He had messaged his sister beforehand to tell her something felt off. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. Later came Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese, who still run sushi and pho restaurants in Killeen. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillen's other sister Yovana, and Yovana's boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. Maxwell Hockin. 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. 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. Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). Five were murdered. 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. Ad Choices. 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. 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. 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. 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. Creating an obituary on Echovita is free.
UPDATE: Foul play not suspected in death of Fort Hood soldier IMCOM is not responsible for the content of links outside home.army.mil. 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. It was also an ancient Comanche Native American burial ground, discovered when construction workers unearthed more than 2,200 grave sites in 1998. 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. In death, Guillen has become a kind of patron saint for all those who feel wronged by the U.S. military. Their minds both turned to Vanessa, whose hourly texts to family members had gone silent. She pleaded not guilty. In death, Guillen has become a kind of patron saint for all those who feel wronged by the U.S. military. Five were murdered. But advocates for. Maxwell Hockin, 26, joined the U.S. Army in 2017. One of the first times she stepped onto the base, a rosary she had been carrying in the palm of her hand tore apart, its beads scattering over the concrete ground. (According to Killeen police, no such vests were found at the scene of the crash. "She is now for the movement.". All are former soldiers. The family began posting online about Guillens disappearance and distributing Missing fliers. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillens other sister Yovana, and Yovanas boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. A few hours later, Robinson, who had mostly been playing video games, escaped Fort Hood by car. Five were murdered. The wave of pain went away as suddenly as it had come on but returned again, and again, and again, over the next hour. (The Boley case remains unsolved.) Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. Fort Hood is now the largest active-duty armored post comprised of nearly 400,000 soldiers, civilian employees, families, and retirees in the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metro area. Bill to attend technical school in Houston to work on wind turbines or oil rigs off the coast of Louisiana. Maxwell Hockin, 26, was. 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. His body was found nearly a month later, two miles from the barracks. 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. Barely a week later, Private Corlton Chee, 25, died during training. The story appears in the July/August 2021 issue of Vanity Fair.I enthusiastically recommend this article. 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.
Inside the Rash of Unexplained Deaths at Fort Hood | Vanity Fair None of the grunts I spoke to was surprised by the number of casualties. 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. Fort Hood Weather. 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. The ancient Greeks wrote epic poems on the subject, the most famous of which is the Iliad. 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.
Why is Fort Hood the Army's most crime-ridden post? 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. 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. He died in 1879, leaving a troubled legacy that is only now beginning to be questioned. Sergeant Brad Reynolds, 37, killed himself on May 16. 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.). For nothing.. 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 most nights, I had nightmares. 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. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. 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. Soon after, the Temple police, who led the investigation, ruled Fernandess death a suicide. Thirteen killed themselves. 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. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains.
Army Disciplines 21 at Fort Hood in Probe of Soldier's Death 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. Rodriguez disputes this claim. 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. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete.
Army Investigating How Fort Hood Soldier Found Unresponsive Behind (According to Killeen police, no such vests were found at the scene of the crash. 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.
The problem with Fort Hood: Violence, deaths and disappearances - MEAWW 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. Remains of soldiers have been turning up around the Texas military base with terrifying frequency. On August 17, Sergeant Elder Fernandes, 23, disappeared. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. Ive even lost myself. (Ring returned to base of his own accord later that day.). Why had it taken forensics 72 days to conduct a search of the arms room? Fort Hood is one of 800 United States military bases around the world, the third largest in the country. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. This memory now refreshed, Gloria began asking around for a name and soon learned it through Guillens friend: Aaron Robinson, the last person to have seen her daughter.
'He did not deserve to die:' Fort Hood soldier's mother wants answers Eventually Fernandes rang from the Army hospital.
Fort Hood soldier found dead behind barracks - Militarytimes.com "Is it possible Elder was murdered? At first blush, such violence at a base that calls itself "the Great Place" may seem extraordinary, inexplicable even. By then Wedel-Morales had grown distant from his family in Oklahoma, who had not been told of the marriage. She pleaded not guilty. "None of the messages added up, nor were they how he usually speaks to me," Rodriguez told me. Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. III Corps Inspector General. Specialist Vanessa Guillens father, Rogelio, wondered if I shouldnt carry a gun. Dozens of people were killed, died by suicide, or went missing from the Texas military base last year alone. That gun safety is a distant concern in a community where the Second Amendment tops the Maslow charts. = Link to a CAC-required sites . There were no Black residents in town until the early 1950s. You can click this link to create an obituary.
