Fort Hood set to be renamed after Richard Cavazos, Texas’ first Hispanic four-star general

The Frank W. Mayborn Gate entrance to the Fort Hood U.S. Army post in Killeen. The military base is slated to be renamed Fort Cavazos after the first Hispanic four-star general in Texas. (Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune)

The U.S. Department of Defense is set to change the name of Texas’ Fort Hood, America’s largest active-duty armored military post, to pay homage to a four-star Hispanic general instead of its original namesake, a Confederate general.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin announced the pending change Thursday in a memo to top Pentagon officials and agreed to a recommendation that the base be called Fort Cavazos. That name was previously recommended by the Naming Commission, which Congress created to suggest new names or removal of names and symbols that commemorate Confederate figures.