The name of Southeast Alabama’s U.S. Army base, Fort Novosel, will be changed back to Fort Rucker, according to President Donald Trump.
The base was originally named after Confederate officer Edmund Rucker when it opened during World War II in 1942, but the base’s name was changed under the Biden administration in 2023 to Fort Novosel.
Trump said in a speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday that the base’s name would again be changed to Fort Rucker.
“We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change, and I’m superstitious, you know? I’d like to keep it going,” Trump said.
Fort Rucker facilitates nearly all Army Aviation training and some training for the U.S. Air Force. It is home to the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and the U.S. Army Aviation Technical Test Center, which conducts testing on developmental aircraft.
Rucker was a Tennessee native and Confederate officer who began as a private under Gen. George Edward Pickett’s company. In November 1864, Rucker was appointed to acting brigadier general, but the Confederate Congress, which disbanded the following May, never confirmed him.
Rucker sustained wounds in the battles of Franklin and Nashville and was captured by Union forces.
After the war, Rucker moved to Memphis and worked in the railroad business. In 1869, he moved to Alabama as a railroad superintendent and became an industry leader in Birmingham in the 1880s, working in the coal, steel, sales, land and banking businesses.
Enterprise-native Michael J. Novosel, Sr. was an aviator during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He received a Medal of Honor after saving 29 men in Vietnam despite sustaining heavy damage to his aircraft.
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