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. Simply browse the Fort Hoods obituaries listing you can find on this page or conduct a search on the web site with your loved ones name. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. Subscribers have complete access to the archive. The Armys own investigation found major flaws at Fort Hood, leading to the firing or suspending of 14 officials. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. Fort Hood Weather. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. 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. (He was found a day later.) Fort Hood announced that Stump had crashed his car while driving under the influence, though a toxicology report proved inconclusive. Wedel-Morales was thrilled to become a father. It was ruled a suicide until her father noticed her broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, and burns on her genitals. Frantic, she called around, to no avail. I've lost so much since I've been in. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers died or went missing. The corpse had been dead for a while, though it was impossible to determine exactly how long. And yet: The data is not really out of the ordinary for U.S. military bases. The numbers are distressing. US Army Since then, Vanessa's family and their attorney Natalie Khawam have tried to shine a spotlight on a string of deaths at the central Texas installation. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. Joshua Diamond, 35, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Pfc. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. She has become that complicated, indelible thing: a hero. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. Search Fort Hood obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. Robinson gave Guillen the serial number for a .50 caliber machine gun that needed servicing. 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. His wife, Christal, was denied her husbands mobile phone, the final investigation report, and even his corpse, until Texas Congressman Ron Wright stepped in on that front. He ultimately murdered her when she was eight months pregnant, then set her on fire before fleeing to Mexico. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. Casteel had been stationed at Fort Hood since the end of June, where he'd been bullied for a spinal injury that consigned him to desk duties. I am astounded nobody is interested, the Fernandes family lawyer Lenny Kesten told me. Robinson himself left soon thereafter, he would testify, to spend the night off post with his girlfriend. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. His killers were never looked for properly and thus never found. On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. 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. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). Rodriguez disputes this claim. ), Wedel-Morales's death was not the first from the base that may have involved bike gangs. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. The rolling, semi-arid terrain is ideal for multifaceted training and testing of military units and troops. Fernandess family told me they have never been interviewed. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. On June 30, a construction crew found shallow graves containing human remains that belonged to Guillen. "I am astounded nobody is interested," the Fernandes family lawyer Lenny Kesten told me. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. It's possible. "You can find Osama bin Laden, but you can't find a soldier that went missing on your own base?" Texan sentenced to 20 years following drug-related death of Fort Hood soldier. The family began posting online about Guillens disappearance and distributing Missing fliers. 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. Remains of soldiers have been turning up around the Texas military base with terrifying frequency. 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) A soldier in the 1st Cavalry Division was found dead Saturday in his company area, according to a statement from. For nothing.. 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. 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 figures coming out of the deaths at Fort Hood are depressing, as reported in Vanity Fair. 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. The U.S. Army announced Saturday that a soldier was found dead in the . Lenz was found dead at Fort Hood on Feb. 1. Five were murdered. The police too told Ailina that Fernandes was an adult and that they would not report him as missing. 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. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Not long after Fort Hood opened, soldiers began bringing home souvenirs in the form of war brides. 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. A group of soldiers, including Robinson, greeted them. The plan, Wedel-Morales told anyone who would listen, was to use the G.I. 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. FORT HOOD, Texas - Fort Hood officials say they do not suspect foul play in the death of 26-year-old SPC Maxwell Hockin. SHARE. All are former soldiers. Call (254) 287-9993 or (254) 287-0106 to request a PAO escort. 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. She has become that complicated, indelible thing: a hero. Yes, flower arrangements are fulfilled and delivered by local florists from Fort Hood. 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. 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. 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. Two more who had separated from. Morta's death comes amid intense scrutiny of Fort Hood in recent weeks. Fuck Biden, Dont Tread on Me, and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times. The sense of dehumanizing alienation soldiers complained about was not a symptom of a malfunctioning system, it was its original design. (Among 1.29 million members of the U.S. military, 65,000 are immigrants, according to The Washington Post.) At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. Such moral injury deteriorates social trust, which is then "replaced by the settled expectancy of harm, exploitation, and humiliation from others," resulting in despair and violence to self and to others. If he killed himself, dont they want to know why?. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. If not, what explained the false accounting? In a press statement, Fort Hood officials said Hockin, 26, was initially found unresponsive outside of the barracks and was subsequently pronounced dead. Ever since returning from a deployment to Iraq in February 2019shipped off two months after basic training for a nine-month tourRing had become withdrawn, developed a drinking problem, and had been arrested for drunk driving. Death Notices Famous Deaths Search Wednesday, March 01, 2023 Audrie Talmadge "A.T." Powell 10 hrs ago Services for Audrie Talmadge "A.T." Powell, 78, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Salado. Later, Robinson would tell investigators that Guillen completed her task and exited the building. How had he managed to escapeand where had he gotten his gun? On June 30, a construction crew found shallow graves containing human remains that belonged to Guillen. Fernandes wouldnt share much, nothing about what had caused him to be hospitalized, and said that he was using an insecure base hospital line. Namely, the military. (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) 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. He had also gotten married without telling his family, been evicted from his apartment, and stopped showing up to work. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. I have sponsored a a Change.org listing advocating renaming the post after Oveta . On August 17, Sergeant Elder Fernandes, 23, disappeared. (Fort Hood refused all official interview requests for this story, citing ongoing investigations. 