All this has been true since the founding of the American military, but a sense of disorientation has increased in recent years, as wars that were never good to begin with began to lose moral shine. Spc. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Hoover, Alabama. The Lovell case was ruled an accident despite the fact that a rival club's biker vest, or kutte, was found hanging neatly from a tree near the crash site, while his motorcyclemirror, taillightswas found intact. My caution wasn't entirely unfounded. The police too told Ailina that Fernandes was an adult and that they would not report him as missing. Creating an obituary on Echovita is free. That an overwhelming majority of the town's 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. On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. Fort Hood concluded Chee had died in training. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. Who were the soldiers who had testified to seeing Guillen leave the arms room the day she disappeared? Guillen's youngest sister, Lupe, says. I felt a bad vibe there, Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. Frantic, she called around, to no avail. Toxic leadership is nothing new. Fort Hood was founded in January 1942 as a training ground for tank destroyers, selected for its varied terrain. Subscribers have complete access to the archive. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. Maxwell Hockin. When the family exhumed his body in November 2020 for want of a second opinion, the independent autopsy revealed that the bone had in fact gone missing.) Its possible. On August 11, a higher-up called Fernandes's mother, Ailina, to tell her that her son had not shown up for work for two days. 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. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Within days of arriving at Fort Hood, Chee's clothes were stolen. ), On July 3, a fortnight after Wedel-Moraless body was found, Specialist Miguel Yazzie, 33, died at Fort Hood after his repeated requests to see a doctor were denied, according to Carma Johnson, whose brother died at Fort Hood. So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. Fernandes wouldn't share much, nothing about what had caused him to be hospitalized, and said that he was using an insecure base hospital line. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. 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. They are part of Killeens population of 151,000, many transient and very young, two thirds of whom have military ties. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. Killeen itself sits on an especially brutal stretch of central Texas, along the Balcones Fault, which separates the high plains of the Hill Country to the west from the grand prairies and limestone plains of the east, and along which runs Interstate 35. Shelby Tyler Jones, 20, was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound at 3:45 a.m. Sunday, March 1, 2020, outside of a convenience store on Fort Hood Street. His mother, Kim, only heard from her son when he needed money. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. A small minority, which bikers call one percent groups, and which the Department of Justice calls by the regrettable acronym OMG, or outlaw motorcycle gangs, were the people Wedel-Morales had been hanging around with. I will tell you everything." Most of the groups were aboveboard, even as they were ruled by certain strictures for meeting attendance, dress code, and how to appropriately signal respect. Most of the groups were aboveboard, even as they were ruled by certain strictures for meeting attendance, dress code, and how to appropriately signal respect. 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. 16 Apr 2021 Military.com | By Matthew Cox The Army 's People First Task Force on Friday unveiled sweeping actions underway to transform the service's sexual harassment and assault prevention. Visit this link to create a free obituary then read the advantages of creating an obituary on Echovita and either click Start now or Create an obituary for your loved to begin. So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. Many complained specifically of being made to cut grass to ready for such official visits. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers vanished or died, including 13. After hours, media should call the Emergency Operations Center at (254) 287-2054 and ask for the on-call PAO. So when, the following spring, Fort Hood offered a $15,000 reward for information about Guillen, then raised it to $25,000 in June, Kim called to demand the same. "From the age of 18, the only thing I knew how to do was kill people," Ring wrote on the website of his father's veterans' rights organization. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. On most nights, I had nightmares. Amid all those other deaths, on June 21, 2020, a search party found the charred lid of a cargo box along the Leon River 20 miles east of Fort Hood. Vanessa Guillen. The back-to-back deaths come just four months after two congressional committees launched probes into the high number of deaths at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, in 2020, highlighted by the . "Is it possible Elder was murdered? A few days later, they spoke again, for the last time. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. Lenz's mother, Margie Taylor, said her son loved children and looked forward to having a family of his own one day. (He was found a day later.) He died the evening of September 2. It is unclear if Killeen even bothered to visit his namesake town, which, by the early 1880s, comprised 40 people living across 360 acres, mostly working in the two cotton gins, two gristmills, and two saloonsit had the most saloons, gamblers, and shootings per capita in Bell County, according to historian Martha Bowmer. Five were murdered. But when Kim called the police, they dismissed her, telling Kim that her son probably just took off. (Killeen Police stated they have no knowledge of anyone declining to investigate.) The military is necessarily an institution of state-sanctioned violence, where we teach our young to kill on our behalf in the name of ideologies such as patriotism or democracy. Guillen confessed that she was being harassed by another soldier. Driving into Killeen last fall, what greeted me was a deer, roadkill, that had been severed in half, Next I passed Club Dreams, where Specialist Shelby Jones was shot, bled out, and died last March; then Guns Galore, where Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan purchased a semiautomatic pistol that he would use to kill 13 people in 2009. Club Fuego where Gregory Wedel-Morales was last seen, Killeen Tx. Later that year, Private Dakota Lee Stump left his barracks to report for work less than a mile away but never arrived for formation. Had one of them stood in for Guillen during roll call? 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. The base might have continued to devour its soldiers had it not been for a missing soldiers family whose rage, love, and devotion would attract the attention of the media, celebrities, and later the White House, sparking congressional and military investigations. 