Following what seemed to be a pattern of violent crimes, among them the murder of Vanessa Guillen, an independent investigative panel began looking into abuse allegations at Texas’ Fort Hood Army base. So far, the investigation has led to 14 soldiers being fired or suspended, with the panel calling the command structure “permissive” of sexual assault.”

Army officials have publicly stated that 14 leaders have been either relieved of their duties or suspended following an in-depth five-month long investigation into Fort Hood Army base. The investigation itself was sparked by the disappearance and murder of Specialist Vanessa Guillen as well as the multiple other cases of assault, sexual harassment, and suicide. Vanessa Guillen was murdered by a soldier at the same base back in April, yet she was missing for around two months before her remains were discovered.

The investigation says that the base has created an environment where the health and wellbeing of soldiers is not a priority to authorities, especially when it came to the circumstances of female soldiers. Evidence of such comes in a 150-page report released on Tuesday, following a year of suspicious and devastating deaths at the base in Central Texas.

Among the 14 officials who were fired is Major General Scott L. Efflandt; Efflandt was in charge of the base in April of this year when Vanessa Guillen first went missing. Col. Ralph Overland and Command Sgt. Maj. Bradley Knapp, also two high-ranking officials at the time of Guillen’s disappearance, were also relieved. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Broadwater and Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas C. Kenny have been suspended as investigations into “command climate” and responses to sexual harassment are still underway.

The Army has also created a separate investigation into the policies, procedures, and resources of the 6th Military Police Group, the faction of the Criminal Investigation Command that looks into felonies at Fort Hood. The multiple probes are an attempt to evaluate the command climate and culture at Fort Hood, launched by Ryan D. McCarthy, Secretary of the Army, following heightened pressure from Congress, activists, and Guillen’s family.

Authorities in the Army have since announced that in response to the findings of this investigation, there is now a new policy to be implemented regarding missing soldiers. They have also created a new group responsible for inspecting any problems discovered in Fort Hood and assuring the fulfillment of Army policy.

The details of this new policy are as follows: a new status under the name “absent-unknown” will be added and used for tagging missing soldiers within the first 48 hours of their disappearance, meaning that soldiers will no longer be considered AWOL (absent without leave) until commanders verify that the absence is voluntary. If it becomes evident that the absence is unwilling, then commanders will proceed to tag the person as “missing” and dispatch a liaison officer responsible for updating the soldier’s family while personnel continues to locate the missing soldier.

Between the years 2014 and 2019, approximately 129 felonies were committed every year at Fort Hood, ranging from murder, to kidnapping, to sexual assault. McCarthy said in a press briefing back in August that Fort Hood had “the most cases for sexual assault and harassment and murders for our entire formation of the United States Army.”

Five civilians formed the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee and gave way to an extensive investigation into the culture of the base, carrying out over 2,500 interviews and assembling continued community meetings. With this effort, the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee was able to produce a massive report with nine major findings, 70 recommendations, and more.

The 150+ page report claims that the command environment at Fort Hood was “ineffective, to the extent that there was a permissive environment for sexual assault and sexual harassment.” It also said that there were numerous grave inconsistencies in the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program, with there being “strong evidence” that suggests sexual assault is underreported at the base. The prevention program is said t have structural flaws and an adjudication process that “degrades confidence.”

In an example of how they considered that little effort is made to check whether an absent soldier is missing under suspicious circumstances, the report included the case of a soldier that was reported AWOL on August 30, 2016. They were then declared a deserter on September 27, 2016, and finally found dead on October 6, 2016. This prompted the investigators to say that Fort Hood’s protocols were “inadequate to account for, to safeguard and to determine the whereabouts of missing soldiers in the hours immediately after they went missing.”

The report details how emergency officials did not proceed to conduct preliminary investigations until after 24 hours have passed since a soldier’s disappearance, something that is consistent with the case of Vanessa Guillen. Responders were late to Guillen’s case, even though there were multiple indications that her disappearance occurred under suspicious circumstances.

Following the list of findings, the committee went on to recommend dozens of ways for the Army to better the climate within Fort Hood, among them restructuring the program designed to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and assault, and also providing its workforce with the necessary resources to do so. It also said that officers in command should conduct regular welfare checks to ensure the health and safety of their soldiers, as well as urging officials to do more in the “critical first 24 hours” of a soldier’s disappearance.

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