Fewer soldiers considered AWOL after Guillén case forced changes to how Army deals with missing GIs
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A soldier recently was reported missing from Fort Hood, and days later the Army post tracked him down in San Antonio.
Alive and well, Spc. Abram Salas II had left on his own, not because of foul play. For failing to report for duty, after more than 24 hours he normally would have been listed as absent without leave, or AWOL.
But the policy changed late last year.
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Going AWOL isn’t rare — it happened 117 times at Fort Hood last year — and as a violation of the military justice system, it can result in a disciplinary hearing and a range of penalties.
But Fort Hood has classified Salas and every other soldier who has gone missing since December as “absent-unknown” for 48 hours under a change put in place after the disappearance and death last year of Spc. Vanessa Guillén.
Although some eventually will be classified as AWOL, that has happened only 31 times in the first half of 2021, slightly more than a quarter of last year’s total, suggesting a more lenient threshold is now in place.
“It shows a more concerned approach to the problem, which translates to leaders and military officials being more engaged in locating missing soldiers,” Fort Hood spokesman Tyler Broadway said.
When Salas failed to report for duty June 23, the post immediately alerted local and Texas law enforcement agencies. It issued news releases complete with photos of Salas, 21, of El Paso, and his car and license plate information. Commanders kept his parents in the loop.
The handling of Salas’ disappearance, and even the news media attention it drew, signaled just how much has changed since Guillén, 20, of Houston, vanished from her 3rd Cavalry Regiment’s engineer squadron headquarters and was found dead months later.
Outrage over her fate sparked international headlines, a command shakeup at Fort Hood and changes to procedures governing missing soldiers and sexual harassment and assault complaints.
Fort Hood’s acting commander at the time, Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, was among more than a dozen leaders who were suspended or removed from their jobs last December. An outside investigation found a “deficient climate” that raised risks for female soldiers on the post. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command earlier this year said it would replace its top leader, Maj. Gen. Donna Martin, though the Army said that was unrelated to the fallout at Fort Hood.
The Army now has a more standardized process in searching for soldiers and in some cases accelerates the timing of it. Then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy unveiled the policy Dec. 8, signing a directive clarifying expectations and responsibilities of unit commanders and Army law enforcement to focus on the first 48 hours after a soldier fails to report for duty.
The new duty status code, absent-unknown, or AUN, gives commanders time to make an appropriate determination of an absent soldier’s status. After that, it can change to AWOL.
The new status is to be applied for at least two days, but Salas’ case is “a unique situation” because he contacted his leadership, so he might not be branded AWOL at all, said Maj. Gabby Thompson, deputy III Corps spokeswoman at Fort Hood. He was still listed as absent-unknown a full week after leaving the post without permission.
Exactly why Salas, a cavalry scout who was described as a good soldier, left the post, “we don’t know at this point,” Thompson said last week.
Commanders, who reached out to family and friends, said an initial investigation indicated that he left Fort Hood “for unknown reasons on his own accord.”
“We’re giving him the benefit of the doubt that he is coming to Fort Hood,” she said, declining to say if Salas will face disciplinary action. “His unit leadership has not initiated any sort of nonjudicial punishment against him.”
Nonjudicial punishment can range from letters of admonishment and reprimand to losing rank.
If commanders can’t determine that the absence is voluntary, they are to classify absent personnel as “missing” and initiate a “duty status whereabouts unknown” casualty case.
That’s called a DUSTWUN, and the Army provides a liaison officer to the soldier’s family while searching for the missing GI.
The changes in policy have their roots in widespread criticism of how the post handled Guillén’s disappearance. As authorities sought to find her last spring and summer, her family lambasted Fort Hood’s leaders, saying they didn’t respond as quickly or as aggressively as they could.
Guillén was bludgeoned to death April 22, 2020, by Spc. Aaron David Robinson. Her remains were found June 30 miles from Fort Hood, and Robinson killed himself as police confronted him in Killeen. Authorities have accused his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, as an accomplice, and she is in jail awaiting a federal trial.
Fort Hood started a search the day after Guillén disappeared and contacted its Criminal Investigation Command as well as local authorities. A nonprofit Dickinson-based group, Texas EquuSearch, helped scour the countryside both on and off the post last summer.
Of the 117 listed as AWOL last year, 113 returned to Fort Hood. Another 33 were listed as deserted, including some who left the post the previous year. So far this year, the 31 soldiers listed as AWOL all have returned to the post. Another eight have been classified as deserters.
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