WASHINGTON — The commander of the U.S. Army’s Fort Hood is being removed from his position and will no longer assume command of a division at Fort Bliss, according to a U.S. Army statement released Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt was set to take over the 1st Armored Division soon. Now the Army will announce who will take over the division in the coming days. Division commander is a critical step in an Army general’s career and losing a division can be a career-ending move.

Fort Hood has been plagued by a series of incidents. Two soldiers, including Spc. Vanessa Guillen, have gone missing only to have their bodies discovered later. Soldiers assigned to the base were arrested in a prostitution sting. A number of soldiers have recently died by suicide.

The commanding general of U.S. Forces Command, Gen. Michael Garrett, has directed Maj. Gen. John Richardson IV to assume command at Fort Hood, effective Wednesday. Efflandt will stay on at Fort Hood for the time being, serving as deputy commanding general for support.

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WASHINGTON — Army officials are investigating an anti-Semitic social media post shared Friday by a second lieutenant based at Fort Stewart, Ga., who said he shared it as a joke.

Army officials said Monday that they had suspended 2nd Lt. Nathan Freihofer from his duties and launched an investigation into a post on the controversial TikTok platform by the 23-year-old field artillery officer. In the short video, Freihofer said he would never become a “verified” user because of the content that he shares before telling his so-called joke, which was about the Holocaust and Jewish people.

“If you get offended, get the f— out, because it’s a joke,” he then said in the video. In text alongside the video, he added: “For legal reasons this is a joke.”

Maj. Gen. Tony Aguto, the commander of Fort Stewart’s 3rd Infantry Division, called the remarks shared in the video “vile.”

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United States Army soldiers can no longer use TikTok on government-owned phones following a decision to ban the app. The move comes amidst ongoing worries that the video app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could compromise national security or be used to influence or surveil Americans.

CORONADO (CNS) – Two soldiers were killed and three others were hurt during an Army aircraft training off the coast of San Diego, it was reported Friday.

The incident happened Thursday evening, a U.S. Army public affairs officer confirmed.

FOX 5 news partner San Diego Union-Tribune reports the soldiers were on a Blackhawk helicopter when it crashed on San Clemente Island.

A Defense Department official told the newspaper that the accident involved members of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

An Army public affairs officer said in a statement: “An element of U.S. Army Special Operations Command was conducting routine training in the vicinity of Coronado, California, on August 27, when an aircraft incident occurred. Two Soldiers were killed and three were injured. The area has been secured and an investigation into the incident is underway. More information will be released 24-hours following next of kin notification. Our sincere condolences got out to the families and friends of the deceased. We thank you for not contacting them during this difficult time.”

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The Army now has more four-star generals serving on active duty than the Army and Air Force combined had during World War II.

Army Col. Christopher Coglianese, the chief of Future Operations at Army Futures Command, tweeted this month about the milestone, which the service has only hit once in the past.

“Last time we had that rank density was April 1945, when we had four five-stars and 13 four-stars,” Coglianese said, adding pointing out that at that time the Air Force was known as the U.S. Army Air Force.

In addition to Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Martin, the Army has five four-stars running Army Forces Command, Army Training and Doctrine Command, Army Materiel Command, Army Futures Command and Army Pacific Command.

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