A street at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, was renamed April 18, 2024, for Maj. Brian Mescall, a Massachusetts soldier killed in Afghanistan in 2009. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
HOHENFELS, Germany — A street once named for the commander of the Confederacy on a U.S. Army training range in Bavaria was renamed this week for a Massachusetts soldier killed in Afghanistan more than a decade ago.
Lee Loop, a main road that runs adjacent to the post exchange store and chapel at the Hohenfels Training Area, was renamed Maj. Brian Mescall Street on Thursday during an icy, wet ceremony attended by friends and family.
The renaming was part of a congressionally mandated order by the Pentagon last year to redesignate U.S. military bases, ships and streets around the world that were named for Confederate figures.
Mescall, 33, of Hopkinton, Mass., was stationed at the U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria training area with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, when he and two fellow soldiers were killed Jan. 9, 2009, by a roadside bomb that detonated near their vehicle in Jaldak, Afghanistan.
Then-Capt. Brian Mescall, of the 342nd Military Transition Team, standing, teaches a map-reading class to Iraqi army soldiers in Mosul on Feb. 13, 2006. (Dennis Gravelle/U.S. Army)
Col. Christopher Danbeck, deputy director of the Army’s Installation Management Command–Europe and a friend of Mescall’s, traveled from Wiesbaden to attend.
“I know Brian would be embarrassed as anything for all the attention he’s been given,” Danbeck told the audience during prepared remarks. “What’s really awesome is you’re replacing a traitor with a hero.”
Mescall was one of 7,085 U.S. service members, including 5,477 killed in hostile action, who have died since 2001 during operations collectively referred to as the Global War on Terror, according to Defense Department statistics.
Mescall graduated from Exeter High School in New Hampshire in 1993 before moving to Massachusetts with his family, base spokesman Bryan Gatchell wrote in a statement. He attended The Citadel in South Carolina and graduated in 1997 with a history degree.
Mescall came to Hohenfels following tours in South Korea and Iraq, Gatchell said. He was killed alongside Spc. Jason Parsons, 24, of Lenoir, N.C., and Spc. Joseph Hernandez, 24, of Hammond, Ind.
He left behind a wife, Chiun, and a son, Nathan, according to news reports following his death.
An honor guard marches during a street renaming ceremony for Army Maj. Brian Mescall at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
Col. Kevin Poole, left, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria, and Col. Christopher Danbeck, deputy director of the Army’s Installation Management Command — Europe, celebrate the renaming of a street at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, in honor of their friend Maj. Brian Mescall during a ceremony at the base. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
Family and friends of Army Maj. Brian Mescall attend a ceremony at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, on Thursday, April 18, 2024, during which a street on base was renamed for Mescall, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
Solders attached to 7th Army Training Command attend a street renaming ceremony for Army Maj. Brian Mescall at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
The street bearing Mescall’s name intersects with General Patton Drive on Camp Nainhof. It was previously named for Gen. Robert E. Lee, who led the Southern army in rebellion against the United States.
Approximately 620,000 soldiers died in the Civil War, according to the National Park Service, which maintains battlefield sites.
At Thursday’s ceremony, Mescall, an avid cyclist, was remembered for being a hard-charging but compassionate leader and a man excited about being a father to his young son.
The renaming was spearheaded by former The Citadel classmates Lt. Col. Thomas Frohnhoefer, director of the exercise control group at Hohenfels, and Col. Kevin Poole, U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria commander, the men recalled.
“It’s nice to know that I played a very small part in honoring the memory of Major Mescall and that his memory will exist in perpetuity here at Hohenfels,” Poole said after the ceremony. “Brian was a great guy.”
