Fort Novosel was officially changed back to Fort Rucker in a ceremony at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum on Thursday.
The change was directed in June by the Secretary of the Army in honor of Army Capt. Edward W. Rucker, Jr., an aviation pioneer and Army Air Corps pilot from World War I. Fort Rucker was previously named after Confederate soldier Edmund Rucker. The Biden administration changed the name to Fort Novosel after World War II and Vietnam veteran chief warrant officer Michael Novosel.
“Welcome home to Fort Rucker,” said Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker commanding general. “This promises to mark a unique moment in the history of the Wiregrass as the namesake of the installation returns to something familiar, but the honor falls to a different individual.”
Gill noted the post has been home to countless military members and their families since it first opened as Camp Rucker in 1942, became Fort Rucker in 1955, and in 2023 was renamed Fort Novosel to honor Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel Sr., an aviation legend and Medal of Honor recipient.
“The name Novosel will continue to live on in the hearts and minds of us here in Army aviation,” Gill said. “Even he called Fort Rucker home, and that’s a powerful thought. Generations have trained, worked and lived here for over 80 years. Families were started here and many of those same families would return to this base and retire in the local area because it became their home.”
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