He also wanted an education, and joining the Army he knew he could take care of all of that, his sister Carma Johnson says. "He seemed weird," Rodriguez said. Fernandes was dropped off at his friend's house the next day, August 17, never to be seen again. The U.S. Army on Tuesday announced the removal . Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. Search Fort Hood obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. Hazel Buck Blackwell, whose family lost their farm, homestead, barns, orchards, and adjoining land when the base took over, said the closest thing might be the unexpected death of someone you loved very much. It was a heartrending, searing experience, central Texas historian GraDelle Duncan said, leaving lifetime marks on all, and actually killing some from the psychic devastation that followed. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. Frantic, she called around, to no avail. The police too told Ailina that Fernandes was an adult and that they would not report him as missing. 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. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. "I felt a bad vibe there," Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. And how well will that look on your rsum?, Im 21 now, and let me tell you. 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The shakeup comes after after a series of suspicious deaths and disappearances that have plagued Fort Hood. Escorts should be arranged in advance to allow for coordination with the organization receiving coverage. So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. Basic details of the incident kept changing. 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. 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. "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? These figures eclipse American casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same year. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. 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. Curiously, a few hours after the officers picked up Casteel, he went silent online. Had one of them stood in for Guillen during roll call? There had been a few people, then it was a group run of 11. Fort Hood was founded in January 1942 as a training ground for tank destroyers, selected for its varied terrain. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers vanished or died, including 13. The deaths were caused by varying reasons -- gunshots, car accidents and illnesses and all the deaths were under probe. 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. Rodriguez disputes this claim. I am astounded nobody is interested, the Fernandes family lawyer Lenny Kesten told me. As distressing as the remains in shallow graves or the missing hyoid bone is the fatalism from soldiers and locals alike. ", "I'm 21 now, and let me tell you. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers died or went missing. Had one of them stood in for Guillen during roll call? Even then, it was she who had to scare up the $3,500 in bail money, and after Fort Hood sent two officers to pick up Casteel, officials refused to share information with Rodriguez. Fort Hood is one of 800 United States military bases around the world, the third largest in the country. The 20-year-old US Army soldier died in a Fort Hood, Texas,. 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. In 2009, Nidal Hasan was an Army major when he killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others in a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. 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. Texas as of 9 July 2021; some devices had already been sold and shipped. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. In fact, Casteel had been convinced that CIA agents were attacking him since last June. Guillens superior confirmed she was missing. 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. Lenz's mother, Margie Taylor, said her son loved children and looked forward to having a family of his own one day. -. He wondered if it was something he had eaten and carried on with his shift. 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. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. 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. 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. (He was found a day later.) He got home around 2 p.m. and told his wife, Gloria, about the unusual aches. Who were the soldiers who had testified to seeing Guillen leave the arms room the day she disappeared? Green Beret training death special forces training soldier dies in training army training . Ive lost brothers and sisters in arms, a marriage, Ive lost family, Ive lost friendships that were supposed to be forever. Five were murdered. My caution wasn't entirely unfounded. If he killed himself, dont they want to know why?. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. American military bases, once established, seldom shutter, and Fort Hood, which started operating during World War II, has remained open for business, its 218,000 acres spreading across two counties in central Texas near an otherwise unremarkable town called Killeen. 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. In 2020 alone, 31. The U.S. Army identified a soldier found dead behind his company barracks at Fort Hood last week as 26-year-old Spc. (Among 1.29 million members of the U.S. military, 65,000 are immigrants, according to The Washington Post.) Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. 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. 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. 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. 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. Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. Congress launched an investigation of Fort Hood citing the deaths and other felonies that occurred on the fort between 2014-2019. . 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. Fifty six . In fact, Casteel had been convinced that CIA agents were attacking him since last June. . Nelda Lee Edwards. There had been a few people, then it was a group run of 11. = Link to a nongovernmental site. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. Because what the military asks of its men and women is so antisocial, it must co-opt the rhetoric of the family. All are former soldiers. Site Gregory Wedel-Morales' remains were found in Killeen, Texas. 