A descendant of Confederate Col. Edmund Rucker today denounced demands from Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen that Fort Novosel revert to being named after her distant cousin.

“Rucker family members support naming Army bases for individuals who fought for the United States….we don’t want our name back on an Alabama base,” K. Denise Rucker Krepp, a former House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee senior counsel, posted to X on Tuesday.

This response was directed at Allen, who said it was “time to change [Fort Novosel’s] name back to Ft. Rucker!” in a post to X after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum reversing the naming of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg.

Fort Novosel and Fort Bragg were renamed in 2023 after former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved removing the names of Confederates from nine military bases.

Novosel had been Fort Rucker, named for Col. Edmund Rucker, a brigade commander in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Although Fort Bragg was previously named after Braxton Bragg, who served as an Army general in the Mexican American War and later served as the Confederate general in the Civil War, it will now be named for Private First-Class Roland L. Bragg, who served in the Army during the Second World War, according to the order.

Fort Novosel’s current name honors Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel, Sr., a Medal of Honor recipient with ties to Army Aviation, the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, and the Wiregrass region in southeast Alabama.

“Novosel is a Medal of Honor recipient,” Rucker Krepp said in another post to X.

“His name should remain on an Alabama base.”

In an opinion piece she authored for CNN last year, Rucker Krepp wrote that “Confederates like Edmund Rucker having their names removed from bases was a necessary step toward justice and healing.”

“Millions of American men and women are serving in our military or have already served,” she wrote.

“Many more will serve in the future. Each service member raises their hand to pledge allegiance to the United States. It is right and just that the federal bases and ships on which they serve are named not for traitors to our country, but instead honor American heroes like Novosel.”