FORT HOOD, TX — A civil rights organization is pushing to change the name of Fort Hood following a ‘Texas Monthly’ article. They are suggesting the name be changed to Fort Benavidez.
The national council of the League of United Latin American Citizens is looking to highlight our diverse armed forces by honoring contemporary heroes. They say a Texas Medal of Honor Recipient named Master Sergeant Raul Perez “Roy” Benavidez should be the namesake of the post.
“If you were to ask 500 Texans, hey, have you heard of Fort Hood? All 500 would say, of course, I’ve heard of Fort Hood. But if you followed it up and said, 'Do you know who Fort Hood is named after?' I’m willing to bet less than 10%, even less than 5% would know who General Hood was,” said Jorge Haynes, a member of the group.
Haynes had the opportunity to meet the Vietnam War hero. “He was a pretty incredible guy. He actually got shot up in combat. Came back to R&R, recuperated, and couldn’t come back stateside, would have never seen anymore combat. But not Roy Benavidez. He was a fighter and he wanted to go back to his unit,” said Haynes.
The fort’s namesake, General John Bell Hood, was a United States and Confederate States Army officer in the nineteenth century.
“I don’t really think it’s about General Hood, but it’s about looking at some of the contemporary heroes that we have, not just Roy Benavidez, because there are plenty of others,” said Haynes.
“We just want to get people thinking about these sorts of things. There may be a future army post, future air bases, that we can give serious consideration after some of our more contemporary heroes particularly some of ethnicities and races that have been kind of left out,” Haynes continued.
Central Texas News Now Reached out to the Army’s Press Desk in the Pentagon. They have not responded as of the time this article was posted.
