Name change not enough at Fort Hood
Changing Fort Hood’s name is not the same as changing a deadly culture. The Army recently acknowledged that two female soldiers at the military base near Killeen died March 13: Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz and Spc. Katerina Weikel. Both deaths are likely suicides and remain under investigation.
Fort Hood is where Spc. Vanessa Guillén was stationed. She was murdered in 2020 after she told her family she had been sexually harassed at the installation in Central Texas.
Basaldua Ruiz also told her family she was sexually harassed. The Army has said “no foul play is evident” in her death.
Meanwhile, it took more than five weeks for a Fort Hood spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Tania Donovan, to confirm Weikel’s death. She said the Army did not disclose it earlier because of the time required to notify next of kin. Given Fort Hood’s history, the public should have been made aware much sooner.
Weikel’s death was reported as an “off-base suicide.” Donovan said officials wanted to honor Weikel’s family and privacy.
“Our priority is the families and soldiers,” she said.
Understood, but there remains a public interest in releasing this information, especially given the history of Fort Hood.
Later this month, the Army post, which is named for John Bell Hood, a Confederate general, is set to be “redesignated” Fort
Cavazos in honor of
Army Gen. Richard Cavazos, a Hispanic officer who served as a battalion commander during the Vietnam War.
Fort Hood is one of nine Army installations being renamed to “remove the names, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo to the Pentagon’s senior leadership in October.
We support the name change, Confederate soldiers rebelled against the U.S. and fought in support of slavery. But a name change shouldn’t be confused with progress in ensuring the installation is a workplace free of harassment and violence.
The death in March of Basaldua Ruiz, 20, of Long Beach, Calif., prompted a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, led by Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to demand a “complete, thorough and impartial” investigation.
This response is all-too familiar given history.
Fort Hood, like other military installations, has been plagued for years with outbreaks of violent crime and suicides, as well as sexual harassment
and sexual assault.
A total of 101 soldiers have died on the post and off it since 2020, Fort Hood officials told the Express-news. Forty-four were suicides.
And, of course, there is the stain of Guillén’s murder. An investigation after Guillén’s death found there was a “permissive environment for sexual assault and sexual harassment at Fort Hood.”
During a Dec. 8, 2020, news conference at the Pentagon, then-secretary of the Army Ryan D. Mccarthy said Guillén’s murder “shocked our conscience and brought attention to deeper problems” at Fort Hood and across the Army.
In response to Guillén’s murder, the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act includes provisions to remove “all prosecutorial authority from the chain of command for sexual harassment, sexual assault and 12 other serious crimes,” according to a statement from Protect Our Defenders.
The NDAA also mandates “independent civilian investigators for all claims of sexual harassment,” random juror selection and notification by the military to sexual assault victims of civilian legal resources.
In September, we wrote how sexual assault is corrosive to the morale and readiness of military units. It hurts recruiting and retention — which, in turn, threatens national security.
Following Basaldua Ruiz’s death, Protect Our Defenders once again called on military leadership to address “command climate and culture” at Fort Hood. The human rights group called for an independent investigation.
We, too, call for an independent investigation, full transparency about soldier deaths at the installation and other steps to ensure reforms are implemented.
Fort Hood officials say the priority is soldiers and their families. History says otherwise.
Sexual harassment and assault can no longer be tolerated the way it has been at Fort Hood for years.
Leaders should turn their attention to changing the culture and ensuring reforms at the Army post