At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. Fort Hood concluded Chee had died in training. There she encountered Specialist Aaron Robinson, also 20 years old but a rank above. After he returned to Fort Hood, Rodriguez managed to get Casteel on a video call. From here, wars are launched. Jef Rouner. Maxwell Hockin, 26, joined the U.S. Army in 2017. She filled out the paperwork that is the lifeblood of the Army before heading toward the arms room, a few paces away. (There was also literal toxicity on base in that some of the mold-infested barracks where soldiers lived were technically condemned, according to Maureen Elliott, a military spouse and a housing advocate.). (The Boley case remains unsolved.) Why was Robinson not put under watch? Many complained specifically of being made to cut grass to ready for such official visits. Nov. 30, 2022. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. 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. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers vanished or died, including 13. The sense of dehumanizing alienation soldiers complained about was not a symptom of a malfunctioning system, it was its original design. Namely, the military. Despite 10,000 hours of investigation and 300 interviews, much about Guillens death remained a mystery. When Kim called Fort Hood inquiring after her son, she was told the case was the remit of the Killeen Police Department as Wedel-Morales had gone missing off base. fort hood training calendar 2023 Ozempic (semaglutide) is a once-weekly injection that is FDA approved for use by adults with type 2 diabetes to control their blood sugar levels. Terrie Boley, whose daughter Candance became addicted to crack cocaine while serving at Fort Hood and was murdered in a motel room in 2011, told me not to drink the water. Today, Reform Austin is attempting to put the entire chain of events into a concise timeline for our readers. Who were the soldiers who had testified to seeing Guillen leave the arms room the day she disappeared? Why had it taken forensics 72 days to conduct a search of the arms room? 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. In death, Guillen has become a kind of patron saint for all those who feel wronged by the U.S. military. Thirteen killed themselves. Oct 13, 2021 An official Army photo of Spc. After 8 p.m., Guillen's sister Mayra called the base. ), 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. The vast emptiness that is most of the state can make you feel inconsequential, as if you could disappear and no one would know you ever lived. Vanessa Guillen and a number of other soldiers at Fort Hood sparked outrage across the country, leading to an independent review of the command climate and culture on the military post. 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. September 10, 2020. 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. During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. But then certain details start illuminating the mystery: that one out of three women soldiers have experienced sexual harassment, according to a recent survey. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers died or went missing. More than 2,200 trials over land rights commenced. 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. A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. His killers were never looked for properly and thus never found. 6 min read. 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. Courtesy | Margie Taylor Spc.. "Is it possible Elder was murdered? 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. He died in 1879, leaving a troubled legacy that is only now beginning to be questioned. (According to Killeen police, no such vests were found at the scene of the crash. (Penny says they met online.) Dont they care as to what happened to Elder Fernandes? His wife, Christal, was denied her husbands mobile phone, the final investigation report, and even his corpse, until Texas Congressman Ron Wright stepped in on that front. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. Spc. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. Nelda Lee Edwards. 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. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. 1st Class Calvin T. Rockward, 38, died during physical training Oct. 27, 2021. . The soldiers said that Guillen's belongings had been found in the arms room, but otherwise she had left no trace. (The Boley case remains unsolved.) When his parents rushed to the hospital, they saw that Chee, lying unconscious, had bruises and scrapes on his chin and on both sides of his face. "He seemed weird," Rodriguez said. Sergeant Brad Reynolds, 37, killed himself on May 16. He died in 1879, leaving a troubled legacy that is only now beginning to be questioned. (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) Copyright 2023 Echovita Inc. All rights reserved. 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. If he killed himself, dont they want to know why?. As publication approached, it stopped responding to emails pertaining to both specific questions about individual cases as well as broader queries about the base.). Fort Hood officials confirmed Monday that Martinez and Mosley were assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. The wave of pain went away as suddenly as it had come on but returned again, and again, and again, over the next hour. 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. First it was a five-mile run, then it was a two-mile run. The new family, like more than 70 percent of all Fort Hood service members, lived off post, but after two dead bodies were found on their street, they moved into base housing. (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). The stories are gruesome, then heartbreaking, then beyond belief. Nearly 200 miles away in Houston, Rogelio Guillen was entering his fourth hour of work at a nickel-plating factory when he felt a sharp spasm in his chest. She filled out the paperwork that is the lifeblood of the Army before heading toward the arms room, a few paces away. Echovita Inc is a registered trademark. Fort Hood informed Rodriguez that he had asked for this. Barely a week later, Private Corlton Chee, 25, died during training. The Montreal Mafia Murders: Blood, Gore, Cannolis, and Hockey Bags, Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. He joined the U.S. Army in March of 2017 as a combat engineer and had been assigned to . = Link to a CAC-required sites . "I felt a bad vibe there," Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. Hood was an unsuccessful battle commander; 400 men of his Texas Brigade died in a single fight, some would argue through incautious direction. From this inauspicious start, Killeen grew into a proper military town and is now home to six strip clubs, 18 pawn shops, 35 dollar stores, and 38 tattoo parlors. 