WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, released the following statement in response to the Trump Administration’s workaround of the law prohibiting naming a military installation after Confederate soldiers.

“My colleague, Austin Scott, made an excellent point during today’s hearing with Secretary Hegseth about the real story around the newly renamed Fort Gordon. As a workaround of the law that prohibits naming a military installation after a Confederate soldier, Secretary Hegseth’s Department of Defense has used the legal fiction of finding service members who share the Confederate soldiers’ names as a fig leaf for its efforts. These new namesakes served honorably and valorously, but in their quest to find that workaround, the Trump Administration is failing to tell the full story.  

“Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, who Fort Gordon is now named after, participated in the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, that was fictionalized in the film Black Hawk Down. As Congressman Scott noted, it was Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart, both Delta Force snipers, who, under heavy fire, valiantly protected the downed personnel. Both served heroically.  Both were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor. If the Trump Administration’s goal is to honor service members who exemplify courage, valor, and often paying the ultimate price in service to their country; then they should have—as Congressman Scott suggested—renamed that Army installation as Fort Gordon-Shughart.

“The Trump Administration’s selective retelling of our military history is antithetical to the U.S. Armed Forces’ core value of service to the Constitution and country.”

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