welcome to it's a crime i'm linda and today we're going to be doing an
update on fort hood looks like the base is cleaning house and it's about darn time
but before i get into it if you'd like to be part of the it's a crime community
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since july 30th 2020 there was an independent review committee put in place that was to review
the culture and the climate at fort hood from that came a 136 page report of their findings and a few
days ago on tuesday december 8th there was a press conference held at the pentagon the army secretary
ryan mccarthy announced that the failures in leadership led to the ongoing issues at fort hood
here's a look over the course of 103 days the panel surveyed 31 612 soldiers
interviewed 647 soldiers and met with civic and elected leaders
local law enforcement leaders and the local district attorneys on november 9
the panel briefed the army senior leaders and provided nine findings and 70 recommendations
the findings of the committee identified major flaws with sexual harassment
and assault response prevention program from implementation reporting and adjudication
fundamental issues with fort hood criminal investigation command field office activities
that led to unaddressed problems on fort hood and finally a command climate at fort hood
that was permissive of sexual harassment and sexual assault further the committee made 70
recommendations to improve the following areas overall sharp program structure
fort hood criminal investigation field office command activities
army missing soldier protocols fort hood crime prevention and response activities
army wide command climate issues and fort hood public affairs activities
the tragic death of vanessa gian and a rash of other challenges at fort hood
forced us to take a critical look at our systems our policies and ourselves
but without leadership systems don't matter this is not about metrics but
about possessing the ability to have the human decency to show compassion for our teammates
and to look out for the best interests of our soldiers this report without a doubt
will cause the army to change our culture i have decided to accept all these findings in whole
in response we have created the people first task force to map out a plan to tackle them
we have formed a mechanism to ensure we have the right systems and resources while
focusing on commitment over compliance while the independent review focused on the command climate
and culture at fort hood the findings contain the committee's report impact the entire army
of more than one million soldiers 247 000 civilians and their families
the people first task force will analyze the findings and 70 recommendations in the report
develop a plan to address the issues identified by the committee
and re-evaluate current policy and programs the army will begin implementation by march
now one of the policies that will be implemented is the policy on missing soldiers
how commanders will deal with missing soldiers a 48-hour implementation where they list
soldiers as absent unknown and they will do everything they can to locate these soldiers
and determine if their absence is voluntary or not before declaring them awol or absent without leave
i've also signed a new missing soldier policy the policy will assist in tracking and finding
missing soldiers it clarifies expectations and responsibilities of unit commanders
and law enforcement authorities focusing on the first 48 hours a soldier is missing
it creates new processes for soldiers reporting to duty status and casualty status
for supporting missing soldiers families and aids in identifying whether the absence is
voluntary before calling it absent without leave in this report it also stated that there were 503
out of 647 soldiers interviewed that were women 93 had credible accounts of sexual assault yet
only 59 were reported there were 217 unreported accounts of sexual harassment that was discovered
now moving forward ryan said that 14 leaders have been relieved or suspended and finally
we need the right leadership i have determined the issues at fort hood
are directly related to leadership failures
leaders drive culture and are responsible for everything the unit does or does not happen to do
i am gravely disappointed that leaders failed to effectively create a climate that treated all
soldiers with dignity and respect and that failed to reinforce everyone's obligation to prevent
and properly respond to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault because of this
to restore trust and confidence and accountability i have directed the relief
and or suspension of commanders and other leaders from the corps to the squad level
i have directed the relief of the three core deputy commanding general for support
the third armored cavalry regiment command team and suspended the first cavalry division command
team pending the results of a new investigation into the command climate of the division
in total 14 leaders have been relieved or suspended from their positions in addition
we are directing investigation regarding criminal investigation command resourcing
policies and procedures accountability and transparency are foundational as we move forward
we have a great deal of work ahead of us this is an initial step to addressing and
fixing these issues even though we are part of one of the most respected institutions
in the world living up to the american people's trust is something we have to do every day
i believe in this institution and its officers non-commissioned officers soldiers civilians
and their families with every fiber of my being because of the extraordinary things
they do on a daily basis i am confident in our leaders ability to overcome this challenge
and to continue to win our nation's wars while caring for our people the leaders who were fired
include army major general scott effluent who was in charge at the time when vanessa was killed
he had a planned transfer to fort bliss where he was supposed to take over the leadership of the
first armored division but it was postponed with the investigation of vanessa and other soldiers
others fired include colonel ralph overland the third cavalry regiment commander and
his command sergeant major bradley knapp those who were suspended were major general
jeffrey broadwater who was the commander of the first cavalry divisions and his command sergeant
