A Promise Delivered: Ten American Heroes and the Battle to Rename Our Nation’s Military Bases

In 2020, a bipartisan act of Congress mandated changing the names of nine military bases previously named for Confederate soldiers.

In 2025, the Trump administration bypassed the law to restore the Confederate names.

This is the inspiring story behind the ten American heroes whose names had been originally chosen, told by two members of the Naming Commission that selected them.

In 2020, the United States Congress, in an unprecedented and bipartisan piece of legislation, created the Naming Commission. It was tasked with a monumental mission: Rename nine of the US military’s most prominent army bases-all of which were named for Confederate leaders who waged war against America in the name of maintaining a slave republic.

Over the course of twenty months, the commission completed their mission, carefully combing through years of American history and hearing from tens of thousands of Americans from all walks of life. The commission ultimately chose ten Americans whose individual heroics reflect the collective best of all that America is and could be. With their firsthand knowledge of the selection process, vice-chair Ty Seidule and lead historian Connor Williams recount the lives of each of these American heroes, from former President Dwight D. Eisenhower to Civil War doctor Mary Walker to Cold War General Richard Cavazos. The individual histories nestled within each chapter prove why these men and women are true representatives of our country and how, by looking to them, America can aspire toward a better future.

A collection of stirring tales of heroism, A Promise Delivered is the powerful account of how ten worthy Americans and one bipartisan commission joined the ongoing fight to reclaim our nation’s history.

Brigadier General TY SEIDULE, U.S. Army (Retired), is Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the army for more than 35 years. He is the author of Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of Lost Cause and served as Vice Chair for the Naming Commission tasked by Congress to rename Department of Defense assets that honor Confederates. He teaches at Hamilton College.

CONNOR WILLIAMS was Lead Historian for the United States Congress’ Naming Commission. He has taught for Yale University, Middlebury College, the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, and has worked as a public historian and consultant on several other major renaming and reconciliation projects.