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. Their minds both turned to Vanessa, whose hourly texts to family members had gone silent. On most nights, I had nightmares. In the same week, Private Edward Casteel, who had been missing from Fort Hood since October 6, was found in a parish jail in Louisiana, arrested after a high-speed chase. 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. At first blush, such violence at a base that calls itself the Great Place may seem extraordinary, inexplicable even. His killers were never looked for properly and thus never found. (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. Guillen's youngest sister, Lupe, says. 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. Eric Christopher Hogan and Pfc. But with each encounter, it was becoming clear that the military had not failed its soldiers at all. After hours, media should call the Emergency Operations Center at (254) 287-2054 and ask for the on-call PAO. Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt. (On July 14, 2020, a federal grand injury indicted Aguilar on one count of conspiracy and two counts of tampering with evidence. Jennifer Anthony Lovells sister, Temple Tx. Guillens superior confirmed she was missing. The search party arrived at Fort Hood at 3 a.m. Guillens staff sergeant told the group to come back in the morning. As many as 28 Fort Hood soldiers died in 2020, including in multiple homicides, suicides and other accidents. The exact cause of Hockin's death remains unclear . Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims families. 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. Fort Hood concluded Chee had died in training. Most of the groups were aboveboard, even as they were ruled by certain strictures for meeting attendance, dress code, and how to appropriately signal respect. 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. None of the messages added up, nor were they how he usually speaks to me, Rodriguez told me. A few hours later, Robinson, who had mostly been playing video games, escaped Fort Hood by car. 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 Army's own investigation found "major flaws" at Fort Hood, leading to the firing or suspending of 14 officials. 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. But the only among the victims may be the institution that them all to. The military, Rodriguez said, had known about this but had refused to treat him. Matthew Disney, 20, of Aberdeen, Maryland, were pronounced dead on the scene by emergency medical personnel at the North Carolina military. The soldiers said that Guillens belongings had been found in the arms room, but otherwise she had left no trace. Barely a week later, Private Corlton Chee, 25, died during training. October 14, 2021 Ryan Morgan. 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. That gun safety is a distant concern in a community where the Second Amendment tops the Maslow charts. 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. 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. Joel Leal 12:18 PM, Oct 11, 2022 . The U.S. Army identified a soldier found dead behind his company barracks at Fort Hood last week as 26-year-old Spc. He seemed weird, Rodriguez said. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. Fort Worth (817) 293-8477 Laurel Land Funeral Home and Cemetery 7100 Crowley Road, Fort Worth . 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. Fort Hood is one of 800 United States military bases around the world, the third largest in the country. 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. 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. 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. 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. "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. Agamemnon demonstrates disrespect, vanity, and other lapses in judgment, the result of which is what clinical psychiatrist Jonathan Shay describes as moral injurya (i) betrayal of whats right, (ii) by someone who holds legitimate authority, (iii) in a high stakes situation. Such moral injury deteriorates social trust, which is then replaced by the settled expectancy of harm, exploitation, and humiliation from others, resulting in despair and violence to self and to others. Hood was an unsuccessful battle commander; 400 men of his Texas Brigade died in a single fight, some would argue through incautious direction. Schuette's body was returned to his family "wrapped like a mummy." 2023 Cond Nast. The tributaries that run through Fort Hood flow into the Leon River, where Guillens remains were later found. On August 17, Sergeant Elder Fernandes, 23, disappeared. (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). 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. In 1941, Private Felix Hall was lynched by fellow soldiers, at Fort Benning, Georgia. Maxwell Hockin, 26, was. 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. 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. 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. Soon after, the Temple police, who led the investigation, ruled Fernandes's death a suicide. On April 29, it was Private Joshua Barnwell, 19. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillens other sister Yovana, and Yovanas boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. Guillen confessed that she was being harassed by another soldier. (Ring returned to base of his own accord later that day.). Basic details of the incident kept changing. His mother, Kim, only heard from her son when he needed money. 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. Ever since returning from a deployment to Iraq in February 2019shipped off two months after basic training for a nine-month tourRing had become withdrawn, developed a drinking problem, and had been arrested for drunk driving. Copyright 2023 Echovita Inc. All rights reserved. In 2020 alone, 31. Congress launched an investigation of Fort Hood citing the deaths and other felonies that occurred on the fort between 2014-2019. . The 20-year-old US Army soldier died in a Fort Hood, Texas,. My caution wasn't entirely unfounded. September 10, 2020. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. After the public remonstrations began, Fort Hood launched something it called Operation Phantom Action, a weeklong retreat of sorts that was meant to rebuild trust between soldiers and the leadership. Rodriguez sensed something was off. In death, Guillen has become a kind of patron saint for all those who feel wronged by the U.S. military. Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. First came the British and Germans. They are part of Killeen's population of 151,000, many transient and very young, two thirds of whom have military ties. As publication approached, it stopped responding to emails pertaining to both specific questions about individual cases as well as broader queries about the base.). The numbers are distressing. 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. In death, she is no longer a daughter or a sister or a partner. Creating an obituary on Echovita is free. Casteel had told Rodriguez he was getting away from the abuse.. 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. Jef Rouner. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. Guillen's youngest sister, Lupe, made me promise to stay at the Marriott, a hotel she considered safer than the rest. Thirteen killed themselves. Boots and hat at Vanessa Guillens memorial, Killeen TX, Jeffrey Epsteins Decades-Long Relationship. But then certain details start illuminating the mystery: that one out of three women soldiers have experienced sexual harassment, according to a recent survey. From the age of 18, the only thing I knew how to do was kill people, Ring wrote on the website of his fathers veterans rights organization. Specialist Vanessa Guillens father, Rogelio, wondered if I shouldnt carry a gun. But when Kim called the police, they dismissed her, telling Kim that her son probably just "took off."