Army officials reveal new details in Vanessa Guillen case

SFC (Join to see) you are absolutely correct! This is nothing new to Fort Hood.

SSG Robert Ricci - I'm not just talking about HER death - there's been all kinds of shit going on at Hood for decades.

I have seen people comment on here that there were things going on in the 70s, 80s etc.

Five years ago, the base SARC was arrested for running a prostitution ring.

Apparently, someone who was stationed there told me the last 3 NCOs at reception were running a prostitution ring.

Soldiers are consistently involved with gang activity, drug trafficking and sex trafficking.

I know those things can happen anywhere - but compared to other bases Hood has a higher rate of these things. The only base that comes close in deaths to Hood is Bragg in the last year. They've had 24 with 9 of those suicides. That should be looked into as well.

I never said cases should be solved in an hour. I know that's not how it works. It says in there he was detained with an unarmed escort - really? And he got to keep his phone? That to me seems pretty damn ridiculous.

Then look at the SGT who just died by suicide after being sexually assaulted AND he reported it AND he was hazed and bullied not just in his first unit but then in the unit that he was moved to.

All this stuff has been happening under that CG's watch - and prior CG's as well.

I remember hearing about several years ago the base CSM got a DUI at the gate - nothing came of it.

Then I hear about how most units have a toxic climate.

I posted this article - but her case is just one in a multitude of cases at Hood. I doubt anything will change after the IG investigation but it should.

SFC (Join to see) Having been stationed at Fort Hood as a military policeman and investigator I understand what you're saying. I do have to be honest though when I say that when you refer to the number of deaths at Fort Hood your evaluation of them is incorrect.

The vast majority of them have occurred off-post with no connection to activities on post. That's not to say that there's no connection because there could be. Things like a service member that went out to Harker Heights, which you're probably not familiar with, to sell a gun to an individual got into an argument with him over the price and ended up getting killed with his own gun. They found his body 300 feet away from his burnt out Jeep. That had nothing to do with Fort Hood. Two SM's were killed in a traffic collision in Austin 60 miles away. That was completely unrelated to Fort Hood except that they were stationed there. A drowning at Lake Belton was not Army related. Sadly, it was just a drowning. My last year there I handled 8 drownings. Another drowning occurred off post at Stillhouse Hollow Lake. The soldier that just died doing PT is said to have been out the night before drinking heavily and I'm going to speculate that as a new private he did know how to hold his liquor yet and do PT first thing in the morning. That one I do think an NCO during formation should have noticed it maybe he wasn't altogether. It's hard to say because according to some person not even a relative, a doctor told him that he died of cerebral edema massive swelling of the brain. Except that a doctor is prevented by HIPAA from telling a non-family member the cause of death. CID hasn't even investigated it. I can't tell you however that cerebral edema can be a side effect of an alcohol overdose. I had my share of those as well. We had a SM in the middle of a four-lane highway naked as a jaybird running in circles one night. The helicopter was overhead with a spotlight on him and he was freaking out because he thought the aliens were coming to take him away. I know it sounds funny but it was sad at the same time.

My point is not to chip away at your points but rather to bring perspective to them. Unless one analyzes each death we can't come to an appropriate conclusion. Such as a soldier that was found unresponsive in his on post housing. There were no signs of foul play. No further information was indicated so we don't know if it was a suicide or a drug overdose. Or if he had a medical condition. We don't know. There have been six homicides on post but here's the main point.

Fort Hood is being highlighted in the media. It's rate of deaths and crime rate are no higher than those of Fort Stewart, Fort Bragg, or Fort Benning. You may also add to that Joint Base Lewis-McChord. There were 10.33 crimes for every 1,000 soldiers based at Lewis-McChord, compared with the Armywide rate of 12.81.

When you have such large populations that swelled a 200,000 people a day stuff's going to happen. Fort Hood is larger than the County of Los Angeles! Population-wise there are 49,000 service members, plus dependents, plus civilian workers during the day. 8 of those that died where the result of traffic accidents. Does that mean they need heavier traffic enforcement? Quite possibly. Do they need heavier fines for traffic violations? Quite possibly if they are the cause of the traffic collisions. Since I started as a traffic investigator there I'm familiar with the layout. Otherwise I don't know because I haven't seen the statistics or the reports indicating what the issue was, such as excessive speed.

This will die down when the media lets go of it. Right now there are liberals in the media that are trying to make this a racial issue but there is no evidence that race has anything to do with it.

Yes, prostitution rings are common. I didn't know the SARC representative was running a ring and that's just downright disgusting. But as I keep saying, it's an all-volunteer military that lets people in from all over the country. Each of these service members comes with their own background and their own morality and their own ethics. Just because you put a uniform on a criminal does not suddenly make them a model citizen. You know what I mean?

Your points are well taken though. Fort Hood has always been a tough post. It's my understanding that the gang issue is getting progressively worse and involving the juvenile dependents. DOD police assist the military police and I would be interested in seeing what kind of gang Outreach programs they have - or don't have. But these issues are not specific to just Fort Hood. I can't stress enough that it is a systemic issue in the military in general. This is not just an army issue. For female Marines, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, MCAS Beaufort, MCAS New River and USMC Mobile, 3rd Marine Logistics Group were reported to have the highest risk of sexual assault.

Thank you for an excellent discussion.

I too was assigned to Ft Hood, Tx from 92-96, while there I was a Traffic Accident Investigator. I was there when the entire post was wide open, no gates anywhere and as an MP and investigator you never knew what was gonna happen on any given day or night. That is what I loved about Hood. As an MP making traffic stops I have found drugs, weapons, ect. The points you made are clear and I completly agree with everything you said and pointed out. There is no way the acting post commander or anyone involved in this investigation had a "Fubar" moment. I suspect that he was relielived and replaced for political reasons.