Beyond the base, gas station attendants and restaurant servers, many of whom were veterans or had ties to the military, all seemed resigned to certain fates. 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. Chris and Moses friends of Gregory Wedel-Morales at the site of his remains, Killeen TX. Fort Hood has come under serious fire in recent years, as the incident follows the heartbreaking death of Vanessa Guilln. "He seemed weird," Rodriguez said. The U.S. Army on Tuesday announced the removal . On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. That psychological trauma among veterans vastly exceeds physical wounds. The Army's own investigation found "major flaws" at Fort Hood, leading to the firing or suspending of 14 officials. Its possible. The numbers are distressing. 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. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. Fort Hood hurriedly put up a $25,000 reward for Wedel-Morales as well. 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. Today, Reform Austin is attempting to put the entire chain of events into a concise timeline for our readers. I will tell you everything." 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. 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. Texas as of 9 July 2021; some devices had already been sold and shipped. 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. She doesnt belong to the Army anymore, AnaLuisa Tapia, a local organizer, told me. Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. (The person who called in with the tip declined to collect the reward. . 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. Lenz was found dead at Fort Hood on Feb. 1. Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home 1615 South Fort Hood Road, Killeen (254) 634-2638 . (Fort Hood refused all official interview requests for this story, citing ongoing investigations. 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. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. Robinson himself left soon thereafter, he would testify, to spend the night off post with his girlfriend. 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. Fort Hood is one of 800 United States military bases around the world, the third largest in the country. The family began posting online about Guillen's disappearance and distributing "Missing" fliers. All rights reserved. Guillen's superior confirmed she was missing. A group of soldiers, including Robinson, greeted them. (According to Killeen police, no such vests were found at the scene of the crash. 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. These figures eclipse American casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same year. On August 11, a higher-up called Fernandess mother, Ailina, to tell her that her son had not shown up for work for two days. (Facebook) Two weeks later, Delacruz . And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. Maxwell Hockin. Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. Tributes.com is the online source for current local and national obituary news. "I felt a bad vibe there," Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. In fact, Casteel had been convinced that CIA agents were attacking him since last June. 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. But with each encounter, it was becoming clear that the military had not failed its soldiers at all. 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. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims families. 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. -. Namely, the military. I've lost brothers and sisters in arms, a marriage, I've lost family, I've lost friendships that were supposed to be forever. The Army said Friday, April 30, 2021, that it has taken disciplinary action against 21 officers and non-commissioned officers at Fort Hood, Texas, in connection with death last year of Spc.. Texan sentenced to 20 years following drug-related death of Fort Hood soldier. The tributaries that run through Fort Hood flow into the Leon River, where Guillens remains were later found. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims' families. Driving into Killeen last fall, what greeted me was a deer, roadkill, that had been severed in half. 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. On June 30, a construction crew found shallow graves containing human remains that belonged to Guillen. Fort Hood informed Rodriguez that he had asked for this. 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. 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. The base was named after John Bell Hood, a Confederate general from a family that enslaved people in Kentucky, who made his name by breaking a Union line at Eltham's Landing in Virginia and who, by today's standards, likely suffered from PTSD. (On July 14, 2020, a federal grand injury indicted Aguilar on one count of conspiracy and two counts of tampering with evidence. Visit this link to create a free obituary then read the advantages of creating an obituary on Echovita and either click Start now or Create an obituary for your loved to begin. Why was Robinson not put under watch? Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers vanished or died, including 13. Chee had joined the military in part to support the young family he was starting with his high school sweetheart turned fiance. 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. III Corps Inspector General. He got home around 2 p.m. and told his wife, Gloria, about the unusual aches. 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. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. Chee, like Yazzie, was a member of the Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation community, and was new to the base. Is it possible Elder was murdered? Mayra wept during the journey, already fearing the worst. The very next day, a Fort Hood investigation concluded that Fernandes's charges of sexual assault were unsubstantiated. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. Later, Robinson would tell investigators that Guillen completed her task and exited the building. Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. Spc. May Jeong has written an in-depth analysis of the rash of unexplained deaths at Fort Hood. The 2020 numbers add to ongoing mysteries, including a 2016 case where a corpses hyoid, the U-shaped neck bone typically examined to determine whether strangulation has occurred, was missing. 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. Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. Why was Robinson not put under watch? The family began posting online about Guillens disappearance and distributing Missing fliers. 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 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 asks, then answers. September 10, 2020. Not long after Fort Hood opened, soldiers began bringing home souvenirs in the form of war brides. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. 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. 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 GREAT PLACE. From here, wars are launched. There she encountered Specialist Aaron Robinson, also 20 years old but a rank above. Fernandess family told me they have never been interviewed. 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 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. There she encountered Specialist Aaron Robinson, also 20 years old but a rank above. ", 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. Rodriguez sensed something was off. Guillens superior confirmed she was missing. 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. There had been a few people, then it was a group run of 11. The numbers are distressing. 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. Thomas Berg, whose son Private Brandon Rosecranss Jeep was found burning in May, told me not to go out after dark. 