Fort Hood running out of gates to name after murdered soldiers
FORT HOOD CAVAZOS, Texas — Fort Cavazos, formerly Fort Hood, plans to keep doing the absolute bare minimum by renaming a post gate after yet another murdered female soldier. The gate will be named in honor of Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz, who was found murdered at Fort Hood Cavazos, earlier this month.
This naming distinction, which the Army thinks Basaldua Ruiz’s family must find preferable—or at least comparable—to their loved one still being alive and well, was first bestowed upon Vanessa Guillen, another Latina soldier murdered on post. However, Fort Cavazos only has so many gates and the roster of new candidates is getting pretty long.
“I think the only practical solution to this problem is to build more gates on post,” said Lt. Gen. Sean Bernabe, the post’s commanding general. “If we put up a lot more blank gates, we can always add in the names later.”
When asked if these strings of deaths were indicative of prevalent gender-based harassment, sexual assault, and/or a crisis of Army culture, Bernabe disagreed.
“Look, it’s not just ladies, ok?” Bernabe insisted. “Deaths on Fort Cavazos are in line with Army equal opportunity policy. For example, we had a very nice young man, Greg Morales, show up dead at Fort Hood in 2020! We are absolutely committed to equality here.”
Bernabe neglected to mention that Morales’ remains were only discovered when the investigative team was searching for the remains of Vanessa Guillen.
Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael A. Grinston has also taken time to address concerns about the frequency of dead soldiers on and around Fort Cavazos.
“All these folks were pretty young, which leads me to believe they weren’t taking the safety briefs that seriously,” Grinston explained. “We all know that you are more likely to die in the Army if you are more junior in rank and age. If you get to be more senior, you are protected from a lot of things—wait, that’s not what I mean. I mean, if you are a senior leader you can do practically anything you want and not be hurt by it. Wait, wait, wait, hold on—that came out wrong.”
Duffel Blog interviewed a young soldier, Pvt. Yesenia Huerta, to get her perspective. Huerta, a native of Texas, is the first US citizen in her immediate family.
“My mom was so excited when I joined the Army,” Huerta recalls. “It’s like the American dream for us. When I told my mom that I was getting stationed at Fort Hood, er, Fort Cavazos, she cried for a long time.”
“‘Why are you crying, Mama?’ I remember asking her. ‘I will be close to home!’” Huerta said. “But then my mom told me that Fort Hood was more dangerous than Iraq—which I guess is true. Oh well, I guess no amount of effort or leadership can fix that.”