major thomas c kenny the army did not release the names of the other lower ranking soldiers who face
possible discipline it's said that these actions will lead to investigations and they will also
lead to a wide range of punishments from a simple letter of reprimand to a military discharge also
the base commander army lieutenant general pat white will not face any administrative action
he was deployed to iraq as the commander there for most of the year now here's a very concerning
statistic there were 25 soldiers who were at fort hood in the last year that died from suicide
homicide or accidents and i've mentioned this in my previous videos there's actually a giant list
of people who are missing or dead from previous years i think it's in the hundreds i believe it's
almost 200. so it's not just in the last year this is an ongoing issue now natalie cawam the guillens
attorney said criminal investigation command known as cid those officers are among those who
were fired or suspended and the panel found that fort hood was used as a training ground for these
new cid officers and there was a lot of turnover is what they said and many of the officers were
inexperienced and over-assigned now natalie kawam again who's the guian family's attorney
said vanessa's death will not be in vain we cannot afford to lose another vanessa and at the pentagon
on tuesday the review panel then came out and talked about the review they conducted they had
90 days to do this and this included in-person interviews and a survey with 31 000 responses
which is the amount of people at fort hood and it was on sexual assault and sexual harassment
they said they found a deep dissatisfaction with the sexual assault and harassment reporting and
response program otherwise known as sharp they said that female soldiers stated they were afraid
of retaliation of their complaints fear they would be moved to other jobs fear the confidentiality
would be compromised and their careers would be over there were also complaints about how long it
took to investigate some were up to a year with still nothing done and many soldiers reported
that they didn't report the incidences because of their lack of confidence in this program
and here lies a major major problem and one that's familiar to many of you who are watching
if you are either a soldier or outside of the base this happens quite a bit there's many people who
fear coming forward that it's not going to be taken seriously or ignored and here lies a major
major issue now vanessa's sister lupe talked about vanessa way back in the spring when she was having
these issues about sexual harassment and she said i can't report it i've seen other girls
pass through the same situation and they ignore them they say that they're lying they don't listen
to them and one of the other panel members named carrie ricci who is a retired member of the army's
judge advocates general core and who served at fort hood for three years said she had an
important message to give to these female soldiers she said i want them to know that we believe you
we believe you and she was very adamant about that and she said it was very very important
and chris swecker who is the committee chairman and he's also the retired head of the fbi's
criminal investigation division said there was a significant lack of emphasis on the sexual
assault pro response program and also fort hood has a serious crime problem that largely goes
unaddressed he said commanders are guilty more of acts of omission rather than acts of commission he
also said there was little visible deterrent or plan to prevent crimes that range from assault
to drug use fort hood he said has the highest rate of positive drug tests in the army and side note
it's pretty much the highest rate of all kinds of things including assault sexual harassment all of
these things are quite high and the most high from what i've read and understand at fort hood
and one of the major issues that came up was there wasn't any kind of missing soldier protocols and
this is now being addressed and general james mcconville who is the chief of staff of the army
said he spoke to vanessa's mom gloria on tuesday and he told her we are holding leaders accountable
and we will fix this and vanessa's mom said that the administrative actions were a step in the
right direction she says she wanted to see those who had failed her daughter to serve jail time
she said nothing is going to take away the pain i feel as her mother all day and all night and
gloria also said that all she has now is to look at pictures of vanessa and never to see her again
she said i told the secretary of the force ryan mccarthy that yes it's very good that you
caught some but no i want a case i want a case that uncovers the truth of what truly happened
what happened to my daughter why was her murder so cruel she was not a cockroach
she was an innocent human and they killed her and it wasn't just her they did so to various soldiers
fort hood is corrupt fort hood is the worst that could have happened to me because that's where
my daughter died and it's because of this family the guillen family and what happened to vanessa
that there is major changes happening to fort hood and hopefully now across the entire army
and i've said this before and you could see it in the gyan family they weren't going to back down
they had vanessa's back and they weren't going to let what happened to vanessa
go ignored as so many others were gone ignored including vanessa and their attorney natalie kwam
wasn't going to back down either so now we can hope that these changes will be implemented and
they will be followed through and there will be less incidences hopefully no incidences of this
happening to women or to men and who wants to live in an environment like that where there's drugs
where there's abuse whereas there's sexual harassment where there's sexual assault
nobody wants to live like that and nobody should have to suffer through that what are your thoughts
about this report i am going to put this 136 page report in the description below also do you think
that these changes are going to be effective do you think that there's going to be lasting change
and are you a soldier who's watching this video what are your thoughts please let
me know in the comments below let's have a chat below please subscribe if you haven't
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