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. The author knocks on the doors bearing the darkest symbols, behind which lie guns, ammo, antisemitism, antiabortion dogmaand a belief in the coming civil war. 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. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete. By then, the Army, it seemed, had stopped providing Wedel-Morales with a sense of purpose, and he had turned to alternate sources of meaning, namely car and motorcycle clubs, and life beyond the base. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. 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 contributed nearly $30 billion to the Texas economy in 2019, according to the Texas comptrollers office.). Casteel had told Rodriguez "he was getting away from the abuse.". She has become that complicated, indelible thing: a hero. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Fuck Biden, Dont Tread on Me, and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times. 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. 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. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. (Among 1.29 million members of the U.S. military, 65,000 are immigrants, according to The Washington Post.) She is now for the movement.. Yet instead of being taken into custody, Robinson was placed in a conference room on base, initially, it was said, for committing adultery, which is against the Uniform Code of Military Justice. 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. They are part of Killeen's population of 151,000, many transient and very young, two thirds of whom have military ties. Around the Guillen murals in Killeen and in Houston, I met people who had lost loved ones to the military, who felt harm done, who saw in Guillen a savior. On May 18, Brandon Rosecrans's burning Jeep was discovered in a hilly suburb east of Fort Hood. Guillens youngest sister, Lupe, made me promise to stay at the Marriott, a hotel she considered safer than the rest. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. The area, east of Killeen, was built on 109,000 acres of high bluffs, ridges, sharp slopes, and mesa-like hills covered with mesquite and chaparral. Then they tried burning the body. Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, . Yes, simply click Add a photo located underneath the main photo of the obituary then upload the photos/videos you wish to share. In a press statement, Fort Hood officials said Hockin, 26, was initially found unresponsive outside of the barracks and was subsequently pronounced dead. 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,. The search party arrived at Fort Hood at 3 a.m. Guillen's staff sergeant told the group to come back in the morning. 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. Why hadn't the arms room been treated like the crime scene it was? The murder of Vanessa Guilln, a 20-year-old United States Army soldier, took place inside an armory at Fort Hood, Texas, on April 22, 2020, when she was bludgeoned to death by another soldier, Aaron David Robinson. Amarillo - see the Potter County section below Arlington - see the Tarrant County section below Police reopen case into Fort Hood soldier's death Austin December 25, 2022 Weather View Your 7-Day Forecast Here MILITARY Family hopeful for answers after police reopen case into Fort Hood soldier's death By Olivia Levada Texas PUBLISHED 4:24 PM CT Apr. III Corps Policies and Regulations . 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. (The person who called in with the tip declined to collect the reward. On April 29, it was Private Joshua Barnwell, 19. Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. Hockin was found dead behind his company barracks. At least 39 Fort Hood troops died or went missing last year. 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. A group of soldiers, including Robinson, greeted them. The plan, Wedel-Morales told anyone who would listen, was to use the G.I. 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 figures coming out of the deaths at Fort Hood are depressing, as reported in Vanity Fair. In 1941, Private Felix Hall was lynched by fellow soldiers, at Fort Benning, Georgia. Guilln's death triggered a social media movement of former and current military service people speaking out about sexual assault and harassment on the base. Maxwell Hockin, was found dead outside his company barracks on Saturday, October 9. Specialist Vanessa Guillens father, Rogelio, wondered if I shouldnt carry a gun. More than 2,200 trials over land rights commenced. Within days of arriving at Fort Hood, Chees clothes were stolen. As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will call you. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers died or went missing. The numbers are distressing. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. Fort Hood was founded in January 1942 as a training ground for tank destroyers, selected for its varied terrain. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. I will tell you everything, he told his mother. The police too told Ailina that Fernandes was an adult and that they would not report him as missing. Rodriguez sensed something was off. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. 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. The corpse had been dead for a while, though it was impossible to determine exactly how long. 22.4 (births per 1,000 females 15-19 years of age) Infant Mortality Rate. This was true of many I met at Fort Hood, including press officer Major Gabriela Thompson, my tour guide on base, who told me she joined to pay off her student loans: It was my ticket out, she said, echoing other soldiers sentiments about how the military had rescued them from hardscrabble existences. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). The suicides, which reportedly jumped by as much as 20 percent across the military last year, work out to a rate of one soldier a month. It was ruled a suicide until her father noticed her broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, and burns on her genitals. 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. There were no Black residents in town until the early 1950s. A few days later, so did 21-year-old Specialist Trey Ring. 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. Stump was going 82 mph in a 30-mph zone, the investigation report said, and had hit a tree on a mound. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillen's other sister Yovana, and Yovana's boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. ", Several days later, Rodriguez learned that Casteel had been committed to a hospital on base. On May 19, military investigators went through Robinsons phone and learned that he had called his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, multiple times on the night of April 22, as late as 3:30 a.m., from a town 20 miles east of Fort Hooddespite his claim he had been with Aguilar that night. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. More than 90 lawmakers earlier this month called for an independent review of how the Army handled the disappearance of Spc. But with each encounter, it was becoming clear that the military had not failed its soldiers at all. Casteel had told Rodriguez he was getting away from the abuse.. The U.S. Army announced Saturday that a soldier was found dead in the . If not, what explained the false accounting? And yet: The data is not really out of the ordinary for U.S. military bases. The area, east of Killeen, was built on 109,000 acres of high bluffs, ridges, sharp slopes, and mesa-like hills covered with mesquite and chaparral. Ad Choices. Photo: US Army. During the day, though, it was still hot enough that if you dropped a beer bottle, the contents appeared to dry on contact. By then Wedel-Morales had grown distant from his family in Oklahoma, who had not been told of the marriage. The Times found 159 noncombat deaths of Fort Hood soldiers since the beginning of 2016, which included seven homicides and 71 suicides. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims'. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. 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. Fort Hood hurriedly put up a $25,000 reward for Wedel-Morales as well. Fernandes was dropped off at his friend's house the next day, August 17, never to be seen again. At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. Hoover, Alabama. He wondered if it was something he had eaten and carried on with his shift. 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. In other battles, having lost the use of his arm and later a leg, Hood had to be strapped to a horse for combat. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. "And how well will that look on your resume? 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. Five were murdered. The family began posting online about Guillens disappearance and distributing Missing fliers. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. Toxic leadership is nothing new. Fernandes wouldnt share much, nothing about what had caused him to be hospitalized, and said that he was using an insecure base hospital line. It rained that night, and the drive, which should have taken three hours, was slow going. Later, Robinson would tell investigators that Guillen completed her task and exited the building. The vast emptiness that is most of the state can make you feel inconsequential, as if you could disappear and no one would know you ever lived. 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 base saw 26 . Had anyone helped Robinson clean up Guillens murder in those 40 minutes? Give me the name and I will report the bastard, Gloria told her daughter, who refused to tell her mother more for fear of worrying her, and also, Gloria later suspected, for fear of reprisal. 24, 2021 KILLEEN, Texas Spc. Joel Leal 12:18 PM, Oct 11, 2022 . As many as 28 Fort Hood soldiers died in 2020, including in multiple homicides, suicides and other accidents. Family of Fort Hood soldier demands answers after military refuses to release report on his death Chase Lawrence 4 April 2021 Seventeen months have passed since Private First Class (PFC). There, Wedel-Morales's remains had been found, long ago decomposed in the Texas heat. Guillens superior confirmed she was missing. In death, she is no longer a daughter or a sister or a partner. Before Guillen, there had been Private LaVena Lynn Johnson, who was found dead in a tent in 2005 in Iraq. Guillen's youngest sister, Lupe, made me promise to stay at the Marriott, a hotel she considered safer than the rest. 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. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The family began posting online about Guillen's disappearance and distributing "Missing" fliers. 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. A soldier stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, was found dead over the weekend behind a barracks, according to local media reports, adding to the rash of deaths and disappearances of soldiers. Inside the rash of explained deaths at Fort Hood. Later, Robinson would tell investigators that Guillen completed her task and exited the building. 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. CID and Homeland security believe the NVGs were stolen from shipping . The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. 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. Inside Jeffrey Epsteins Decades-Long Relationship With Leslie Wexner Trumps Deranged Replacement Theory Mightve Lost Him the Election Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk Want to Burn Their Cash in Space Three Texans Bust Myths About the Alamos Famous Last Stand The Guy Who Could Send Trump to Prison May Soon Cooperate With the Feds Bill and Melinda Gatess Epic Divorce Saga Enters Its Next Phase Juneteenth, Critical Race Theory, and the Winding Road Toward Reckoning Trump Is Now Urging People Not to Vaccinate Their Kids Against COVID From the Archive: Microsofts Odd Couple, in the Words of Paul Allen Not a subscriber?

Gatehouse Media Payments, Articles F