Within days of arriving at Fort Hood, Chee's clothes were stolen. 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. 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. 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. 6 min read. SHARE. Thomas Berg, whose son Private Brandon Rosecrans's Jeep was found burning in May, told me not to go out after dark. But then certain details start illuminating the mystery: that one out of three women soldiers have experienced sexual harassment, according to a recent survey. On the night of August 19, Wedel-Morales went out to Club Fuego, located in a desolate strip mall about 10 miles east of Fort Hood. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. 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. These figures eclipse American casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same year. Thomas Berg, whose son Private Brandon Rosecranss Jeep was found burning in May, told me not to go out after dark. 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. Basic details of the incident kept changing. = Link to a nongovernmental site. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. 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. After 8 p.m., Guillen's sister Mayra called the base. The stories are gruesome, then heartbreaking, then beyond belief. Joshua Diamond, 35, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Pfc. His body was found nearly a month later, two miles from the barracks. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. 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. Five were murdered. A few days later, they spoke again, for the last time. She has become that complicated, indelible thing: a hero. Green Beret training death special forces training soldier dies in training army training . 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. 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. She filled out the paperwork that is the lifeblood of the Army before heading toward the arms room, a few paces away. Shelby Tyler Jones, 20, was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound at 3:45 a.m. Sunday, March 1, 2020, outside of a convenience store on Fort Hood Street. 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. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. On August 17, Sergeant Elder Fernandes, 23, disappeared. 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. Highway renamed & dedicated to late Fort Hood soldier . Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. 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. "I am astounded nobody is interested," the Fernandes family lawyer Lenny Kesten told me. = Link to a CAC-required sites . Dominic Criqui, who served in Vanessa Guillen's unit, says that the training had come to feel "stupid" and "pointless." 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 Schuette's own blood, and Schuette was found with nine stab wounds across his body, including his forearm and his left hand. (Marine Lance Corporal Riley Schultz's death on March 15, 2019, at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, was also ruled a suicide, despite his hyoid being broken. 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. 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 she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. There, Wedel-Morales's remains had been found, long ago decomposed in the Texas heat. They married in May 2017, and he took her name with hyphenation. On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. 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. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. And yet: The data is not really out of the ordinary for U.S. military bases. 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. All are former soldiers. 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. Soon after, the Temple police, who led the investigation, ruled Fernandess death a suicide. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who "did not like him." 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. 1st Class Calvin T. Rockward, 38, died during physical training Oct. 27, 2021. . Last December, an internal investigation found that Fort Hoods culture, environment, and leadership resulted in women feeling vulnerable and preyed upon, with no reliable recourse for their very real sense of duress. FORT HOOD, Texas - Fort Hood officials say they do not suspect foul play in the death of 26-year-old SPC Maxwell Hockin. The ancient Greeks wrote epic poems on the subject, the most famous of which is the Iliad. Fort Worth (817) 293-8477 Laurel Land Funeral Home and Cemetery 7100 Crowley Road, Fort Worth . Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home 1615 South Fort Hood Road, Killeen (254) 634-2638 . (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) I will tell you everything, he told his mother. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. 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 asks, then answers. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. Family of Fort Hood soldier demands answers after military refuses to release report on his death Chase Lawrence 4 April 2021 Seventeen months have passed since Private First Class (PFC). 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. 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. Their minds both turned to Vanessa, whose hourly texts to family members had gone silent. "And how well will that look on your resume? Fort Hood announced that Stump had crashed his car while driving under the influence, though a toxicology report proved inconclusive. That is the opposite of what hes been consistently saying.. Guillen confessed that she was being harassed by another soldier. Frantic, she called around, to no avail. 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. (Fort Hood contributed nearly $30 billion to the Texas economy in 2019, according to the Texas comptroller's office.). On April 29, it was Private Joshua Barnwell, 19. 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. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who did not like him. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. Five were murdered. 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. Then they tried burning the body. They are part of Killeen's population of 151,000, many transient and very young, two thirds of whom have military ties. The family began posting online about Guillens disappearance and distributing Missing fliers. (On July 14,2020, a federal grand injury indicted Aguilar on one count of conspiracy and two counts of tampering with evidence. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims'. 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 ancient Greeks wrote epic poems on the subject, the most famous of which is the Iliad. How had he managed to escapeand where had he gotten his gun? I felt a bad vibe there, Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. 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. I will tell you everything. Fernandes was dropped off at his friends house the next day, August 17, never to be seen again. ", 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. She is now for the movement.. September 10, 2020. Amarillo - see the Potter County section below Arlington - see the Tarrant County section below But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. 16 Apr 2021 Military.com | By Matthew Cox The Army 's People First Task Force on Friday unveiled sweeping actions underway to transform the service's sexual harassment and assault prevention. When Ailina offered the Fort Hood authorities the contents of her son's car, including a laptop, iPad, and external hard drive, they declined to investigate further. At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. 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. Guillen's youngest sister, Lupe, says. 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. Hockin was found dead behind his company barracks. On May 19, military investigators went through Robinson's phone and learned that he had called his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, multiple times on the night of April 22, as late as 3:30 a.m., from a town 20 miles east of Fort Hooddespite his claim he had been with Aguilar that night. Fort Hood hurriedly put up a $25,000 reward for Wedel-Morales as well. 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. Spc. 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 Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. Fort Hood hurriedly put up a $25,000 reward for Wedel-Morales as well. By. Later came Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese, who still run sushi and pho restaurants in Killeen. 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. Oct 13, 2021 An official Army photo of Spc. 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. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. 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. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. 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,. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. The soldiers said that Guillens belongings had been found in the arms room, but otherwise she had left no trace. During the day, though, it was still hot enough that if you dropped a beer bottle, the contents appeared to dry on contact. "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. "She doesn't belong to the Army anymore," AnaLuisa Tapia, a local organizer, told me. Maxwell Hockin, 26, was. Fort Hood officials confirmed Monday that Martinez and Mosley were assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. 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 sergeant from Guillen's division called it "mandatory fun days." In 1941, Private Felix Hall was lynched by fellow soldiers, at Fort Benning, Georgia. 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. The plan, Wedel-Morales told anyone who would listen, was to use the G.I. The area, east of Killeen, was built on 109,000 acres of high bluffs, ridges, sharp slopes, and mesa-like hills covered with mesquite and chaparral. 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. 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. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. For nothing.. Rodriguez sensed something was off. The 2020 numbers add to ongoing mysteries, including a 2016 case . Toxic leadership is nothing new. Guilln's death triggered a social media movement of former and current military service people speaking out about sexual assault and harassment on the base. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt. 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. (The person who called in with the tip declined to collect the reward. Those remains, it turned out, belonged to yet another soldier, Private Gregory Wedel-Morales, who had gone missing the previous summer. Fertility Rate. 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. There had been a few people, then it was a group run of 11. Nelda Lee Edwards. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete. It rained that night, and the drive, which should have taken three hours, was slow going. 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. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. By then Wedel-Morales had grown distant from his family in Oklahoma, who had not been told of the marriage. More than 2,200 trials over land rights commenced. All rights reserved. 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. In death, Guillen has become a kind of patron saint for all those who feel wronged by the U.S. military. In death, she is no longer a daughter or a sister or a partner. THE MURDERS AT FORT HOOD Remains of soldiers have been turning up around the Texas military base with terrifying frequency. 20, 2021 FORT HOOD, Texas The death of Spc. 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. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. In a press statement, Fort Hood officials said Hockin, 26, was initially found unresponsive outside of the barracks and was subsequently pronounced dead.
fort hood deaths 2021 list
