There is no immediate cost estimate for reversing the changes—just two years after signs, documents, and uniforms were updated across Army installations nationwide.