Congress will launch an investigation into sexual assault, disappearances, deaths and leadership response at Fort Hood – as 28 soldiers stationed at the US army base in Texas have died this year, two leaders announced on Tuesday.
Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts and Jackie Speier of California, both Democrats, sent a letter to the army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, requesting documents and information on the deaths. Lynch chairs the oversight subcommittee on national security. Speier leads the armed services subcommittee on military personnel.
According to the letter, the subcommittees will jointly investigate if recent deaths “may be symptomatic of underlying leadership, discipline and morale deficiencies throughout the chain-of-command”.
The letter said that according to army data there were an average of 129 felonies committed annually at Fort Hood between 2014 and 2019, including cases of homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and aggravated assault.
The members of Congress cited the deaths of Spc Vanessa Guillén, who according to federal officials was bludgeoned to death at the Texas base in April by a fellow soldier, and Pvt Gregory Morales, whose remains were found in June during the search for Guillén. Morales was reported missing in August 2019.
The letter also names Pvt Mejhor Morta and Sgt Elder Fernandes, whose deaths are under investigation, and the homicide investigations of Pvt Brandon Scott Rosecrans, Spc Freddy Delacruz Jr and Spc Shelby Tyler Jones.
According to the letter, during an August visit to Texas McCarthy stated that Fort Hood had the “highest, the most cases for sexual assault and harassment and murders for our entire formation of the US army”.
Lynch and Speier said they would report the conditions and circumstances that could have contributed to the soldiers’ deaths and seek justice on behalf of soldiers and families “who may have been failed by a military system and culture that was ultimately responsible for their care and protection”.
The family of Guillén, whose remains were found on 1 July, has rallied from Texas to the doors of the White House calling for a congressional investigation. Natalie Khawam, who represents the Guillén family, said she is thankful Congress has agreed to their demands to investigate.
“Our soldiers and their families deserve the truth,” she said.
The 28th death at Fort Hood this year occurred last week. Pvt Carlton L Chee, 25 and a member of the Navajo Nation, collapsed following a training exercise.
“We are deeply disturbed by the string of deaths at Fort Hood, and if there is any malfeasance or negligence involved, the Navajo Nation calls on our national leaders to pursue every available avenue to protect the lives of our Navajo warriors and those serving in the US armed forces,” the Navajo speaker of the council, Seth Damon, said.
Fort Hood is a sprawling base of nearly 215,000 acres, or 340sq miles, founded in 1942 in mid-Texas, between Austin and Dallas.
It is also one of a number of US military bases named for leaders or generals of the Confederacy, which fought and lost the civil war between 1861 and 1865 in an attempt to maintain slavery.
Amid national pressure to rename such bases, a recent Military Times poll found near-50% support for such moves among service personnel.