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Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. Vanessa Guilln, who was missing for about two months before her remains were found. Later, Robinson would tell investigators that Guillen completed her task and exited the building. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. (Among 1.29 million members of the U.S. military, 65,000 are immigrants, according to The Washington Post.) The plan, Wedel-Morales told anyone who would listen, was to use the G.I. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. Fort Hood officials confirmed Monday that Martinez and Mosley were assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. On June 30, a construction crew found shallow graves containing human remains that belonged to Guillen. On the night of August 19, Wedel-Morales went out to Club Fuego, located in a desolate strip mall about 10 miles east of Fort Hood. The day after Guillen disappeared, Private Gavin Chambers, 21, died on base. In the same week, Private Edward Casteel, who had been missing from Fort Hood since October 6, was found in a parish jail in Louisiana, arrested after a high-speed chase. Who were the soldiers who had testified to seeing Guillen leave the arms room the day she disappeared? [2] Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers died or went missing. Ad Choices. Thirteen killed themselves. Fort Hood had refused to list him as missing, and it was only after his then fiance, Paradise Rodriguez, posted a video on Facebook that an officer at the parish jail saw it and got into contact. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers died or went missing. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. 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. 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? Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. 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." At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. Red White and Blue via The US Army is licensed with CC BY-ND 2.0. Lenz was found dead at Fort Hood on Feb. 1. Escorts should be arranged in advance to allow for coordination with the organization receiving coverage. 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. Don't they care as to what happened to Elder Fernandes? The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. Specialist Vanessa Guillens father, Rogelio, wondered if I shouldnt carry a gun. (Facebook) Two weeks later, Delacruz . Driving into Killeen last fall, what greeted me was a deer, roadkill, that had been severed in half. "She is now for the movement.". 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 Eltham's Landing in Virginia and who, by today's standards, likely suffered from PTSD. But the only among the victims may be the institution that them all to. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. Maxwell Hockin. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillen's other sister Yovana, and Yovana's boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. In 2007, also in Iraq, Specialist Kamisha Blocks death was ruled an accident by a single shot of friendly fire before the family received the body and saw that she had five gunshot wounds, including one to the head. What happened on that base and in the Army to cause this person who is normally very [kind] and responsive to all of a sudden leave and shut down?, When I asked soldiers at Fort Hood what they thought was the matter on base, they mentioned toxic leadership, a catholic term that seemed to encompass all: lack of care, general command climate, and so-called toxic masculinity. By then Wedel-Morales had grown distant from his family in Oklahoma, who had not been told of the marriage. 20, 2021 FORT HOOD, Texas The death of Spc. He wondered if it was something he had eaten and carried on with his shift. The small Texas frontier town was also a "hotbed of Klan activity," according to Texas historian Gene Preuss of the University of Houston, so much so that when trains stopped in Killeen, Black passengersrelegated to "colored cars"knew to pull down their window shades to avoid a pelting with rocks by locals. In 2007, also in Iraq, Specialist Kamisha Block's death was ruled an accident by a single shot of friendly fire before the family received the body and saw that she had five gunshot wounds, including one to the head. Eric Christopher Hogan and Pfc. 22.4 (births per 1,000 females 15-19 years of age) Infant Mortality Rate. 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. The deaths were caused by varying reasons -- gunshots, car accidents and illnesses and all the deaths were under probe. The search party arrived at Fort Hood at 3 a.m. Guillens staff sergeant told the group to come back in the morning. (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) By then Wedel-Morales had grown distant from his family in Oklahoma, who had not been told of the marriage. Fifty six . 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,. Eventually Fernandes rang from the Army hospital. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. 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. Hockin was found dead behind his company barracks. It was also an ancient Comanche Native American burial ground, discovered when construction workers unearthed more than 2,200 grave sites in 1998. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. If not, what explained the false accounting? Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. New Market, Alabama. His body was mostly intact but for his hyoid, which was never found. We believe that Every Life has a Story which should be told and preserved. You can find Osama bin Laden, but you cant find a soldier that went missing on your own base? Guillens youngest sister, Lupe, says. The additional scrutinythe congressional delegation visit, press toursmeant that soldiers had to work harder. For nothing.. 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. Courtesy | Margie Taylor Spc.. Fernandes had just been stationed at Fort Hood in January. This negates civic participation, as the state no longer needs to collect taxes and thus stops serving the people, who in turn have no need to pressure the government for anythingthe very dynamic that continues to play out in oil-rich Gulf states. Casteel had been stationed at Fort Hood since the end of June, where hed been bullied for a spinal injury that consigned him to desk duties. III Corps Policies and Regulations . 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. Within days of arriving at Fort Hood, Chees clothes were stolen. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. There had been a few people, then it was a group run of 11. 60.2 (births per 1,000 women 15-44 years of age) Teen Birth Rate. Fort Hood is one of 800 United States military bases around the world, the third largest in the country. