"That is the opposite of what he's been consistently saying.". The purported motto of the Army was "family first, mission second," Gary Shafer, a noncommissioned officer who served at Fort Hood from 2012 to 2018 and who knew Wedel-Morales through the car-club scene, told me. Women, who make up 17 percent of active-duty military, were doubly bereft, and the case files were awash with stories of the dead. After the public remonstrations began, Fort Hood launched something it called Operation Phantom Action, a weeklong retreat of sorts that was meant to rebuild trust between soldiers and the leadership. Who were the soldiers who had testified to seeing Guillen leave the arms room the day she disappeared? The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. July 2, 2022 (86 years old) View obituary Chong Thigpen November 12, 2021 (66 years old) View obituary Jaylen Tristian Bush April 3, 2021 View obituary Cecil Earl Garrison February 21, 2021 (87 years old) View obituary Daniel John Hunt January 29, 2021 (79 years old) View obituary Aage John Hoffman January 26, 2021 (86 years old) View obituary The base was named after John Bell Hood, a Confederate general from a family that enslaved people in Kentucky, who made his name by breaking a Union line at Elthams Landing in Virginia and who, by todays standards, likely suffered from PTSD. The numbers are distressing. The search party arrived at Fort Hood at 3 a.m. Guillens staff sergeant told the group to come back in the morning. He had then driven the body to the Leon River and had come back to pick Aguilar up from the gas station where she worked on Veterans Memorial Boulevard, five miles east of Fort Hood. The next day, Wedel-Morales failed to show up for duty, and the day after that, he was classified as absent without leave, making him one of the thousand or so soldiers who go AWOL in any given year. The shakeup comes after after a series of suspicious deaths and disappearances that have plagued Fort Hood. Bill to attend technical school in Houston to work on wind turbines or oil rigs off the coast of Louisiana. His body was found nearly a month later, two miles from the barracks. Robinson himself left soon thereafter, he would testify, to spend the night off post with his girlfriend. Rodriguez disputes this claim. We believe that Every Life has a Story which should be told and preserved. Fernandes had just been stationed at Fort Hood in January. Thirteen killed themselves. The police too told Ailina that Fernandes was an adult and that they would not report him as missing. The U.S. Army announced Saturday that a soldier was found dead in the . That an overwhelming majority of the towns economy comes from Fort Hood makes Killeen a kind of rentier state, in that most of its revenue comes through a foreign entity, which historically has led to the collapse of domestic industries, leading to increased dependence on a single source of income. Ive even lost myself. (Ring returned to base of his own accord later that day.). These figures eclipse American casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same year. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. The corpse had been dead for a while, though it was impossible to determine exactly how long. FORT HOOD, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - U.S. Army officials at Fort Hood have identified the soldier who was found dead Saturday, Oct. 13 behind his company barracks. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. Later the same day, at 8:30 p.m., Aaron Robinson's girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, changed her story and told Army investigators that Robinson had confessed to her that he killed Guillen in the arms room, beating her to death with a hammer. Because what the military asks of its men and women is so antisocial, it must co-opt the rhetoric of the family. He died the evening of September 2. Last December, a Special Forces soldier and an Army veteran were found dead at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where another soldier disappeared in May and was later found murdered. As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will call you. On August 17, Sergeant Elder Fernandes, 23, disappeared. Since being stationed at Fort Hood in November 2016, Wedel-Morales had frequented the Dollhouse, a strip club not far from where his remains would eventually be found. Creating an obituary on Echovita is free. As publication approached, it stopped responding to emails pertaining to both specific questions about individual cases as well as broader queries about the base.). And yet: The data is not really out of the ordinary for U.S. military bases. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. (Ring returned to base of his own accord later that day.). Dominic Criqui, who served in Vanessa Guillens unit, says that the training had come to feel stupid and pointless. What on earth are you training for? he asks, then answers. Today, Reform Austin is attempting to put the entire chain of events into a concise timeline for our readers. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. Later came Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese, who still run sushi and pho restaurants in Killeen. When Ailina contacted the military police at Fort Hood, they told her that Fernandes was an adult, and that if he was missing, he likely didn't want to be found. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. The tributaries that run through Fort Hood flow into the Leon River, where Guillens remains were later found. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. (According to Killeen police, no such vests were found at the scene of the crash. A few days later, so did 21-year-old Specialist Trey Ring. Sergeant Brad Reynolds, 37, killed himself on May 16. The numbers are distressing. That morning, Guillen had left her third-floor barracks and headed downstairs to her work station at the motor pool, a vast garage for military vehicles. During the day, though, it was still hot enough that if you dropped a beer bottle, the contents appeared to dry on contact. Fort Bragg; which has nearly double the soldier population as Fort Hood, is reporting 24 deaths so far this year, with five of them happening in accidents, one homicide, seven from illness,. Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. In January 2017, Fox News cited reports to say the Army and local police were probing deaths of 11 Fort Hood soldiers who died on and off the base in the months before under mysterious circumstances, as per reports. Hockin was found dead behind his company barracks. The pursuit of happiness, or simply stability, will invariably lure people to the American military, which may be why the undocumented, the indigent, or those with a criminal record are overrepresented in its ranks. (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. (He was found a day later.) If he killed himself, don't they want to know why?". There was a deep cut above his left eye, and cuts all over his legs. But at Fort Hood, it sometimes seemed like mission first, equipment second, he said, highlighting the paradox of the military that in word puts the well-being of soldiers first but in deed must, by design, favor combat readiness over all else. They pointed glumly to past cases, some of which there were public records for and others I could find no traces of in the official files. I asked him directly if he wasnt willing to speak because of position and he signaled yes, and he said, Id rather tell you in person. , Several days later, Rodriguez learned that Casteel had been committed to a hospital on base. There were no Black residents in town until the early 1950s. Driving into Killeen last fall, what greeted me was a deer, roadkill, that had been severed in half. At first blush, such violence at a base that calls itself "the Great Place" may seem extraordinary, inexplicable even. (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) Why had it taken forensics 72 days to conduct a search of the arms room? (He was found a day later.) Maxwell Hockin, was found dead outside his company barracks on Saturday, October 9. Two days after Staff Sergeant Anthony Lovell, 40, disappeared in 2017, his body was found, eyes pecked clean, face split in half, in a creek off Killeens seedy main corridor called Rancier, the same street where Specialist Freddy Delacruz, 23, was shot and killed last March. Spc. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. Toxic leadership is nothing new. Amarillo - see the Potter County section below Arlington - see the Tarrant County section below The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. A sergeant from Guillen's division called it "mandatory fun days." I guess my point is, Rodriguez told me, if everything was fine, the way Fort Hood officials would lead us to believe, then why would this soldier, out of character, leave base without permission, and [why] did he not feel comfortable enough to call his captain or anyone on that base once he was arrested for speeding? Why was Robinson not put under watch? Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt. A U.S. Army soldier, Spc. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillen's other sister Yovana, and Yovana's boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. The sense of dehumanizing alienation soldiers complained about was not a symptom of a malfunctioning system, it was its original design. Site Gregory Wedel-Morales' remains were found in Killeen, Texas. Why hadn't the arms room been treated like the crime scene it was? And being mission-ready, the perpetual vigilance it requires, ensures a kind of endless possibility of war, which in turn justifies the $740 billion annual defense budget. Fort Hood was founded in January 1942 as a training ground for tank destroyers, selected for its varied terrain. She pleaded not guilty. None of the grunts I spoke to was surprised by the number of casualties. Atop these sedimentary layers of desecration, displacement, and disorientation, the War Department set out to build a base that would go on to serve as a footnote to nearly every war in modern memoryKorea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but also Grenada, Panama, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. [2] Soon after, the Temple police, who led the investigation, ruled Fernandes's death a suicide. Jennifer Anthony Lovells sister, Temple Tx. Through social media posts, court records, and other primary sources, author Kathleen Hale forensically reconstructs their lives before the crime, and the night they were killed. It installed 35 firing ranges, 18 chapels, three bowling alleys, and 1,384 barracks that would house, at its peak, 95,000 soldiers, the most densely populated military base, at a cost of $35 million. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. Hazel Buck Blackwell, whose family lost their farm, homestead, barns, orchards, and adjoining land when the base took over, said the closest thing might be the unexpected death of someone you loved very much. It was a heartrending, searing experience, central Texas historian GraDelle Duncan said, leaving lifetime marks on all, and actually killing some from the psychic devastation that followed. His body was mostly intact but for his hyoid, which was never found. The day after Guillen disappeared, Private Gavin Chambers, 21, died on base. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. The tributaries that run through Fort Hood flow into the Leon River, where Guillen's remains were later found. As distressing as the remains in shallow graves or the missing hyoid bone is the fatalism from soldiers and locals alike. ARMY-WIDE IMPLEMENTATION STATUS. After a chase along Rancier Avenue, the same street near which Lovell was found dead, Robinson shot himself and died. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. (Fort Hood refused all official interview requests for this story, citing ongoing investigations. WASHINGTON - The Army said Friday that it has taken disciplinary action against 21 officers and non-commissioned officers at Fort Hood, Texas, in connection with death last year of Spc.. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. Bill to attend technical school in Houston to work on wind turbines or oil rigs off the coast of Louisiana. Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, . Oct 13, 2021 An official Army photo of Spc.
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