COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Next week, Fort Benning will be a thing of the past and the Army post in Columbus will be known as Fort Moore.

Tuesday afternoon, Fort Benning officials held a news conference to talk about the name change – and how it’s going.

While the news conference was taking place along Benning Boulevard — soon to be Legacy Boulevard — workers were putting the letters in place for Fort Moore on the iconic stone sign. Fort Moore is being named for Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia. They are buried on the Main Post Cemetery.

It is one of many signs that will be changed over the next week or so.

But one thing won’t change. Listen to Garrison Command Sergeant Major Michael Sanchez.

“To be quite honest with you, over all my time here, I never really looked at the lettering,” Sanchez said. “I always remembered the actual wall itself. And then I’m getting ready to go back home.”

Sanchez has been through that gate thousands of times during his assignments to Benning.

But the letters changing on the sign showcase the issues facing Fort Benning as hundreds of signs are changed in coordination with the May 11 name-changing ceremony inside Doughboy stadium.

There are also roads and other signs and names that must be changed on order of the Department of Defense because they were named for Confederate officers.

We asked Col. Colin Mahle about the work being done to make all the necessary changes.

“Over the last hundred and five years, we’ve done a great job of branding a lot of things on Fort Benning,” Mahle said. “But not everything needs to necessarily say Moore. I’ll give you an example. So, one of the signs in the golf course says ‘Fort Benning Golf’ course, right? So that signs come down already. And now it just says golf course. Everybody knows it’s on post so doesn’t need to say Fort Moore golf course.”

That’s the approach post officials are taking on this monumental task.

“We’re probably about 40 to 50 percent done right now with changing out those signs,” Mahle said. “And the rest of them are going to be done on the morning of Thursday, 11 May really in conjunction with the ceremony.”

What is the most unusual thing that has had to renamed?

“So, one of our one of our jewels in the crown that we have here for our Family, Morale, and Welfare, for our recreation is Destin Army Rec Center,” Mahle said. “Some people are familiar with that. We own 12 acres down in Destin, Fla. It’s really a great destination, holiday vacation spot for retirees, active duty for the entire Southeast.”

Fort Benning owns a charter boat — Stars and Stripes of Fort Benning.

“We’re having to rename that and we’re just going to call it the Stars and Stripes at this point,” Mahle said.

Sanchez says that naming the fort for the Moores is the right call.

“I think we hit the absolute lottery ticket,” Sanchez said.

“We can talk about we’re the only installation being memorialized for a husband and spouse team,” Sanchez said. “And have that only embodies the same thing when we talk about all of our active-duty soldiers and families as well. It’s a community, it’s a team. It’s not just about the soldier, but the spouses play just as much of the important role for our mission here at soon-to-be Fort Moore.”