FORT CAVAZOS, Texas(KXXV) — After announcing and confirming the renaming of Fort Cavazos back to Fort Hood by President Trump on Tuesday during the Fort Bragg event today, honoring the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary.
The family of General Richard E. Cavazos sent this statement to 25 News regarding their thoughts on the name change.
On June 10, 2025, President Donald J. Trump announced that Fort Cavazos, renamed after our beloved father and grandfather, General Richard E. Cavazos, would be reverted to Fort Hood pending Army action, along with the six other renamed Army bases. On June 11, 2025, this change was confirmed to us by a representative of the Army during a phone call made to the family.
As we understand that the renaming of Fort Cavazos will not be for the vanity of the infamous Gen. John Bell Hood, but instead the courageous Colonel Hood of World War I, we do not and cannot share the same understanding as the President as to his reasoning for doing so. When Fort Hood was renamed after Gen. Cavazos, the impact resonated within a much larger community, and soldiers from all walks of life, including General Colin Powell, remarked on Gen. Cavazos’s impact on Hispanic persons in the military. Major General Alfred Valenzuela was quoted, “I told him what he meant to us poor Hispanic kids [...] his impact as a mentor is probably the greatest impact our Army had … we all looked up to him as an American soldier, a Hispanic soldier.”
While we are saddened by the news of Fort Cavazos, as well as for the other duly named bases that were renamed after brave, hardworking American heroes, we continue to express our support and admiration for all service members who honor, protect, and serve our country. As our father and grandfather would himself express, our greatest focus is and should always be on the everyday men and women who serve this country in the armed forces, and our utmost duty as citizens should always be to continue to support and uplift them for their diligent sacrifices. While the name of the base may change, the everlasting legacy of the incredible men and women who continue to serve there cannot.
While the name of a base is ultimately at the discretion of the Executive branch, we as a family and the torch bearers of our patriarch’s legacy, implore this administration to focus its efforts in the same direction that Gen. Cavazos would have encouraged: on the men and women of the United States Army, both serving and retired. Veterans’ support and benefits are at an ultimate necessity; and as our father and grandfather believed, our duty as ordinary citizens and recipients of these individuals’ sacrifices is to provide these men and women the utmost care and support in gratitude for their services.
HISTORY OF GENERAL RICHARD E. CAVAZOS
Gen. Richard E. Cavazos, the first Hispanic four-star general in U.S. Army history, was born Jan. 31, 1929, in Kingsville, Texas. He grew up on a cattle ranch with his Mexican-American parents and went on to attend Texas Tech University on a football scholarship. He was a distinguished graduate of the school's ROTC program and commissioned into the Army in 1951. Cavazos completed officer training at Fort Moore, Georgia, and deployed to Korea shortly after. He served as a platoon leader with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 65th Infantry Regiment — famously known as the Borinqueneers.
In early 1953, Cavazos led a brave mission under enemy fire to rescue a wounded enemy soldier. For his actions, he earned the Silver Star. Just months later, during a dangerous assault on Hill 412 near Outpost Harry, Cavazos repeatedly risked his life to recover wounded American soldiers, despite being injured himself. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for that mission. Cavazos was later stationed at Fort Hood, a base that would be renamed Fort Cavazos in his honor in 2023. During the Vietnam War, he led the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment and was known for fighting alongside his soldiers, often moving among them during active combat.
In 1967, he led a successful counterattack against enemy forces near Loc Ninh, calling in intense artillery fire and driving the Viet Cong to retreat. He received a second Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism in Vietnam. After a 33-year military career, Cavazos retired in 1984. He passed away in October 2017 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. He is remembered not only as a decorated war hero and trailblazing leader, but also as a devoted husband and father. Cavazos often said the two things he was most proud of were his wife, Caroline, whom he called his “right-hand man,” and their four children: Rebecca, Laura, Katherine, and Thomas. The second was the soldiers he served with, whom he honored throughout his life. On Jan. 3, 2025, President Joe Biden posthumously awarded Gen. Cavazos the Medal of Honor, recognizing a legacy of courage, leadership, and deep devotion to his troops.
