NO US MILITARY BASE SHOULD HONOR A TRAITOR OR SLAVEOWNER

ON BEHALF OF SGT. Calvin Brown, US ARMY, Staff Sgt, Roland Nicholson, Sr. US ARMY, Sgt, Marcellus Brown, US ARMY SGT, Bossy Brown, US ARMY, Master Sgt. Alton Nicholson, US ARMY, Staff Sgt. Olden Stevenson, US ARMY, Cpt. James Alston, Col. Howard P. Nicholson, US ARMY and myself, Thank you to the US Department of Defense. We were at San Juan Hill, Manilla, Massa, Italy, Bastogne, ( The Battle of the Bulge), Chosin Reservoir, The Tet Offensive ( Vietnam). Bosnia, desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan. We have SIX PURPLE HEARTS. more than a bunch of white families have male members. We had to be airlifted from Iraq to the US Army Hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, when an IED went off during a prisoner interrogation. Many of us have long been rankled by the fact that we had to serve on US Army bases named after despicable men, who were not only traitors but, in many cases incompetent Army officers, who made decisions that caused thousands of men, who fought for the right of white people to enslave men. Genral Colin Powell & General John Forte told me that this day would come and it finally has.

When I was a young Army lieutenant at Fort Bragg and I had to mete out punishment under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which allows a commander to mete out Non Judicial Punishment to soldiers, I would require offenders to in addition to whatever else I did to them like restricting them to quarters, reduction in rank and forfeiture of pay, I would require them to write a short paper on General Braxton Bragg, CSA. Braxton Bragg was a native of North Carolina, whose father felt that West Point "would straighten him out". That father used his political influence to get the young Bragg appointed to the US Military Academy at West Point. Bragg graduated near the bottom of class and when North Carolina joined the Confederate Army. His family had owned slaves.

As an officer in the CSA, Bragg prove to be a colossal failure as a tactician. His indecisions in battles in Kentucky & Tennessee led to major Union victories. During the Wilderness Campaign Bragg's troops actually gained ground and scored a major victory, but he chose to simply stop for a while. During that time the Union troops were resupplied and reinforced. Over a thousand Rebel men from 15 to 75 were killed fighting for the " Lost Cause". John Bell Hood was an equally incompetent commander. Why have we spent so many years sending Black, Hispanic & First Nation soldiers, many of who I commanded, to serve on US Army bases named after men who tried to destroy or enslave the very people from whom they descended?

John Bell Hood, Braxton Bragg, Stonewall Jackson, and other slave owners have not been in hell long enough to satisfy me, they should also suffer the disdain of all Americans, These men, not only took the same oath that me, my father and my brother took to " Defend the United Sates against all enemies, Foreign & Domestic", after receiving first class education at the expense of US taxpayers, they took up arms against that very government.

When I served as a Brigade staff officer, one of my auxiliary duties was serving as the Brigade " Rape Prevention Officer". The fact that the Army has to have such a position program is sad, and no place needed such officers more than Fort Hood, Texas, where rape and sexual assault has been rampant. During my last visit to Fort Hood, a young female officer told me that with a Commander in Chief who brags about " grabbing vaginas", what do expect from an E-5 at the biggest base in the US Army , Good riddance to racism and misogyny in my US ARMY and to that orange draft dodger with the funny hair.

I DARE ANYONE TO TELL ME THAT THEIR FAMILY HAS GIVEN MORE TO THE MILITARY OF THIS COUNTRY AND GOTTEN SO LITTLE IN RETURN THAN MINE

THE WASHINGTON POST NEWSPAPER

OPINION

Now that Washington and Lee University has removed the Confederate flags from the campus chapel in response to black law students’ demands, it may be time to reflect on the meaning of a flag that represents something that we rarely use the term “rebellion” to describe. The Civil War was anything but civil. The Confederate flag has been slowly disappearing from many venues, but where is the line drawn on symbolism?

I am a former Army officer who is African American. I have lived at Fort Lee, Va., and spent time at Fort Hood, Tex., and Fort Bragg, N.C. — all bases named after confederate generals who supported slavery and, in some cases, owned slaves. These men also were West Point graduates who took up arms against a country they had taken an oath to defend, i.e., they committed treason.

We have to let things go. The dollar bill I gave to the clerk at the Fort Lee commissary or to the bartender at the officer’s club had the portrait of George Washington, another slave owner. But it’s a matter of degree. Washington and Lee should not display the stars and bars of the Confederate states in the university chapel.

Roland Nicholson Jr.

PS. When I was stationed at Fort Lee, VA, I gave an anniversary party at the Officers Club, for my parents who were visiting me. When my dad was stationed there in the 1940's he would not have even been allowed in the club if he had been an officer. Prior to being at Fort Lee, he had been stationed at Fort Biloxi, Mississippi, where one of his duties as a Sgt. was to oversee a detail of 4 Black soldiers who every day marched captured German soldiers, who may well have killed American soldiers in North Africa to the base Post Exchange of base store to shop. My father and his detail of Black soldiers were not allowed to enter the store. When my parent's party came to an end, a Black Cpt. at the party said to my dad, " Isn't it odd that here we on US Army base named for a treasonous slave owner and your son my well settle the tab tonight with currency that portrays the face of other slave owners. My dad smiled and said, " But we have made it to the Officers Club".

PS: TO PFC. NEWMAN , the redneck, from Lubbock, Texas who called me a ni_gger in front of the entire Brigade at Fort Jackson SC, I told you this day would come. My hope is that you are acutely aware of it.