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Fort Hood shows higher crime rates than similar Army installations
When the Army’s top civilian leader said Fort Hood has one of the highest rates of murder, sexual assault and harassment in the Army, he was using statistics from the Army’s three largest populated installations, which includes the local post.
“The numbers are high here. They are the highest, the most cases for sexual assault and harassment murders for our entire formation of the U.S. Army,” Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy said during an Aug. 6 news conference at Fort Hood. “So we are getting an outside look to help us to get to those root causes and understand so that we can make those changes with the point of emphasis being that we are going to put every resource and all of the energy we can to this entire institution behind fixing these problems.”
McCarthy visited Fort Hood and Killeen earlier this month to speak with Army leaders, soldiers, local government leaders and nonprofit leaders from groups such as the local NAACP and League of United Latin American Citizens chapters. The visit was in response to the death of Spc. Vanessa Guillen, a 3rd Cavalry Regiment soldier.
The secretary mentioned higher numbers of criminal acts committed on Fort Hood was a comparison with two other large Army installations: Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), in Washington state, said Col. Catherine Wilkinson, spokeswoman for the secretary, by email. The data set he was referring to shows that from 2015 to 2019, Fort Hood had, on average, more violent and non-violent felonies potentially committed (some cases are ongoing) by soldiers when compared to the other two Army posts.
Between 2015 and 2019, Fort Hood averaged 129 violent felonies a year, which included homicides, violent sex crimes, kidnapping, robbery and aggravated assault, Wilkinson said. Fort Bragg averaged 90 per year and JBLM averaged 109 per year.
Non-violent felonies — such as drug crimes, failure to obey general order, desertion, larceny, other sex crimes and drunk driving with personal injury, among others — averaged 940 per year for Fort Hood. Bragg averaged 822 and JBLM 720.
New ID cards being issued for military family members, retirees
The Defense Department began issuing Next Generation Uniformed Services Identification Cards on July 31, 2020, the first time since 1993 that changes to the card have been made.
Michael Sorrento, director of the Defense Manpower Data Center, discussed the new ID cards that are for military family members, retirees and other eligible card holders.
The new ID card transitions the current laminated paper card to much more durable plastic material, similar to that used for the common access cards used by military members and DOD civilians, he said.
Also, the new ID cards feature enhanced security measures that will reduce the likelihood of them being compromised, Sorrento said.
Pentagon IG Taking Long Look at How Military Responds to ‘Active Shooter’ Incidents
The Pentagon’s Inspector General has begun a comprehensive research project on how the military branches’ various law enforcement agencies have responded over the years to active shooter incidents and violence in the workplace on installations.
The brief July 28 announcement by the IG did not state what triggered the project, but recent incidents have raised questions ranging from access to bases and weapons, to the vetting of personnel participating in training programs.
The most troubling of the recent incidents occurred Dec. 6, 2019, at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida when a gunman later identified as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, an aviation student from Saudi Arabia, opened fire in a classroom building.
Using a 9mm Glock handgun and extra magazines, Alshamrani killed three sailors and injured eight others before he was killed by responding deputies from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. The FBI later classified the shootings as a terrorist incident.
Former Army nurse, 100, recalls World War II experiences
WASHINGTON — World War II was raging in 1944. American troops were instrumental in the effort to take back France, including the beach landings in Normandy that caught the Germans off guard. American forces took possession of Rome, and a Soviet counterattack pushed Germany back into Poland.
In the Pacific, Japan had gained more Chinese territory, but the communists’ presence limited Japan’s success. The Allies fought back by taking Saipan and invading the Philippines.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, 24-year-old nurse Regina Benson and three of her nursing school classmates joined the Army Nurse Corps right after graduation to serve their country. They were assigned overseas and remained lifelong friends.
Benson’s three brothers were also serving, so for her, joining the Army as a patriotic duty was not unusual.
“She was kind of fearless,” her daughter, Phyllis Benson, said in a recent interview.