Lawmakers to hold hearing on major failings that lead to deaths at Fort Hood

Three months after the Army punished several senior officers following an independent investigation into the climate and culture at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas prompted by the killing of 20-year-old soldier Vanessa Guillen and deaths of several other service members, the investigators who carried out the review will appear before Congress on Tuesday.

Guillen’s remains were found in a shallow grave in July after her disappearance in April of last year. It was later determined she had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer in the armory where she worked, and her body had been moved by her killer who then killed himself before he could be apprehended.

The chairman of the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee Christopher Swecker, two FBI officials who were consultants for the independent review committee, a member of the Army Criminal Investigation Command and Air Force Office of Special Investigations Commander Brig Gen. Terry Bullard will testify in front of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

The murder of Guillen “shocked our conscious and brought attention to deeper problems,” former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said in December.

The Army punished 14 senior officers at the base in December after the investigation’s findings were released. The officers were “relieved or suspended from their positions,” the Army announced at the time. Fort Hood has a population of 60,000, including nearly 37,000 service members.

The issues at Fort Hood are “directly related to leadership failures,” McCarthy said in December.

But punishing 14 senior officers, while an important first step, won’t solve the problems at Fort Hood, the investigation suggested. The Fort Hood Independent Review Committee found “a deficient climate” at the base, including “ineffective implementation of the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program that resulted in a pervasive lack of confidence, fear of retaliation, and significant underreporting of cases, particularly within the enlisted ranks,” according to the Pentagon.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has repeatedly said since being sworn into his new position that tackling the issue of sexual assault and harassment within the military is a key priority of his.

“The job of the Department of Defense is to keep America safe from our enemies. But we can’t do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks,” Austin said at his confirmation hearing.

He established a 90-day commission to pursue solutions to sexual assault in the military in his first directive as Secretary of Defense in January, at the direction of President Joe Biden. He has also ordered an urgent review to be carried out in order to determine which US military installations and units are “high-risk” for service members becoming victims of sexual harassment and assault.

“President Biden has ordered a 90-day commission to pursue solutions to sexual assault in the military. We will aggressively support that effort. But I do not want to wait 90 days to take action,” Austin wrote in a memo in January. “This is a leadership issue. We will lead.”

The Fort Hood independent review found issues with how leadership handled sexual assault and harassment complaints and how they failed to take steps to keep soldiers on the base safe.

“During the review period, no Commanding General or subordinate echelon commander chose to intervene proactively and mitigate known risks of high crime, sexual assault and sexual harassment,” the report said.