A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. The dollhouse, strip club Gregory Wedel Morales frequented, Killeen Tx. A Year of Heartbreak and Bloodshed at Fort Hood - New York Times Dozens of Deaths at Fort Hood in 2020: Is 'Toxic Culture' at - People Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. He wondered if it was something he had eaten and carried on with his shift. The stories are gruesome, then heartbreaking, then beyond belief. The Times found 159 noncombat deaths of Fort Hood soldiers since the beginning of 2016, which included seven homicides and 71 suicides. 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. Fort Hood concluded Chee had died in training. None of the grunts I spoke to was surprised by the number of casualties. There she encountered Specialist Aaron Robinson, also 20 years old but a rank above. Specialist Vanessa Guillen's father, Rogelio, wondered if I shouldn't carry a gun. If he killed himself, don't they want to know why?". Everything we know about the 16 soldier deaths at Fort Hood this year 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 carsknew to pull down their window shades to avoid a pelting with rocks by locals. Fort Hood soldier found dead behind barracks - Militarytimes.com Subscribers have complete access to the archive. She is now for the movement.. American military bases, once established, seldom shutter, and Fort Hood, which started operating during World War II, has remained open for business, its 218,000 acres spreading across two counties in central Texas near an otherwise unremarkable town called Killeen. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims families. Wedel-Morales was thrilled to become a father. 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 . You can click this link to create an obituary. Schuettes body was returned to his family wrapped like a mummy. Later that year, Private Dakota Lee Stump left his barracks to report for work less than a mile away but never arrived for formation. The deaths were caused by varying reasons -- gunshots, car accidents and illnesses and all the deaths were under probe. So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. 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. Inside the rash of explained deaths at Fort Hood - HotAir Soon after, the Temple police, who led the investigation, ruled Fernandes's death a suicide. On May 18, Brandon Rosecrans's burning Jeep was discovered in a hilly suburb east of Fort Hood. In fact, Casteel had been convinced that CIA agents were attacking him since last June. 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. Basic details of the incident kept changing. The death was ruled a suicide despite the fact that the blanket stuffed around the window to hold the pipe in place had been doused in Schuettes own blood, and Schuette was found with nine stab wounds across his body, including his forearm and his left hand. Fort Hood: The Whole Story, So Far, of a String of Suspicious Deaths THE MURDERS AT FORT HOOD | Vanity Fair | July/August 2021 At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillen's other sister Yovana, and Yovana's boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. 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. "What on earth are you training for?" As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will call you. (The person who called in with the tip declined to collect the reward. Martinez joined the Army in April 2018 as a cannoneer, according to base officials. Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. None of the messages added up, nor were they how he usually speaks to me, Rodriguez told me. Guillen confessed that she was being harassed by another soldier. Hood was an unsuccessful battle commander; 400 men of his Texas Brigade died in a single fight, some would argue through incautious direction. Deaths of 2 female Army soldiers probed in Texas, 1 fatally shot on Namely, the military. (Fort Hood contributed nearly $30 billion to the Texas economy in 2019, according to the Texas comptrollers office.). My caution wasn't entirely unfounded. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. (According to Killeen police, no such vests were found at the scene of the crash. On August 17, Sergeant Elder Fernandes, 23, disappeared. 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. 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. The corpse had been dead for a while, though it was impossible to determine exactly how long. She pleaded not guilty. Hoover, Alabama. It was also an ancient Comanche Native American burial ground, discovered when construction workers unearthed more than 2,200 grave sites in 1998. During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. Maxwell Hockin, 26, was. Fort Hood Press Center - The Official Government Press Center for Fort ", Several days later, Rodriguez learned that Casteel had been committed to a hospital on base. The base might have continued to devour its soldiers had it not been for a missing soldier's family whose rage, love, and devotion would attract the attention of the media, celebrities, and later the White House, sparking congressional and military investigations. All are former soldiers. Later that year, Private Dakota Lee Stump left his barracks to report for work less than a mile away but never arrived for formation. Five were murdered. But the only among the victims may be the institution that them all to. FORT HOOD, Texas - Fort Hood officials say they do not suspect foul play in the death of 26-year-old SPC Maxwell Hockin. The Army's own investigation found "major flaws" at Fort Hood, leading to the firing or suspending of 14 officials. Fort Worth (817) 293-8477 Laurel Land Funeral Home and Cemetery 7100 Crowley Road, Fort Worth . 