A main street inside New York City’s only military post now bears the name of a Black officer who died to save others in Vietnam – instead of the name of the Confederate general who led the Southern secessionist effort.
The street was renamed John Warren Avenue on Friday in honor of Lieutenant John Earl Warren Jr., a Brooklynite who was just 22 years old when he threw a grenade to save three people in his platoon. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, for his bravery. It was once called “General Lee Avenue” after Robert E. Leewho served on the base 20 years before the Civil War.
The new name was announced during a ceremony at the base, Fort Hamilton, located on the Brooklyn side of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Change comes later a push that lasts for many years by local officials has increased amid a nationwide outcry over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis two years ago.
Colonel Craig A. Martin, the garrison’s commander, said that he had wanted to change his name since starting work at Fort Hamilton in July 2020. The street is a major axis extending from the entrance. of visitors to the other side of the facility.
“If really, we want to be leaders in the Army and say we are people first and we want to make a difference, we have to act,” Colonel Martin said. “We can’t just talk. We have to make a difference.”
Colonel Martin said he was struck by Lieutenant Warren’s bravery, and also by a strange coincidence: He was born the day the young lieutenant was killed.
“John Warren died so others could live,” he said.
Other name changes are likely to be made soon. Naming Committee, established by Congress last year, was tasked with proposing new names for nine Department of Defense positions in memory of Confederate officers, including Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Hood in Texas. The law guides the secretary of defense to implement a plan based on the committee’s recommendations by 2024.
Yvette K. Bourcicot, acting assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said Lieutenant Warren’s story is one of “an ordinary man of extraordinary character”.
“Lieutenant Warren is a hero who will continue to be an inspiration to generations to come,” she said. “Those generations will know Lieutenant Warren as a son of Crown Heights, a brave soldier and the best man our country can offer.”
Lieutenant Warren grew up on Union Street, where he was raised by his parents, Lillian Warren, a transportation agency employee, and John Warren, a veteran who worked as a maintenance worker at a nursing home.
His sister, Gloria Warren-Baskin, 70, still lives in the neighborhood. Despite the 5 year age difference, the siblings share the same birthday: November 16.
“He was never forgotten,” Warren-Baskin said in an interview before the ceremony. “Every birthday, I greet him too.”
Warren-Baskin, a retired secretary of a labor union, shed tears as she recalled the impact the loss had on her close-knit family.
They attended Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Clinton Hill, as she always does, and her brother enjoyed church activities, dancing, and bowling. She said that he was a serious and open-minded young man.
He was a student at Brooklyn College when he was drafted into the army. He tried to make the best of it, enrolling in officer school and a leadership course. She remembers accompanying him to the airport when he was deployed to Vietnam in 1968.
“I told him, ‘Don’t be a hero,’ she recalls. “But he never looked back at us. He just kept going, and years later I think about it; Does he know he’s not coming home? “
He was leading a platoon that was hit by intense fire on January 14, 1969. As his men approached enemy positions, a grenade landed in the middle of their group.
He fell in the direction of the grenade and was killed, shielding at least three men from injury or death, citing his Medal of Honor.
“Lieutenant Warren’s last act of sacrifice to save his life is in keeping with the highest tradition of military service,” it read.
Warren-Baskin traveled with her parents to Washington in 1970 to receive the award from President Richard Nixon. The medal is now part of the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Ms Warren-Baskin said she was “delighted” to learn of the name change on her property. Many relatives and friends accompanied her at Friday’s ceremony.
“It is an honor to have a street sign at Fort Hamilton with his name, in Brooklyn, his home, with his service members and family members,” Ms. Warren-Baskin said. them and those who are retired. .
“I hope that they will take the time to look up his name and know that he deserves this honor, that he gave his life to save three people in his Army. “
James Hendon, commissioner of the New York City Department of Veterans Affairs, says that not many military properties are named for Vietnam veterans. About 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam, and more than 58,000 died.
Ceremonies like Friday’s ensure “that those people are not forgotten,” he said.
In the coming weeks, the base will also remove the name of Stonewall Jackson, another Confederate general, from a private street. The post’s spokeswoman Connie M. Dillon said it has been co-branded as Washington Drive, and that name will remain the same.
Across the country, at least 230 Union logos in public places have been taken downhave moved or changed their name in recent years, though thousands remain, mainly in the South.
New York officials called for Fort Hamilton to remove Lee and Jackson’s names in 2017, after neo-Nazis and right-wing militias marched in Charlottesville, Va. At the time, the Army said doing so would be “controversial and divisive.”
City Councilman Justin Brannan, who represents the area around the base and was one of the officials who pushed for the change, welcomed the Army’s reversal of position.
“Robert E. Lee not only led some of the Confederacy’s most consequential victories in the war to protect slavery; he is also a traitor to his country,” said Brannan.
“I can’t think of a better detox than renaming this street in honor of John Earl Warren Jr., a Brooklyn-born hero.”