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. = Link to a CAC-required sites . 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. 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 . Because what the military asks of its men and women is so antisocial, it must co-opt the rhetoric of the family. By Marlene Lenthang October 13, 2021, 9:15 AM 2:25 On Location: February 24, 2023 Catch up on the developing stories making headlines. 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. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. 2023 Cond Nast. THE MURDERS AT FORT HOOD Remains of soldiers have been turning up around the Texas military base with terrifying frequency. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. 24, 2021 KILLEEN, Texas Spc. This memory now refreshed, Gloria began asking around for a name and soon learned it through Guillen's friend: Aaron Robinson, the last person to have seen her daughter. Dont they care as to what happened to Elder Fernandes? The additional scrutinythe congressional delegation visit, press toursmeant that soldiers had to work harder. 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. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. Search Fort Hood obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. The day after Guillen disappeared, Private Gavin Chambers, 21, died on base. Thirteen killed themselves. 1st Class Calvin T. Rockward, 38, died during physical training Oct. 27, 2021. . 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. The Montreal Mafia Murders: Blood, Gore, Cannolis, and Hockey Bags, Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. 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. There had been a few people, then it was a group run of 11. In 1941, Private Felix Hall was lynched by fellow soldiers, at Fort Benning, Georgia. 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. 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. Who were the soldiers who had testified to seeing Guillen leave the arms room the day she disappeared? 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. As distressing as the remains in shallow graves or the missing hyoid bone is the fatalism from soldiers and locals alike. A 214,968-acre installation, this is the only post in the United States capable of stationing and training two armored divisions. The wave of pain went away as suddenly as it had come on but returned again, and again, and again, over the next hour. Memorial that now stands at the site Vanessa Guillen's remains were found in Killen, Texas. "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. Fort Hood was founded in January 1942 as a training ground for tank destroyers, selected for its varied terrain. After 8 p.m., Guillens sister Mayra called the base. The Armys own investigation found major flaws at Fort Hood, leading to the firing or suspending of 14 officials. 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. During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. The very next day, a Fort Hood investigation concluded that Fernandess charges of sexual assault were unsubstantiated. 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. Anthony Nevelle Peak Jr. Hogan, 19, and Peak Jr., 21, were both killed in a. 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 stories are gruesome, then heartbreaking, then beyond belief. "None of the messages added up, nor were they how he usually speaks to me," Rodriguez told me. Amarillo - see the Potter County section below Arlington - see the Tarrant County section below A few hours later, Robinson, who had mostly been playing video games, escaped Fort Hood by car. Oct 29, 2021. Within days of arriving at Fort Hood, Chees clothes were stolen. Creating an obituary on Echovita is free. Fort Hood is one of 800 United States military bases around the world, the third largest in the country. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. Before Guillen, there had been Private LaVena Lynn Johnson, who was found dead in a tent in 2005 in Iraq. Casteel had been stationed at Fort Hood since the end of June, where hed been bullied for a spinal injury that consigned him to desk duties. The police too told Ailina that Fernandes was an adult and that they would not report him as missing. 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. Thirteen killed themselves. A few hours later, Robinson, who had mostly been playing video games, escaped Fort Hood by car. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. He joined the U.S. Army in March of 2017 as a combat engineer and had been assigned to . That psychological trauma among veterans vastly exceeds physical wounds. (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). 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. What is behind the violence and tragedy at Fort Hood? According to officials, the deaths include seven off-duty accidents; seven suicides; one combat-related death; four homicides, one of which was on the base; two of natural causes; one that was. 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. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. Fort Hood concluded Chee had died in training. Alvis Franklin Bentley. 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 The U.S. Army identified a soldier found dead behind his company barracks at Fort Hood last week as 26-year-old Spc. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims' families. Fernandes wouldn't share much, nothing about what had caused him to be hospitalized, and said that he was using an insecure base hospital line. His body was mostly intact but for his hyoid, which was never found. Copyright 2023 Echovita Inc. All rights reserved. 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. 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. But the only among the victims may be the institution that them all to kill. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. A group of soldiers, including Robinson, greeted them. 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. 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 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. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. The corpse had been dead for a while, though it was impossible to determine exactly how long. You can find Osama bin Laden, but you cant find a soldier that went missing on your own base? Guillens youngest sister, Lupe, says. Within days of arriving at Fort Hood, Chee's clothes were stolen. 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. (Ring returned to base of his own accord later that day.). 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. Texas Death Records Indexes, Obituaries and Cemetery Burials by County. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. He was assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. He wondered if it was something he had eaten and carried on with his shift. He seemed weird, Rodriguez said. Many complained specifically of being made to cut grass to ready for such official visits. Dominic Criqui, who served in Vanessa Guillen's unit, says that the training had come to feel "stupid" and "pointless." The circumstances are so strange and awful that fully understanding the events can be difficult. (Fort Hood contributed nearly $30 billion to the Texas economy in 2019, according to the Texas comptrollers office.). The corpse had been dead for a while, though it was impossible to determine exactly how long. Rodriguez disputes this claim. 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. Mayra wept during the journey, already fearing the worst. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. Fort Hood is the Army's premier installation to train and deploy heavy forces. 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. 60.2 (births per 1,000 women 15-44 years of age) Teen Birth Rate. 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.
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