With the success women have achieved in the military, politics, and business it disappoints us to learn that not one military installation in the United States honors a woman. We would like to change that by renaming Fort Hood, Texas after Killeen, Texas native Oveta Culp Hobby. Colonel Hobby led the Women’s Army Corps during World War II. Her achievements in the WAC earned Colonel Hobby the Distinguished Service Medal. When the National World War II Memorial opened, six wartime leaders had quotes on the memorial. Five of those leaders were men.  Colonel Hobby’s quotation includes the following words, “Women who stepped up were measured as citizens of the nation, not as women. This was a people’s war, and everyone was in it.”

She helped General Eisenhower win Texas in the 1952 election. President Eisenhower named her the first Republican woman cabinet member. Mrs. Hobby served as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (now Health and Human Services).  During her cabinet service, the President said this about Secretary Hobby, “All of the opinion built up about her work during the war as head of the WAC was fully justified.”  After serving in the Eisenhower administration, she ran a newspaper and television station in Houston.

We are authors of books about the Civil War and World War II.  Please join us in honoring Oveta Culp Hobby.  Can we count on your support to rename Fort Hood as Fort Oveta Culp Hobby?  Thank you.

Please see #RenameFortHoodtoFortHobby

Cordially yours,

Allen Mesch

Author of Preparing for Disunion, Teacher of Civil War Generals, and Ebenezer Allen – Statesman, Entrepreneur, and Spy (August 2020)

Alan Mesches

Author of Major General James A. Ulio: How the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army Enabled Allied Victory (August 2020)