Fort Hood Has a Real Problem
When you are a member of the U.S. Armed Forces, you generally don’t have the idea pop into your head that you will die while minding your own business while on a U.S. Military installation. Now, your risk increases some if you are on a military base overseas, and depending on where overseas you are stationed, depends on the level of risk, but generally, you are fairly safe on a base.
Now there are a ton of drunks and sadly sexual assaults and the military really needs to get a grip on those, but this post is about how unsafe you are on one particular U.S. Army base and that is Fort Hood, now Fort Cavazos, as people were offended by the name Hood, as it was the name of a Confederate General John Bell Hood. It looks like renaming the base because people were offended, didn’t help them as far as their safety is concerned. There are nearly 65,000 soldiers and family members onboard the installation.
Fort Hood is located in Killeen, Texas, and in the past couple of years, there has been a large crime wave going on at the base. We are all familiar with the 2009 shooting, where Major Hasan, opened fire and shot 30 soldiers and two civilian police officers killing 13.
In 2011, an AWOL private was found near the base, and when he was apprehended and questioned, he told investigators that he wanted to attack fellow soldiers on the base. At his trial, he said, “I will continue until the day the dead are called to account for their deeds”.
In 2014, there was another shooting spree on the base, where three people were killed and fourteen others were wounded.
From 2014-2023, Sergeant First Class Gregory McQueen was dishonorably discharged in March 2015, having been convicted of organizing a prostitution ring.
In the past two years, at least 39 soldiers from Fort Hood/Cavazos have either disappeared or were found dead, including 13 who committed suicide. And just this week, Spc. Craig Chamberlain went missing and his transgender wife Cameron Chamberlain was found dead.
Call it what you want, but this military installation has a major command culture problem and whatever the Army has done up to this point has not resolved the problems.
Normally in a situation like this, the Pentagon fires the top leadership in the hopes that new leadership will get a better handle on the situation. But when you have a situation like what has been going on for the past 10 or more years on Fort Hood, then you need to do a little more house cleaning, as you obviously have a command culture, where it is permissive to somehow “abuse” the younger soldiers on the base. This means that Commanding Officers, Executive Officers, and Command Sgt Majors or First Sergeants need to go as someone somewhere is aware of what is taking place and allow it to happen. These numbers are not normal for a military installation like this.
When I was in Japan at MCAS Iwakuni, we had a gang problem on base, where dark green Marines (black Marines) had formed a gang and that gang was targeting light green Marines (white Marines). It got to the point, where there was a curfew as well as Marines were ordered to move around the base in groups. I had a part-time job at the base Gym and as the Assistant Manager, I had to close up at night. Several of my buddies would ride their bikes over to the Gym, we would play racquetball or swim and then we would all leave together. When my unit rotated out, the gang still was attacking fellow Marines. Now these types of things don’t happen often, but they do happen.
I have heard stories of prostitution rings, stories of female Marines who whored themselves out, and I have heard of drug rings. However, everyone that I had heard about was quickly broken up and those involved were given the “Big Chicken Dinner” (BCD or Bad Conduct Discharge) and several were tossed into the brig as well.
I hope for the sake of those stationed at Fort Hood/Cavazos, that the Army can get this resolved quickly, but based on their track record, I’m not counting on it.
