Fort Leavenworth: The People Behind the Names: People Who Have Left Their Mark on the Dowager Queen of Frontier Forts – Fort History, Geography, Buildings, Stained Glass Windows, Streets and Trails

This excellent report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. This is the story of the people and organizations behind the names used at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The scores of men and women of distinction associated with the United States Armed Forces who have served at this "Dowager Queen of Frontier Posts." The people behind the place-names are an interesting lot, ranging from a teenage Girl Scout to crusty old generals. Although some of those commemorated are well known iconic figures such as Grant, Eisenhower, Patton, and Marshall, most are little known today regardless of their considerable renown among their contemporaries. As with so much of Army life, there is a regulation dealing with naming things on military installations. Army Regulation (AR) 1-33, The Army Memorial Program, details the program, lists responsibilities, identifies what qualifies as a memorial, and describes the procedure to get it done. The intent of the memorial program is to do lasting honor and to pay tribute to deceased military and civilian personnel with records of outstanding and honorable service. It recognizes the contribution to national defense of persons whose careers or actions were important to the locality where they are memorialized. Fort Leavenworth policy implements AR 1-33. Command Policy #49-08, Memorials and Dedications, directs the establishment of a committee to review requests for memorialization.

Most of those honored have a local connection, although, ironically, on Fort Leavenworth the individual with the most things named for him, Ulysses S. Grant, never served at the post in uniform and only visited once while he was running for president in 1868. He profited from a distinguished career during the Civil War and by his election to two terms as the 18th president of the United States. Nothing succeeds like success. Conversely, nothing fails like failure. Scores of officers with southern roots served at Fort Leaven-worth in its formative years but resigned from the Army to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Some place-names are well known while others are not. Everyone sees the street signs but may not know whom they commemorate. A few streets are named but do not have a have a sign indicating they have a name. Some locations are always identified by their name, such as the Lewis & Clark Center, the home of the Command and General Staff College. Others are better known by their building numbers, even though they have names. The headquarters of the Center for Army Lessons Learned is usually called building #50, seldom Rucker Hall. Still others are identified by function. Barth Hall, building #44, is most often called MCTP Headquarters for the resident Mission Command Training Program. And finally, some buildings are identified by a recognizable attribute such as Grant Hall, Building #52C, which is known as the "clock tower" building.