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. At least 159 Fort Hood soldiers died out of combat between 2016 and last year, including seven homicides and 71 suicides, according to an analysis by The New York Times. There was a deep cut above his left eye, and cuts all over his legs. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. In death, she is no longer a daughter or a sister or a partner. 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. Fort Hood hurriedly put up a $25,000 reward for Wedel-Morales as well. They married in May 2017, and he took her name with hyphenation. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. His body was mostly intact but for his hyoid, which was never found. Fort Hood announced that Stump had crashed his car while driving under the influence, though a toxicology report proved inconclusive. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. "You can find Osama bin Laden, but you can't find a soldier that went missing on your own base?" (Marine Lance Corporal Riley Schultzs death on March 15, 2019, at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, was also ruled a suicide, despite his hyoid being broken. Washington CNN The Army announced Tuesday that 14 senior officers will be punished following a probe that was initiated after the murder of a soldier and several other deaths at the Army's. She had also missed her standing noon call with her fianc, Juan Cruz. All rights reserved. Chee, like Yazzie, was a member of the Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation community, and was new to the base. He seemed weird, Rodriguez said. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. By Marlene Lenthang October 13, 2021, 9:15 AM 2:25 On Location: February 24, 2023 Catch up on the developing stories making headlines. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. The Army said Friday, April 30, 2021, 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.. (His son's alleged killer is in custody awaiting trial.) Guillen's youngest sister, Lupe, made me promise to stay at the Marriott, a hotel she considered safer than the rest. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who did not like him. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. As of October 20, 2022, 70 of 70 Fort Hood Independent Review Committee recommendations have been addressed by the U.S. Army's People First Task Force. The wave of pain went away as suddenly as it had come on but returned again, and again, and again, over the next hour. Why had it taken forensics 72 days to conduct a search of the arms room? Fort Hood has come under serious fire in recent years, as the incident follows the heartbreaking death of Vanessa Guilln. Ozempic is also used by adults with type 2 diabetes who have heart and blood vessel disease to reduce their risk of a stroke, heart attack, or death . During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who "did not like him." Specialist Vanessa Guillen's father, Rogelio, wondered if I shouldn't carry a gun. WASHINGTON (AP) 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. That most soldiers enlist when they are still teenagers, their yet-unformed minds taught to kill. Military bases are the last piece of the homeland that soldiers see before they are deployed to fight and the first glimpse of home when they return. Texan sentenced to 20 years following drug-related death of Fort Hood soldier. 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. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims families. Curiously, a few hours after the officers picked up Casteel, he went silent online. There, Wedel-Morales's remains had been found, long ago decomposed in the Texas heat. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. Dozens of people were killed, died by suicide, or went missing from the Texas military base last year alone. She doesnt belong to the Army anymore, AnaLuisa Tapia, a local organizer, told me. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. That September, Wedel-Morales, who was from rural Oklahoma, was due to be honorably discharged from the military. Guillen confessed that she was being harassed by another soldier. 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. Specialist Justen Ogdens death in July 2017 was ruled a suicide, but the suicide note Fort Hood produced as evidence did not match his handwriting, according to his mother, Toni. Stump was going 82 mph in a 30-mph zone, the investigation report said, and had hit a tree on a mound. His mother, Kim, only heard from her son when he needed money. None of the grunts I spoke to was surprised by the number of casualties. May Jeong has written an in-depth analysis of the rash of unexplained deaths at Fort Hood. On August 17, Sergeant Elder Fernandes, 23, disappeared. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. Morta's death comes amid intense scrutiny of Fort Hood in recent weeks. Rodriguez disputes this claim. Chee had joined the military in part to support the young family he was starting with his high school sweetheart turned fiance. In fact, Casteel had been convinced that CIA agents were attacking him since last June. ), On July 3, a fortnight after Wedel-Morales's body was found, Specialist Miguel Yazzie, 33, died at Fort Hood after his repeated requests to see a doctor were denied, according to Carma Johnson, whose brother died at Fort Hood. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. None of the grunts I spoke to was surprised by the number of casualties. Last December, an internal investigation found that Fort Hood's culture, environment, and leadership resulted in women feeling "vulnerable and preyed upon," with no reliable recourse for their very real sense of duress. Had anyone helped Robinson clean up Guillen's murder in those 40 minutes? Basic details of the incident kept changing. I will tell you everything, he told his mother. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. Hood was an unsuccessful battle commander; 400 men of his Texas Brigade died in a single fight, some would argue through incautious direction. During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. (He was found a day later.) There were no Black residents in town until the early 1950s. At first blush, such violence at a base that calls itself "the Great Place" may seem extraordinary, inexplicable even. The dollhouse, strip club Gregory Wedel Morales frequented, Killeen Tx. After a chase along Rancier Avenue, the same street near which Lovell was found dead, Robinson shot himself and died. He ultimately murdered her when she was eight months pregnant, then set her on fire before fleeing to Mexico. 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. 1st Class Calvin T. Rockward, 38, died during physical training Oct. 27, 2021. . 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. Sewell is the latest soldier to disappear from the base after a series of soldiers disappeared in the past few years. The sense of dehumanizing alienation soldiers complained about was not a symptom of a malfunctioning system, it was its original design.
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