Courtesy | Margie Taylor Spc.. ", Several days later, Rodriguez learned that Casteel had been committed to a hospital on base. Why had it taken forensics 72 days to conduct a search of the arms room? The figures coming out of the deaths at Fort Hood are depressing, as reported in Vanity Fair. Fernandes's family told me they have never been interviewed. The numbers are distressing. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete. 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. And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Vanessa Guilln, who was missing for about two months before her remains were found. 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. FORT HOOD, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - U.S. Army officials at Fort Hood have identified the soldier who was found dead Saturday, Oct. 13 behind his company barracks. Guillen confessed that she was being harassed by another soldier. On November 5, 2009, 13 people are killed and more than 30 others are wounded, nearly all of them unarmed soldiers, when a U.S. Army officer goes on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in central. Creating an obituary on Echovita is free. After 8 p.m., Guillen's sister Mayra called the base. Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. We believe that Every Life has a Story which should be told and preserved. During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. The Army's own investigation found "major flaws" at Fort Hood, leading to the firing or suspending of 14 officials. Had one of them stood in for Guillen during roll call? Then they tried burning the body. Five were murdered. The 20-year-old US Army soldier died in a Fort Hood, Texas,. 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. March 2, 2023 (86 years old) 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. These figures eclipse American casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same year. 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. It's possible. In other battles, having lost the use of his arm and later a leg, Hood had to be strapped to a horse for combat. There, Wedel-Morales's remains had been found, long ago decomposed in the Texas heat. Guillen's youngest sister, Lupe, says. Rosecrans, shot four times, was found three miles from his vehicle. Their minds both turned to Vanessa, whose hourly texts to family members had gone silent. SHARE. When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. In a press statement, Fort Hood officials said Hockin, 26, was initially found unresponsive outside of the barracks and was subsequently pronounced dead. Because what the military asks of its men and women is so antisocial, it must co-opt the rhetoric of the family. 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. The tributaries that run through Fort Hood flow into the Leon River, where Guillen's remains were later found. 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. Sergeant Brad Reynolds, 37, killed himself on May 16. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillen's other sister Yovana, and Yovana's boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. He died the evening of September 2. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. Search Fort Hood obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. Namely, the military. Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. 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. I will tell you everything." Fernandess family told me they have never been interviewed. 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. (He was found a day later.) 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. PUBLISHED 10:53 AM CT Mar. "None of the messages added up, nor were they how he usually speaks to me," Rodriguez told me. Later came Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese, who still run sushi and pho restaurants in Killeen. Namely, the military. Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. Why hadnt the arms room been treated like the crime scene it was? 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. A sergeant from Guillen's division called it "mandatory fun days." (Among 1.29 million members of the U.S. military, 65,000 are immigrants, according to The Washington Post.) In death, Guillen has become a kind of patron saint for all those who feel wronged by the U.S. military. 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. The day after Guillen disappeared, Private Gavin Chambers, 21, died on base. There she encountered Specialist Aaron Robinson, also 20 years old but a rank above. Barely a week later, Private Corlton Chee, 25, died during training. They are part of Killeen's population of 151,000, many transient and very young, two thirds of whom have military ties. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who "did not like him." 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The search party arrived at Fort Hood at 3 a.m. Guillens staff sergeant told the group to come back in the morning. Fort Hood is the Army's premier installation to train and deploy heavy forces. 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. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. Despite 10,000 hours of investigation and 300 interviews, much about Guillens death remained a mystery. Memorial that now stands at the site Vanessa Guillen's remains were found in Killen, Texas. She doesnt belong to the Army anymore, AnaLuisa Tapia, a local organizer, told me. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. 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. You can click this link to create an obituary. (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. Eventually Fernandes rang from the Army hospital. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. fort hood training calendar 2023 Ozempic (semaglutide) is a once-weekly injection that is FDA approved for use by adults with type 2 diabetes to control their blood sugar levels. Women, who make up 17 percent of active-duty military, were doubly bereft, and the case files were awash with stories of the dead. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. A few days later, so did 21-year-old Specialist Trey Ring. 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. 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. The deaths were caused by varying reasons -- gunshots, car accidents and illnesses and all the deaths were under probe. Boots and hat at Vanessa Guillens memorial, Killeen TX, Jeffrey Epsteins Decades-Long Relationship. Fernandes wouldnt share much, nothing about what had caused him to be hospitalized, and said that he was using an insecure base hospital line. 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. (There was also literal toxicity on base in that some of the mold-infested barracks where soldiers lived were technically condemned, according to Maureen Elliott, a military spouse and a housing advocate.). A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. Maxwell Hockin, the Central . Rodriguez sensed something was off. 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. Martinez joined the Army in April 2018 as a cannoneer, according to base officials. A few days later, so did 21-year-old Specialist Trey Ring. Robinson himself left soon thereafter, he would testify, to spend the night off post with his girlfriend. Jef Rouner. 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. Specialist Vanessa Guillens father, Rogelio, wondered if I shouldnt carry a gun. During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, . Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). The new family, like more than 70 percent of all Fort Hood service members, lived off post, but after two dead bodies were found on their street, they moved into base housing. Mayra wept during the journey, already fearing the worst. 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. I played a small role in the story by providing some background information on Confederate General John Bell Hood.. "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. Those remains, it turned out, belonged to yet another soldier, Private Gregory Wedel-Morales, who had gone missing the previous summer. 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? The military, Rodriguez said, had known about this but had refused to treat him. Within days of arriving at Fort Hood, Chee's clothes were stolen. (Penny says they met online.) Fort Hood Weather. Fort Hood informed Rodriguez that he had asked for this. As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will call you. The very next day, a Fort Hood investigation concluded that Fernandes's charges of sexual assault were unsubstantiated.