Army disciplines 21 at Fort Hood in probe of soldier's death - Yahoo News Fort Hood hurriedly put up a $25,000 reward for Wedel-Morales as well. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. (Penny says they met online.) Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. He died the evening of September 2. Barely a week later, Private Corlton Chee, 25, died during training. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. The brutal murders of four Idaho college students shocked millions. First it was a five-mile run, then it was a two-mile run. The stories are gruesome, then heartbreaking, then beyond belief. Site Gregory Wedel-Morales' remains were found in Killeen, Texas. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. Not long after Fort Hood opened, soldiers began bringing home souvenirs in the form of war brides. 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. Maxwell Hockin, was found dead outside his company barracks on Saturday, October 9.
Army disciplines 21 at Fort Hood in probe of soldier's death Fort Hood has been the center of a bizarre and horrific set of tragedies in 2020. And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. 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. 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. She filled out the paperwork that is the lifeblood of the Army before heading toward the arms room, a few paces away. Curiously, a few hours after the officers picked up Casteel, he went silent online. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. 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. Fuck Biden, Dont Tread on Me, and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash.
Army major kills 13 people in Fort Hood shooting spree "I asked him directly if he wasn't willing to speak because of position and he signaled yes, and he said, 'l'd rather tell you in person.' 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. 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. During the day, though, it was still hot enough that if you dropped a beer bottle, the contents appeared to dry on contact. It was also an ancient Comanche Native American burial ground, discovered when construction workers unearthed more than 2,200 grave sites in 1998. March 2, 2023 (86 years old)
Dozens of Deaths at Fort Hood in 2020: Is 'Toxic Culture' at - People Thomas Berg, whose son Private Brandon Rosecrans's Jeep was found burning in May, told me not to go out after dark. 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? "I am astounded nobody is interested," the Fernandes family lawyer Lenny Kesten told me. 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. 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. He died the evening of September 2. The Idaho Murders, Part 1: How 4 College Kids Lived and Loved. (Fort Hood contributed nearly $30 billion to the Texas economy in 2019, according to the Texas comptroller's office.). Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. 6 min read. Nov. 30, 2022. (Fort Hood refused all official interview requests for this story, citing ongoing investigations. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Fort Worth (817) 293-8477 Laurel Land Funeral Home and Cemetery 7100 Crowley Road, Fort Worth . 1st Class Calvin T. Rockward, 38, died during physical training Oct. 27, 2021. . Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, . Fort Hood concluded Chee had died in training. 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. The Times found 159 noncombat deaths of Fort Hood soldiers since the beginning of 2016, which included seven homicides and 71 suicides. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. If he killed himself, don't they want to know why?". 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. Texan sentenced to 20 years following drug-related death of Fort Hood soldier. Casteel had told Rodriguez "he was getting away from the abuse.". 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. Spc. Hood was an unsuccessful battle commander; 400 men of his Texas Brigade died in a single fight, some would argue through incautious direction. 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.) 5.2 (infant deaths per 1,000 live births) Life Expectancy (at Birth) 76.5 years (2020) Marriage Rate.
Fort Hood: What we know about 12 soldiers missing, slain or killed in Fort Hood soldier found safe with family after failing to show up for Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers died or went missing. (Among 1.29 million members of the U.S. military, 65,000 are immigrants, according to The Washington Post.) 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 . My caution wasn't entirely unfounded. Rosecrans, shot four times, was found three miles from his vehicle. Chris and Moses friends of Gregory Wedel-Morales at the site of his remains, Killeen TX. He had also gotten married without telling his family, been evicted from his apartment, and stopped showing up to work. A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. But with each encounter, it was becoming clear that the military had not failed its soldiers at all. Jef Rouner. She had also missed her standing noon call with her fianc, Juan Cruz. Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. 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. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. At least 39 Fort Hood troops died or went missing last year. Stump was going 82 mph in a 30-mph zone, the investigation report said, and had hit a tree on a mound.