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. Fort Hood is one of 800 United States military bases around the world, the third largest in the country. And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. (Killeen Police stated they have no knowledge of anyone declining to investigate.) 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. Fort Hood soldier found dead outside barracks - American Military News Deaths of two female soldiers in Texas under investigation The very next day, a Fort Hood investigation concluded that Fernandess charges of sexual assault were unsubstantiated. 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. These deaths confirm to many the issues reported at the post . Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. Anthony Nevelle Peak Jr. Hogan, 19, and Peak Jr., 21, were both killed in a. On June 30, a construction crew found shallow graves containing human remains that belonged to Guillen. (The Boley case remains unsolved.) I've even lost myself." THE MURDERS AT FORT HOOD Remains of soldiers have been turning up around the Texas military base with terrifying frequency. 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Since the beginning of the year, there have been 12 Fort Hood soldiers who have vanished, died, or, in one case, turned up dead after going missing last year. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. 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. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers vanished or died, including 13. Oct 13, 2021 An official Army photo of Spc. 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). February 26, 2023 (50 years old) View obituary. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims' families. Fort Hood Army trooper Joseph Meitl, 23, dead after training incident "She is now for the movement.". Green Beret training death special forces training soldier dies in training army training . In 2018, a soldier was allegedly shot and killed in her front yard by her husband at Fort Campbell, in Kentucky, which also has one of the highest rates of suicide in the Army. Had one of them stood in for Guillen during roll call? She filled out the paperwork that is the lifeblood of the Army before heading toward the arms room, a few paces away. But then certain details start illuminating the mystery: that one out of three women soldiers have experienced sexual harassment, according to a recent survey. Schuette's body was returned to his family "wrapped like a mummy." When Ailina offered the Fort Hood authorities the contents of her sons car, including a laptop, iPad, and external hard drive, they declined to investigate further. Fernandes wouldnt share much, nothing about what had caused him to be hospitalized, and said that he was using an insecure base hospital line. . (Fort Hood contributed nearly $30 billion to the Texas economy in 2019, according to the Texas comptroller's office.). Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home 1615 South Fort Hood Road, Killeen (254) 634-2638 . Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. 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. A young soldier found dead at Fort Hood has been identified, but his cause of death remains hidden. ", "I'm 21 now, and let me tell you. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. Club Fuego where Gregory Wedel-Morales was last seen, Killeen Tx. Four days later, an anonymous tip directed investigators to an urban prairie at the end of a residential street where Penny Morales used to live. The family began posting online about Guillens disappearance and distributing Missing fliers. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. Highway renamed & dedicated to late Fort Hood soldier . Last December, an internal investigation found that Fort Hoods culture, environment, and leadership resulted in women feeling vulnerable and preyed upon, with no reliable recourse for their very real sense of duress. They married in May 2017, and he took her name with hyphenation. 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. Staff Sergeant Devin Schuette was found dead in his pickup truck, fitted with a hose running from the exhaust pipe to the cabin, in January 2016. (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.). Who were the soldiers who had testified to seeing Guillen leave the arms room the day she disappeared? A few hours later, Robinson, who had mostly been playing video games, escaped Fort Hood by car. Fort Hood soldier found dead behind barracks, investigation underway (Penny says they met online.) 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. Site Gregory Wedel-Morales' remains were found in Killeen, Texas. Despite 10,000 hours of investigation and 300 interviews, much about Guillens death remained a mystery. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. It rained that night, and the drive, which should have taken three hours, was slow going. Jennifer Anthony Lovells sister, Temple Tx. 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. You can find Osama bin Laden, but you cant find a soldier that went missing on your own base? Guillens youngest sister, Lupe, says. 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. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who "did not like him." I am astounded nobody is interested, the Fernandes family lawyer Lenny Kesten told me. On May 19, military investigators went through Robinson's 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. Sgt. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. 5.2 (infant deaths per 1,000 live births) Life Expectancy (at Birth) 76.5 years (2020) Marriage Rate. 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 Killeen's seedy main corridor called Rancier, the same street where Specialist Freddy Delacruz, 23, was shot and killed last March. 