Ft. Rucker Becomes Ft. Novosel at Redesignation Ceremony
WAKA 8 was there when Ft. Rucker was officially redesignated as Ft. Novosel at a U.S. Army ceremony on Monday.
The renaming was in memory of Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel, Sr., a Medal of Honor recipient with ties to Army Aviation, the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and the Wiregrass region in southeast Alabama.
Novosel died in 2006. His surviving children were present at the ceremony to push the button that unveiled the new name.
“Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel, Sr., epitomizes what an Army Aviation Soldier should be,” said Maj. Gen. Michael C. McCurry, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker commanding general. “His legacy of courage under fire in support of Soldiers on the ground is what we train for and expect of our Soldiers. It is an honor for the Home of Army
Aviation to bear his name.”
The Novosel family presented his Medal of Honor which will be preserved by the Army’s aviation museum.
This change happened on the recommendation of a Department of Defense Naming Commission which had a mission to remove and rename all DOD items “that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.”
Ft. Rucker had been named for Confederate Gen. Edmund Rucker. It has been in use by the U.S. Army since 1942.
In the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2020 many people protested systemic racism and pointed to Confederate statues and bases as part of that system. Congress established the commission in the National Defense Authorization Act of fiscal 2021.
The post is one of nine installations being redesignated based on the Naming Commission’s recommendations.
Maxwell Air Force Base near downtown Montgomery is not affected.
Not far from our area, Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia, will be renamed Fort Moore after Army Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia Compton Moore. Moore commanded U.S. forces in the first large-scale battle of the Vietnam War. His book — “We Were Soldiers Once…And Young” was made into the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers.
