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The ancient Greeks wrote epic poems on the subject, the most famous of which is the Iliad. They married in May 2017, and he took her name with hyphenation. 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. As publication approached, it stopped responding to emails pertaining to both specific questions about individual cases as well as broader queries about the base.). 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. They are part of Killeens population of 151,000, many transient and very young, two thirds of whom have military ties. The circumstances are so strange and awful that fully understanding the events can be difficult. After hours, media should call the Emergency Operations Center at (254) 287-2054 and ask for the on-call PAO. On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. THE GREAT PLACE. A sergeant from Guillens division called it mandatory fun days. The additional scrutinythe congressional delegation visit, press toursmeant that soldiers had to work harder. Five were murdered. Eventually Fernandes rang from the Army hospital. At first blush, such violence at a base that calls itself "the Great Place" may seem extraordinary, inexplicable even. The ancient Greeks wrote epic poems on the subject, the most famous of which is the Iliad. On March 5, 2020, Destanie Sawyers five-year-old daughter found her father, Specialist Christopher Sawyer, 29, after he had shot himself dead in the bedroom of their Fort Hood housing. Spc. The 2020 numbers add to ongoing mysteries, including a 2016 case . "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. Then they tried burning the body. Maxwell Hockin, the Central . At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. 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 was found a day later.) (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. From here, wars are launched. The story appears in the July/August 2021 issue of Vanity Fair.I enthusiastically recommend this article. 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. Sergeant Brad Reynolds, 37, killed himself on May 16. The numbers are distressing. Texas as of 9 July 2021; some devices had already been sold and shipped. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). The soldiers said that Guillen's belongings had been found in the arms room, but otherwise she had left no trace. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. The Idaho Murders, Part 1: How 4 College Kids Lived and Loved. She doesnt belong to the Army anymore, AnaLuisa Tapia, a local organizer, told me. He died in 1879, leaving a troubled legacy that is only now beginning to be questioned. 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. Radically transparent, low cost versions of high cost generic drugs. His body was mostly intact but for his hyoid, which was never found. Two witnesses had seen Robinson roll a black cargo box out of the arms room and through the parking lot, where he loaded it into his car and drove away, contradicting an earlier affidavit from three soldiers who falsely claimed they had seen Guillen departing the arms room earlier. Specialist Vanessa Guillen's father, Rogelio, wondered if I shouldn't carry a gun. Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, . 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. Memorial that now stands at the site Vanessa Guillen's remains were found in Killen, Texas. 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. Rodriguez disputes this claim. He ultimately murdered her when she was eight months pregnant, then set her on fire before fleeing to Mexico. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete. Congress launched an investigation of Fort Hood citing the deaths and other felonies that occurred on the fort between 2014-2019. . ARMY-WIDE IMPLEMENTATION STATUS. When Ailina contacted the military police at Fort Hood, they told her that Fernandes was an adult, and that if he was missing, he likely didnt want to be found. 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. He died in 1879, leaving a troubled legacy that is only now beginning to be questioned. I will tell you everything. Fernandes was dropped off at his friends house the next day, August 17, never to be seen again. A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. "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? That psychological trauma among veterans vastly exceeds physical wounds. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims'. All are former soldiers. Two witnesses had seen Robinson roll a black cargo box out of the arms room and through the parking lot, where he loaded it into his car and drove away, contradicting an earlier affidavit from three soldiers who falsely claimed they had seen Guillen departing the arms room earlier. 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. 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. Yes, simply click Add a photo located underneath the main photo of the obituary then upload the photos/videos you wish to share. 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. 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. Hood was an unsuccessful battle commander; 400 men of his Texas Brigade died in a single fight, some would argue through incautious direction. Tributes.com is the online source for current local and national obituary news. Ive lost so much since Ive been in. Guillen confessed that she was being harassed by another soldier. (On July 14,2020, a federal grand injury indicted Aguilar on one count of conspiracy and two counts of tampering with evidence. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. IMCOM is not responsible for the content of links outside home.army.mil. Two more who had separated from. Stump was going 82 mph in a 30-mph zone, the investigation report said, and had hit a tree on a mound. Dont they care as to what happened to Elder Fernandes? (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) Stump was going 82 mph in a 30-mph zone, the investigation report said, and had hit a tree on a mound. Fernandes had just been stationed at Fort Hood in January. Chris and Moses friends of Gregory Wedel-Morales at the site of his remains, Killeen TX. (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). 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. 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. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. After 8 p.m., Guillen's sister Mayra called the base. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Escorts should be arranged in advance to allow for coordination with the organization receiving coverage. All rights reserved. The deaths of Fort Hood soldiers have gained international attention in recent months after the slaying of Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old Army specialist the authorities say was killed on. Thomas Berg, whose son Private Brandon Rosecranss Jeep was found burning in May, told me not to go out after dark. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. SHARE. He ultimately murdered her when she was eight months pregnant, then set her on fire before fleeing to Mexico. Wedel-Morales was thrilled to become a father. "I felt a bad vibe there," Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. In 1941, Private Felix Hall was lynched by fellow soldiers, at Fort Benning, Georgia. 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. His mother, Kim, only heard from her son when he needed money. 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 MURDERS AT FORT HOOD Remains of soldiers have been turning up around the Texas military base with terrifying frequency. 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.) And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Fernandes was dropped off at his friends house the next day, never to be seen again. Fort Hood has been the center of a bizarre and horrific set of tragedies in 2020. If he killed himself, don't they want to know why?". 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. 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. But with each encounter, it was becoming clear that the military had not failed its soldiers at all. During the day, though, it was still hot enough that if you dropped a beer bottle, the contents appeared to dry on contact. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. The very next day, a Fort Hood investigation concluded that Fernandes's charges of sexual assault were unsubstantiated. Nelda Lee Edwards. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. 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. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. 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. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. Search Fort Hood obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. 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. ", Several days later, Rodriguez learned that Casteel had been committed to a hospital on base. Guillen's youngest sister, Lupe, says. 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. In other battles, having lost the use of his arm and later a leg, Hood had to be strapped to a horse for combat. 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. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who did not like him. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. 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. Creating an obituary on Echovita is free. On May 11, however, Fernandes reported to Fort Hood abusive sexual contact from a staff sergeant, whom he alleged groped him in a supply room, according to the redacted military investigation report. By then Wedel-Morales had grown distant from his family in Oklahoma, who had not been told of the marriage. He seemed weird, Rodriguez said. 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 family began posting online about Guillens disappearance and distributing Missing fliers. But when Kim called the police, they dismissed her, telling Kim that her son probably just "took off." At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillens other sister Yovana, and Yovanas boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. The sense of dehumanizing alienation soldiers complained about was not a symptom of a malfunctioning system, it was its original design. Rodriguez sensed something was off. Nov. 30, 2022. The corpse had been dead for a while, though it was impossible to determine exactly how long. 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. 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. Frantic, she called around, to no avail. . On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. -. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. I felt a bad vibe there, Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. 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. 5.2 (infant deaths per 1,000 live births) Life Expectancy (at Birth) 76.5 years (2020) Marriage Rate. Fernandes wouldnt share much, nothing about what had caused him to be hospitalized, and said that he was using an insecure base hospital line. Maxwell Hockin, 26, joined the U.S. Army in 2017. 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. If not, what explained the false accounting? 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. We believe that Every Life has a Story which should be told and preserved. Eric Christopher Hogan and Pfc. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims' families. A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. In death, Guillen has become a kind of patron saint for all those who feel wronged by the U.S. military. When Ailina contacted the military police at Fort Hood, they told her that Fernandes was an adult, and that if he was missing, he likely didn't want to be found. 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. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. October 13, 2021 04:48 PM. The base was named after John Bell Hood, a Confederate general from a family that enslaved people in Kentucky, who made his name by breaking a Union line at Elthams Landing in Virginia and who, by todays standards, likely suffered from PTSD. 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. So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. he asks, then answers. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. 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. A group of soldiers, including Robinson, greeted them. "As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will call you. She filled out the paperwork that is the lifeblood of the Army before heading toward the arms room, a few paces away. 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. On March 5, 2020, Destanie Sawyer's five-year-old daughter found her father, Specialist Christopher Sawyer, 29, after he had shot himself dead in the bedroom of their Fort Hood housing. She had also missed her standing noon call with her fianc, Juan Cruz. Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. Fuck Biden, Dont Tread on Me, and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times. Texas Death Records, 1890-1976 includes scanned copies of the death certificates Texas Death Records, 1977-1986 includes digitized copies of the death certificates; not yet complete. His body was found nearly a month later, two miles from the barracks. 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? 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 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 . Amarillo - see the Potter County section below Arlington - see the Tarrant County section below I played a small role in the story by providing some background information on Confederate General John Bell Hood.. Later the same day, at 8:30 p.m., Aaron Robinsons 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. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. 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. In death, she is no longer a daughter or a sister or a partner. Green Beret training death special forces training soldier dies in training army training . Justice for Vanessa Guillen. Five were murdered. 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. He also wanted an education, and "joining the Army he knew he could take care of all of that," his sister Carma Johnson says. (His sons alleged killer is in custody awaiting trial.) Remains of soldiers have been turning up around the Texas military base with terrifying frequency. The tributaries that run through Fort Hood flow into the Leon River, where Guillen's remains were later found. He joined the U.S. Army in March of 2017 as a combat engineer and had been assigned to . Army investigating after soldier, 26, found dead in latest in string of unexplained deaths at Fort Hood barracks Fort Hood officials have not released the cause of death for Maxwell. 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. As distressing as the remains in shallow graves or the missing hyoid bone is the fatalism from soldiers and locals alike. Fort Hood is one of 800 United States military bases around the world, the third largest in the country. PUBLISHED 10:53 AM CT Mar. Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. The base saw 26 . "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. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims families. (The Boley case remains unsolved.) A 214,968-acre installation, this is the only post in the United States capable of stationing and training two armored divisions. Mayra wept during the journey, already fearing the worst. Oct 29, 2021. On most nights, I had nightmares. Its possible. 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? The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. U.S. ARMY INSTALLATION MANAGEMENT COMMAND In a press statement, Fort Hood officials said Hockin, 26, was initially found unresponsive outside of the barracks and was subsequently pronounced dead. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. There were no Black residents in town until the early 1950s. Their minds both turned to Vanessa, whose hourly texts to family members had gone silent. 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. More than 2,200 trials over land rights commenced. 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. More than 2,200 trials over land rights commenced. 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. 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.