00:00Thank you. Mr. Secretary, earlier this month, you announced a plan to change the name of three Virginia military bases to restore the names of Confederate-era generals on those bases.
00:10You researched to find brave American soldiers with the same last names, Lee, Hill, and Pickett, who had not fought for the Confederacy and declared that those Confederate-adjacent names would be restored.
00:21The problem is that you had to strip away the names of four amazing people that the Pentagon and local communities had chosen to honor at the Virginia bases.
00:31Van Barfoot, he was a Mississippi native, Mr. Chair, who came to Fort Pickett in the early 40s to train for war.
00:37He fought all over Europe in World War II.
00:40He won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery.
00:43Leading his platoon in southern Italy, he killed 10 of the enemy, captured 17 more,
00:48and escorted two wounded Americans 1,700 yards to safety under enemy fire.
00:52Stayed in the Army for another 34 years, seeing action in both the Korean and the Vietnam Wars,
00:58and being assigned as the Army liaison to the Virginia National Guard at Fort Pickett.
01:03Long after he retired, he maintained his tie to the fort and to the Virginia National Guard.
01:07I was at the naming ceremony, where this base to which he had devoted much of his life was named in his honor.
01:14His family was there, and they were so proud.
01:16Arthur Gregg served in the Army for more than 30 years, first African American to reach the rank of Brigadier General,
01:22first to reach the rank of Lieutenant General, began as an enlisted,
01:26eventually decided to become a commissioned officer, went to Fort Lee for quartermaster training,
01:31quickly rose through the ranks as an instructor,
01:33even though he was not allowed to go to the officer's club because of the color of his skin.
01:38He finished his career in 1979 as the director of all Army logistics operations around the world.
01:44He stayed near Fort Lee in retirement, raised his family there, and was a continuous beloved presence until his death last summer at 96.
01:53He was actually at the renaming ceremony with his family in 2022 at this place that meant so much to him.
02:00Charity Adams.
02:01Charity Adams was an Army officer during World War II, the first African American woman allowed to join the WACS.
02:08She was the commanding officer of the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion, a unique battalion composed primarily of African American women
02:19making sure that American GIs in Europe got their mail during World War II.
02:23Our colleagues Jackie Rosen and Jerry Moran successfully passed a bill in 2022 giving the 6888 the Congressional Gold Medal.
02:31Charity Adams was the highest-ranking African American woman in the military at the end of World War II.
02:36Her family was at the dedication of Fort Gregg Adams, named in honor of these two trailblazing logistics leaders.
02:43They were so proud.
02:44Finally, Mary Walker, the only woman ever to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
02:49She graduated from Syracuse Medical School in 1855.
02:52She tried to join the Union Army as a sergeant, was turned away because she was a woman.
02:56But the need was so great, she eventually got hired at a military hospital in Washington and then was deployed as an Army surgeon
03:04with the Army of the Cumberland and the 52nd Ohio Infantry, becoming the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army.
03:11She served all over Virginia, including the place where the base is now named after her.
03:15She frequently crossed battle lines to treat civilians and even treated Confederate soldiers.
03:19She was captured a prisoner of war in Richmond until a prisoner relief president, Andrew Johnson,
03:25gave her the Congressional Medal of Honor after the Civil War.
03:28Why did you decide that these four patriots were not worthy enough to have their names on a base?
03:35Well, Senator, as you know, this was never about the names of the bases they were renamed to.
03:40This is about restoring all bases to their original name because we're not about erasing his move.
03:47Okay, you don't care about their military record.
03:50You wanted to restore the Confederate names.
03:52When you called the Gregg family to tell them that their dad's name was no longer going to be on the base,
03:58what was their reaction?
04:02Senator, the Army notified them of that.
04:05You didn't call any of the families, and I've spoken with the families, and the families were called by the press.
04:11That's how they learned about this.
04:13They learned about it from the press.
04:14You didn't call the Barfoot family, the Gregg family, and you didn't call the Adams family.
04:20I told the families I'd ask you about this today.
04:22In fact, two of General Gregg's granddaughters, Avery and Sidney, are right here in the audience,
04:27and I want to ask you this as I close.
04:29While you announced that these brave men and women's names would be stripped from the Virginia bases,
04:35no orders to that effect have been received by the base commanders.
04:39In light of the patriotic service of Van Barfoot, Arthur Gregg, Charity Adams, and Mary Walker,
04:45I'd like to ask you simply not to issue the orders changing the names of these Virginia bases.
04:52These families, my commonwealth, are very proud of these heroes, very satisfied with these names,
04:58and ask you not to change them.
04:59Will you honor these exemplary patriots and keep their worthy names in places on the bases they loved and where they served?
05:09Senator, we very much thank and appreciate them for their service, and we'll find ways to recognize them,
05:14but the orders will soon be going to those bases to change the names back to the original name that never should have been changed.
05:19But you have the power to not send those orders.