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. The numbers are distressing. There were no Black residents in town until the early 1950s. 6 min read. 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. On June 30, a construction crew found shallow graves containing human remains that belonged to Guillen. ", 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. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. The base saw 26 . Jennifer Anthony Lovells sister, Temple Tx. 60.2 (births per 1,000 women 15-44 years of age) Teen Birth Rate. But when Kim called the police, they dismissed her, telling Kim that her son probably just took off. (Killeen Police stated they have no knowledge of anyone declining to investigate.) Maxwell Hockin, was found dead outside his company barracks on Saturday, October 9. (Fort Hood refused all official interview requests for this story, citing ongoing investigations. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. 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. That psychological trauma among veterans vastly exceeds physical wounds. Echovita Inc is a registered trademark. A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. 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 cars"knew to pull down their window shades to avoid a pelting with rocks by locals. Thirteen killed themselves. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. 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. Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Fort Worth (817) 293-8477 Laurel Land Funeral Home and Cemetery 7100 Crowley Road, Fort Worth . He also wanted an education, and "joining the Army he knew he could take care of all of that," his sister Carma Johnson says. There, Wedel-Moraless remains had been found, long ago decomposed in the Texas heat. His mother, Kim, only heard from her son when he needed money. Rodriguez sensed something was off. 5.2 (infant deaths per 1,000 live births) Life Expectancy (at Birth) 76.5 years (2020) Marriage Rate. 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. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. Fuck Biden, Dont Tread on Me, and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times. Fort Hood informed Rodriguez that he had asked for this. Vanessa Guillen. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. 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. The sense of dehumanizing alienation soldiers complained about was not a symptom of a malfunctioning system, it was its original design. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillen's other sister Yovana, and Yovana's boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. October 14, 2021 Ryan Morgan. I have sponsored a a Change.org listing advocating renaming the post after Oveta . 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. Martinez joined the Army in April 2018 as a cannoneer, according to base officials. The stories are gruesome, then heartbreaking, then beyond belief. ", Several days later, Rodriguez learned that Casteel had been committed to a hospital on base. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. The corpse had been dead for a while, though it was impossible to determine exactly how long. He had also gotten married without telling his family, been evicted from his apartment, and stopped showing up to work. Courtesy | Margie Taylor Spc.. More than 90 lawmakers earlier this month called for an independent review of how the Army handled the disappearance of Spc. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. That most soldiers enlist when they are still teenagers, their yet-unformed minds taught to kill. 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. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims'. 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. 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. He died in 1879, leaving a troubled legacy that is only now beginning to be questioned. Sgt. 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. Thomas Berg, whose son Private Brandon Rosecranss Jeep was found burning in May, told me not to go out after dark. He died the evening of September 2. Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home 1615 South Fort Hood Road, Killeen (254) 634-2638 . 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. 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. "As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will call you. You can find Osama bin Laden, but you cant find a soldier that went missing on your own base? Guillens youngest sister, Lupe, says. 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. 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. October 13, 2021 04:48 PM. In death, she is no longer a daughter or a sister or a partner. May Jeong has written an in-depth analysis of the rash of unexplained deaths at Fort Hood. Fort Hood is the Army's premier installation to train and deploy heavy forces. After he returned to Fort Hood, Rodriguez managed to get Casteel on a video call. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. The story appears in the July/August 2021 issue of Vanity Fair.I enthusiastically recommend this article. 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. Creating an obituary on Echovita is free. It was also an ancient Comanche Native American burial ground, discovered when construction workers unearthed more than 2,200 grave sites in 1998. Chris and Moses friends of Gregory Wedel-Morales at the site of his remains, Killeen TX. (On July 14,2020, a federal grand injury indicted Aguilar on one count of conspiracy and two counts of tampering with evidence. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Later, Robinson would tell investigators that Guillen completed her task and exited the building. 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. 20, 2021 FORT HOOD, Texas The death of Spc. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). In other battles, having lost the use of his arm and later a leg, Hood had to be strapped to a horse for combat. I've even lost myself." Fort Hood has come under serious fire in recent years, as the incident follows the heartbreaking death of Vanessa Guilln. 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. The day after Guillen disappeared, Private Gavin Chambers, 21, died on base. The family began posting online about Guillen's disappearance and distributing "Missing" fliers.
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