4th Appellate District, Division 3
Eileen C. Moore
Associate Justice
California Courts of Appeal
In 2023, the largest active-duty armored installation in the U.S. Armed Services was named after Richard E. Cavazos, a Medal of Honor recipient. The fort is located 60 miles north of Austin, Texas and 160 miles south of Dallas. It had been formerly known as Fort Hood.
General Cavazos was both America's first Hispanic brigadier general and first Hispanic four-star general. And what a family he hailed from.
Family background
Lauro F. Cavazos, Sr. descended from José Narciso Cavazos, owner of the 1781 San Juan de Carricitos Spanish land grant. Lauro Sr. was a third-generation cowboy on the King Ranch in South Texas, primarily in the area between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, adjacent to Kingsville. It spans over 825,000 acres and encompasses parts of six Texas counties.
In 1915, Lauro Sr. defended the King Ranch when it was attacked by Mexican raiders. The ranch hands were outnumbered by the raiders, and Lauro Sr.'s actions during the gunfight included covering the wounded with mattresses, running from cover to fetch ammunition for the defenders and shooting the horse out from under the raiders' leader.
In May 1917 Lauro Sr. enlisted in the United States Army at a Brownsville recruiting station. He served in three campaigns in France during World War I and rose to the rank of first sergeant. After the war, Lauro Sr. became foreman of the ranch, whereupon he assumed the title of Don Lauro.
Don Lauro helped oversee the creation of a new breed of cattle fit to survive in the harsh, dry summers of South Texas, the Santa Gertrudis cattle. Don Lauro raised his own herd of Santa Gertrudis on a small ranch he owned near the town of Laurel on land that had once been a part of his ancestor's Spanish land grant.
In 1923, Don Lauro married Tomasa Alvarez Quintanilla and raised five children, including Richard. All five graduated from college. A daughter, Sarita, became a home economics teacher in Laredo. Lauro Jr. rose to become president of Texas Tech University and then Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan, the first-ever Latino Presidential Cabinet member. Bobby was an All-American college athlete who became a leading rusher in Division 1 NCAA football in 1953 at Texas Tech. Joseph was a successful businessman.
Their father spoke only English to them. Their mother spoke only Spanish to them.
Richard Cavazos enrolled in the ROTC program at Texas Tech and was commissioned into the Army right after his graduation in 1951.
The Korean War
In 1953, then-1st Lieutenant Cavazos commanded a company in the 65th Infantry Regiment. The Regiment was primarily made up of soldiers from Puerto Rico, many of whom spoke Spanish. Cavazos was a welcome addition as a leader since he spoke both English and Spanish.
There had been grave problems in the regiment before Cavazos took command. Throughout 1952, the bulk of the regiment's noncommissioned officers rotated back to Puerto Rico, and many of the new leaders did not speak Spanish. The combination of new leaders and poor communications led to chaos and panic during one battle in October 1952. Major John S.D. Eisenhower, the son of the soon-to-be President, was detailed to conduct an investigation. He recommended the regiment should be returned to Puerto Rico and reconstituted with "continentals," a euphemism translated to mean non-Hispanic.
Instead of reconstituting the regiment, the Army placed Cavazos in command. Although the regiment had undergone a difficult period, Cavazos turned it around and created a dedicated, capable combat force. He gave the men confidence by doing such things as making it a point to train and rehearse all missions on similar terrain behind friendly lines.
On the night of June 14, 1953, Cavazos led his new unit during a
raid on an entrenched enemy outpost. Three times, he led his men through
intense enemy fire, destroying vital Chinese fortifications. When ordered to
withdraw his company, Cavazos complied but remained alone on the enemy outpost
to search for his missing men, despite having been wounded himself. While
exposed to enemy fire, he located five casualties and evacuated them, one by
one, to a point on the reverse slope of a nearby hill where they could be
safely recovered by friendly forces.
Cavazos was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. This was in addition to a Silver Star for bravery and a Bronze Star for valor he earlier earned.
The Vietnam War
After rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, he was sent to Vietnam in 1967. There he became the commander of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment. As he did in Korea, Cavazos fought on the ground with his troops.
In Loc Ninh, he once again disregarded his personal safety and led an assault on the enemy's hillside position, often exposing himself to hostile fire while moving among his troops. He and his men had been ambushed but were able to turn the battle around to a counter-attack. He directed such a barrage of artillery fire toward Viet Cong insurgents that the enemy soon fled. This counterattack led the Army to award him a second Distinguished Service Cross and a second Silver Star.
Mentor and teacher
Cavazos is remembered as a beloved mentor and teacher.
At one point in his career when he had a personality conflict with a superior officer, General Colin Powell, the man who became the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, later, U.S. Secretary of State, received a less than stellar evaluation. He considered ending his military career. Powell credited Cavazos with inspiring him to stay in the Army. In his autobiography, Powell called Cavazos an Army legend who saved his career.
General Alfred Valenzuela said about Cavazos, "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. He was the guy we wanted to be. If we couldn't be him, we wanted to be near him and serve with him."
Fort Cavazos
On Oct. 7, 2022, then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin ordered implementation of the findings of the Naming Commission, established by Congress in 2021. The Commission took inventory of all the military's contemporary references to the Confederacy. It found nine Army forts honoring Confederate soldiers needed to be renamed. Using the word "haphazard," the Commission reported that the naming of these Department of Defense assets had to do with faulty memories about the Civil War in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, rather than with any historical acts actually committed by their namesakes. The report says that White Southerners advocated for names they had been raised to revere, such as Benning, Bragg, Gordon, Hill, Hood, Lee, Pickett, Polk and Rucker. According to the Commission's findings, in preparing for World War I and World War II, while hastily naming bases, the Army often deferred to local sensitivities and regional connections of a namesake. In the case of the nine bases, the Commission voted unanimously on each of the names it recommended for renaming.
Fort Hood had been named after Confederate General John Bell Hood. In a letter Hood wrote to General Sherman on Sept. 12, 1864, Hood described his conviction that Negroes were an inferior race. In that same letter, Hood wrote: "I believe, for all the true men, aye, and women and children, in my country, we will fight you to the death. Better die a thousand deaths than submit to live under you or your Government and your Negro allies." Within a year, Hood surrendered.
On May 9, 2023, Fort Hood was renamed Fort Cavazos. Lieutenant General Sean Bernabe spoke on the renaming: "We are proud to be renaming Fort Hood as Fort Cavazos in recognition of an outstanding American hero, a veteran of the Korea and Vietnam wars and the first Hispanic to reach the rank of four-star general in our Army. General Cavazos' combat-proven leadership, his moral character and his loyalty to his Soldiers and their families made him the fearless yet respected and influential leader that he was during the time he served, and beyond."
Retirement
Cavazos retired from the Army as a four-star general in 1984 after 33 years of service. Before his retirement, he had made military history when the Army appointed him as the first Hispanic brigadier general in 1976 and then the first Hispanic four-star general in 1982.
Richard Cavazos passed away in 2017 at the age of 88.
Conclusion
Four-star General Richard E. Cavazos was one of the most decorated soldiers to ever serve in the United States Army. His actions as a soldier are quintessential examples of dedication, bravery and leadership. On Jan. 3, 2025, President Joseph Biden posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to General Cavazos.
On June 10, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth rescinded the name Fort Cavazos and restored the fort's previous name. Fort Cavazos is now Fort Hood again.