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. Radically transparent, low cost versions of high cost generic drugs. Atop these sedimentary layers of desecration, displacement, and disorientation, the U.S. War Department set out to build a base that would go on to serve as a footnote to nearly every war in modern memory. Curiously, a few hours after the officers picked up Casteel, he went silent online. These figures eclipse American casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same year. Army disciplines 21 at Fort Hood in probe of soldier's death - Spokesman Even then, it was she who had to scare up the $3,500 in bail money, and after Fort Hood sent two officers to pick up Casteel, officials refused to share information with Rodriguez. There was a deep cut above his left eye, and cuts all over his legs. The wave of pain went away as suddenly as it had come on but returned again, and again, and again, over the next hour. 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. Later came Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese, who still run sushi and pho restaurants in Killeen. Guillens superior confirmed she was missing. Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, . A sergeant from Guillen's division called it "mandatory fun days." [2] ), 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. At first blush, such violence at a base that calls itself the Great Place may seem extraordinary, inexplicable even. = Link to a CAC-required sites . That gun safety is a distant concern in a community where the Second Amendment tops the Maslow charts. 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. Thirteen killed themselves. (He was found a day later.) By then Wedel-Morales had grown distant from his family in Oklahoma, who had not been told of the marriage. The Montreal Mafia Murders: Blood, Gore, Cannolis, and Hockey Bags, Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. Within days of arriving at Fort Hood, Chee's clothes were stolen. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims' families. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. Is it possible Elder was murdered? Fuck Biden, Dont Tread on Me, and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times. Alabama Obituaries - Latest Obituaries in Alabama - Echovita Bill to attend technical school in Houston to work on wind turbines or oil rigs off the coast of Louisiana. He got home around 2 p.m. and told his wife, Gloria, about the unusual aches. Spc. Thomas Berg, whose son Private Brandon Rosecrans's Jeep was found burning in May, told me not to go out after dark. Is it possible Elder killed himself? If not, what explained the false accounting? Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. The disappearance of Vanessa Guilln, a 20-year-old soldier at the sprawling Texas Army base of Fort Hood last April, captured headlines across the world. Fort Hood Independent Review | Army People First The brutal murders of four Idaho college students shocked millions. His body was found nearly a month later, two miles from the barracks. He had messaged his sister beforehand to tell her something felt off. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. Jef Rouner. The 2020 numbers add to ongoing mysteries, including a 2016 case where a corpse's hyoid, the U-shaped neck bone typically examined to determine whether strangulation has occurred, was missing. He wondered if it was something he had eaten and carried on with his shift. His wife, Christal, was denied her husband's mobile phone, the final investigation report, and even his corpse, until Texas Congressman Ron Wright stepped in on that front. His mother, Kim, only heard from her son when he needed money. The Lovell case was ruled an accident despite the fact that a rival clubs biker vest, or kutte, was found hanging neatly from a tree near the crash site, while his motorcyclemirror, taillightswas found intact. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. Eric Christopher Hogan and Pfc. Before Fort Hood was built, the land was used for grazing by some 3,000 farmers and ranchers, according to Gerald D. Skidmore, a Killeen historian. The story appears in the July/August 2021 issue of Vanity Fair.I enthusiastically recommend this article. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The tributaries that run through Fort Hood flow into the Leon River, where Guillen's remains were later found. 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. Sewell is the latest soldier to disappear from the base after a series of soldiers disappeared in the past few years. Robinson gave Guillen the serial number for a .50 caliber machine gun that needed servicing. Just before noon, Guillen left her keys, Army ID, and bank cards in one arms room and entered another adjacent arms room, separated by a hallway. At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. 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. Sergeant Brad Reynolds, 37, killed himself on May 16. It was a "heartrending, searing experience," central Texas historian Gra'Delle Duncan said, "leaving lifetime marks on all, and actually killing some" from the psychic devastation that followed. Linda Schweers, whose specialist son, Justin, died in a car crash in June while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, wanted me to be careful of cartels, which she said ran the area. The discovery in 2020 of the dismembered and burned remains of Vanessa Guillen, a Fort Hood soldier who disappeared on April 22, 2020, sparked outrage from central Texas to . The military, Rodriguez said, had known about this but had refused to treat him. 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? Fort Hood announced that Stump had crashed his car while driving under the influence, though a toxicology report proved inconclusive. A 214,968-acre installation, this is the only post in the United States capable of stationing and training two armored divisions. 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.
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