Fort Hood commander loses post, denied transfer after incidents at Army base

[Nevilledog]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/fort-hood-commander-loses-post-denied-transfer-after-incidents-army-n1239008

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.

*snip*

[Karadeniz]

1. That place needs help.

[qazplm135]

2. I'm not going to defend him per se, but...

having been stationed there:

1. There are almost 50K soldiers there. To be surprised that a few went missing given point 2 is not really realistic.
2. Killeen has been a high crime area for decades. It was when I was assigned there in the 90s, and it remains so now. Part of that is a ton of young male Soldiers with nothing to distract them (male to female ratio there is about 10 to 1)...bored young men commit crimes. But it's also a prime location for drugs moving north from Mexico to points in the midwest. It's a main thoroughfare so there is a ton of gang activity in the area.

I don't know what the CG was doing or should have been doing or whatnot, so cannot say this was or was not the right move.

But quite frankly, short of barring Soldiers from leaving post which is not a tenable position, what else can you do?

If you have 50K human beings, even if only 1 percent of them commits crimes, that's still 5K criminals at any one time. Add in the gang/drug element and it's just a tough location to keep safe.

[ret5hd]

3. 1% of 50k 500

[qazplm135]

4. ok you got me, point doesn't change

though.

[JonLP24]

5. The military will punish you for someone's else mistake

If a soldier makes a mistake his entire chain of command is chewed out before the soldier is chewed out.

Based on what I know about Fort Hood there seems to be major lacking in standards & professionalism. I was stationed at Fort Lewis-McCord and there are high crime neighborhoods around the base but being murdered or missing is rare. Kileen has high crime but not a very high murder rate.

[qazplm135]

9. Seattle isn't a major drug transport hub

There's a real gang and drug problem in the Killeen area.

I-35 is a drug transport corridor.

Yeah, Seattle has major city crime, but it also has a major city population. It's huge, particularly if you know Tacoma and Seattle are basically one combined city, or at least it certainly seemed that way when I've been there.

2 people murdered out of 45K isn't really a high murder rate either is it?

This is about two national notoriety cases is it not? That happened close in time together.

[JonLP24]

11. I wasn't talking about Seattle

There is a low income neighborhood right outside McChord nicknamed "Chocolate city" (I think after a porn shop) and Hilltop in Tacoma. I-5 does bring a lot of drugs. A lot of Hoover crips moved from the LA area to the Sea-Tac area.

[qazplm135]

13. again

we are talking about 2 murders that has led to this yes?

It's not like there's a rash of dozens of murders in Hood...it's 2. One woman, one man.

[maxrandb]

6. And yet, the largest Navy base in the world, Norfolk VA doesn't have this level of problems

Neither does Naval Air Station Oceana, despite having thousands of 18-20 year old airman.

It's Command Climate, and that comes from the top down.

I bet if you did a Command Climate Survey of that place it's going to read like a skinbook.

It's the commander's responsibility to know what the hell is going on, and the minute he feels he doesn't, it's his responsibility to go "All Stop" and figure it out.

It's the same reason we remove Captains if their ship runs aground or collides with another ship, even if the captain was asleep in his rack at the time.

See, a good command climate would ensure someone woke the captain long before the ship was ever in danger.

[qazplm135]

8. pretty sure Norfolk VA

doesn't have the same crime issues that Killeen does.

I also know for a fact, those crime issues go back DECADES. There has been violent crime in that area going back to at least the early 90s.

How does "command climate" fix that?

[JonLP24]

10. I do know Norfolk & Hampton does have high crime

Looking at stats both cities including Kileen are higher than the national average.

[qazplm135]

12. so let's compare the numbers

US violent crime rate: 22.7
Norfolk: 24.5
Killeen: 30.8 (and nearby Waco is 29.3).

Source: bestplaces.net

Seems like a pretty significant difference yes?

Property crime is worse in Norfolk than Killeen, but that's not really a relevant statistic for this discussion I don't think.

[Chainfire]

7. Unlike the office of the President

Military commanders are held responsible for everything that happens on their watch.