*The Army has announced that 14 senior leaders and enlisted personnel at Fort Hood in Texas have been fired or suspended following an investigation into the toxic culture of violence that includes murders, sexual assaults and suicides.
U.S. officials said Monday that the purge comes in the wake of the disappearance and killing of Spc. Vanessa Guillen.
“I have determined that the issues at Fort Hood are directly related to leadership failures, leaders drive culture and are responsible for everything a unit does or does not happen to do,” Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said at a Pentagon news conference Tuesday.
“I am gravely disappointed that leaders failed to effectively create a climate that treated all soldiers with dignity and respect,” he said, “and have failed to reinforce everyone’s obligation to prevent and properly respond to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
“Because of this — to restore trust and accountability — I have directed the relief and or suspension of commanders and other leaders from the Corps to the squad level,” said McCarthy.
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The Army will fire or suspend a “significant number” of officers and soldiers at Fort Hood after a string of deaths and sexual assaults.
At least 25 soldiers died there this year — including #VanessaGuillen, killed a day before family says she planned to report harassment. pic.twitter.com/AtByJEHs8U
— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 8, 2020
According to investigators, Guillen, 20, was murdered at Fort Hood by Spc. Aaron Robinson, who committed suicide in July as police attempted to arrest him.Â
Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, who was the top military commander at the post when Guillen was killed, has been relieved of duty, as well as the entire command team for his unit, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, the report states.Â
“The tragic death of Vanessa Guillen and a rash of other challenges at Fort Hood forced us to take a critical look at our systems, our policies and ourselves,” McCarthy said.
The independent panel found that the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Program at Fort Hood was “structurally flawed” and “ ineffective, to the extent that there was a permissive environment for sexual assault and sexual harassment.”
The panel also recommended 70 changes be made at the base and throughout the Army.
“This report, without a doubt, will cause the Army to change our culture,” said McCarthy. “This body of work has identified things that we had not seen previously, that’s why we have accepted all of the findings.”
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