Covite, former battalion commander weighs in on renaming of Fort Hood
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
Last week, the Naming Commission announced the proposed name changes to nine military bases across the country, one of which is Fort Hood.
The name which will be submitted for Fort Hood is Fort Cavazos, the name of Gen. Richard Cavazos.
Ret. Col. Clyde Glosson is a longtime Copperas Cove resident and has the distinction of not only being a former Ft. Hood garrison commander from 1986-1991, but also served with Gen. Cavazos and knew him personally.
Glosson was a battalion commander during Cavazos’ leadership at III Corps, and said what makes Cavazos distinct from the other possible nominees is that Cavazos was a native Texan who also served at Fort Hood.
Staying connected with the soldiers who served was important to the first four-star Hispanic general.
“Bimonthly, he would have a group of 15 or so battalion commanders come together for lunch with him at was then called the Officers’ Club. We had a big roundtable and it was a chance for him to communicate directly with battalion commanders who worked with soldiers every day. And that’s the way he got feedback,” Glosson said.
“Gen. Cavazos was really a soldier’s general. I’ve never heard that really expressed by any other any other general except for General Bradley out of World War II. He really loved to be around soldiers; the essence of his command was, a leader of soldiers. He was a warrior and he was well decorated. I think the soldiers who cared knew something about that, but he didn’t go around bragging about it. He was a good example. He just loved to be with the soldiers,” Glosson reflected.
He also shared about Cavazos’ growing up at the King Ranch in South Texas, and that the family was “all for” education. It was part of the Cavazos family, as his brother went on to become the president of Texas Tech University in the mid 1970s and later became the Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan.
He said that Cavazos believed in that chain of command from the squad leader for the platoon sergeant.
“Knowing and understanding that chain of command for young soldiers, there would be times when they had to make a decision about something because there wasn’t an NCO present and something needs to be done right.”
Cavazos was commissioned into the Army in 1951 after graduating from Texas Tech University where he was in the ROTC program. As a lieutenant, he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross during the Korean War, and at one point returned to Texas Tech where he served as a professor of Military Science. During the Vietnam War, he also received another Distinguished Flying Cross, followed by two Legions of Merit, a Silver Star, five Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and many other medals and awards for exceptional service. In 1973, he became the first Hispanic-American promoted to brigadier general in 1973 and was the first Hispanic-American to pin on four stars.
Between January and April of this year, the Naming Commission developed a short-list of potential new names for the nine installations, and then re-engaging the same community groups to gather more input on their naming preferences.
It was in April 2022, that the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance, where Glosson sits on the executive board, helped get the word out to the greater Fort Hood community for their proposed name changes.
The Copperas Cove city council passed a resolution on April 5, which recommended Gen. Cavazos, MSG Roy Benavidez, and 1LT Audie Murphy to the Naming Commission.
“This was an exhaustive process that entailed hundreds of hours of research, community
engagement and internal deliberations,” said retired Navy Adm. Michelle Howard, the chair of the Naming Commission. “This recommendation list includes American heroes whose stories deserve to be told and remembered; people who fought and sacrificed greatly on behalf of our nation.”
The panel will issue its final report to Congress later this fall, and the defense secretary will be charged with implementing the changes by January 2024.