AUSTIN, Texas — Army officials on Tuesday announced the firings and suspensions of 14 Fort Hood leaders following a year of turmoil and violence on post.
U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy announced his decision to fire or suspend the Fort Hood leaders following the release of a civilian investigation that pointed to a toxic command climate on post.
"I determined the failures at Fort Hood are directly related to leadership failures," McCarthy said Tuesday morning. "Leaders drive culture and are responsible for everything the unit does, or does not happen to do.
"I am gravely disappointed that leaders failed to effectively create a climate that treated other soldiers with dignity and respect and failed to reinforce everyone's obligation to respond to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault."
In August, McCarthy appointed five civilians with military backgrounds and legal expertise to begin the investigation, which Army officials more commonly called an independent review.
In late November, McCarthy announced the independent investigation was complete, but said Army leaders would need more time to review its findings and come up with recommendations before it was to be made available to the public.
On Nov. 20, McCarthy released his early takeaways from the report, which he said showed Fort Hood's sexual harassment/assault response and prevention program, also known as SHARP, failed to protect soldiers.
"This report without a doubt will cause the Army to change our culture," McCarthy said Tuesday, adding that the independent investigators suggested a total of 70 changes the Army should make at Fort Hood. "I have decided to accept all of the findings in whole."
As one of the largest U.S. military installations, spanning 218,000 acres across Central Texas, Fort Hood became widely recognized in the past two decades as a staging ground for troops being deployed to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, Fort Hood received negative attention this year after five soldiers died under suspicious circumstances within a few months of each other.
The case of Spc. Vanessa Guillen became especially well known and attracted national attention. President Donald Trump met with her family in July and promised to investigate why Fort Hood soldiers were dying at such an unusually high rate while stateside.
The deaths of two soldiers — Guillen and Sgt. Elder Fernandes — involve allegations of sexual assault, which prompted Army leaders to review their SHARP program as well.
While Army officials say no substantial evidence has proven Guillen was a victim of sexual misconduct on post, they do believe Guillen was killed April 22 while working in a weapons room at Fort Hood.
Army officials identified a fellow Fort Hood soldier, Spc. Aaron Robinson, as a suspect in Guillen's death hours after her remains were located in a nearby county in late June. But Robinson died after shooting himself as local police tried to detain him for questioning, police have said.
Guillen's family maintains, though, that the young soldier was sexually harassed by Robinson and at least one other soldier.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Guillen family and their attorney Natalie Khawam plan to hold their own news conference to discuss the investigation and its findings.
The family's allegations sparked the #IamVanessaGuillen social media movement, in which service members shared their own stories of sexual misconduct in the military. The hashtag encouraged Fernandes to report that he, too, was sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier earlier this year.
Fernandes was found dead after hanging himself in July. The young soldier had endured repeated harassment after reporting the sexual assault, according to his lawyer at the time.
"I am deeply saddened and concerned at the recent news reports of how sexual assault and sexual harassment have plagued our force and brought harm to our soldiers," McCarthy said in his Nov. 20 statement. "This topic has captivated the attention of America and our Army leaders. It is abundantly clear we must do better."
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