Home :: U.S Army Fort Hood - United States Army 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.)
Fort Hood: The Whole Story, So Far, of a String of Suspicious Deaths Casteel had told Rodriguez he was getting away from the abuse.. He had also gotten married without telling his family, been evicted from his apartment, and stopped showing up to work. After he returned to Fort Hood, Rodriguez managed to get Casteel on a video call.
27 soldier deaths, violence cast shadows over Fort Hood Soon after, the Temple police, who led the investigation, ruled Fernandes's death a suicide. 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. Joshua Diamond, 35, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Pfc. And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Agamemnon demonstrates disrespect, vanity, and other lapses in judgment, the result of which is what clinical psychiatrist Jonathan Shay describes as "moral injury"a " (i) betrayal of what's right, (ii) by someone who holds legitimate authority, (iii) in a high stakes situation." 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. Mayra wept during the journey, already fearing the worst. 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. The numbers are distressing. (The Boley case remains unsolved.) Fort Hood informed Rodriguez that he had asked for this. Hockin was found dead behind his company barracks. Wedel-Morales was thrilled to become a father. On August 25, a rail worker in Temple, Texas, 26 miles east of Fort Hood, saw a body hanging from a tree across from a burned-out warehouse near the tracks. On April 29, it was Private Joshua Barnwell, 19. Those remains, it turned out, belonged to yet another soldier, Private Gregory Wedel-Morales, who had gone missing the previous summer. In death, she is no longer a daughter or a sister or a partner.
Inside the Rash of Unexplained Deaths at Fort Hood by May Jeong On August 25, a rail worker in Temple, Texas, 26 miles east of Fort Hood, saw a body hanging from a tree across from a burned-out warehouse near the tracks. These deaths confirm to many the issues reported at the post . CID and Homeland security believe the NVGs were stolen from shipping . "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. I will tell you everything. Fernandes was dropped off at his friends house the next day, August 17, never to be seen again. (Facebook) Two weeks later, Delacruz . 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. Subscribers have complete access to the archive. His mother, Kim, only heard from her son when he needed money. Two more who had separated from.
7 soldiers have died in the Fort Hood area this year So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. 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. Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. 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. Rodriguez disputes this claim. Why was Robinson not put under watch? On May 18, Brandon Rosecrans's burning Jeep was discovered in a hilly suburb east of Fort Hood. The base saw 26 . 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. A few days later, so did 21-year-old Specialist Trey Ring. Toxic leadership is nothing new. The numbers are distressing. 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. 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.
Here's what we know about 8 of the soldiers who died this year at Fort Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. The 20-year-old small arms specialist, then a private first class, was supposed to be off that day, so she showed up in civilian clothesblack tee, purple leggings, and a fanny pack. "He seemed weird," Rodriguez said. Before Guillen, there had been Private LaVena Lynn Johnson, who was found dead in a tent in 2005 in Iraq. "What on earth are you training for?" The exact cause of Hockin's death remains unclear . During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. Basic details of the incident kept changing. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. He wondered if it was something he had eaten and carried on with his shift. Curiously, a few hours after the officers picked up Casteel, he went silent online. Photo: US Army. Fort Hood informed Rodriguez that he had asked for this. 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. 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. Maxwell Hockin, the Central . Thirteen people were determined to have committed suicide. Chee, like Yazzie, was a member of the Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation community, and was new to the base. 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. Garrison Policies and Regulations. Congress launched an investigation of Fort Hood citing the deaths and other felonies that occurred on the fort between 2014-2019. .
Green Beret NCO dies during physical fitness training at Fort Bragg Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims' families.
Army report finds Fort Hood soldier Vanessa - The Texas Tribune The police too told Ailina that Fernandes was an adult and that they would not report him as missing. -. Fort Hood soldier found dead behind barracks, investigation underway Officials identified the soldier as 26-year-old Spc. "And how well will that look on your resume? He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. 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 More than 2,200 trials over land rights commenced. If he killed himself, dont they want to know why?. 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. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two.