FORT HOOD — By the time details of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén’s disappearance and death had fully emerged, there was little doubt a shakeup was coming here.

Multiple investigations were being launched, and the media spotlight was relentless as Guillén’s family and a universe of sexual assault and harassment victims accused the post itself — its attitude and response to sexual misconduct — of being the reason Guillen was killed.

Some of the most prominent voices demanded the Army close the installation. Since it holds 37,000 troops and the headquarters of an entire armored corps, few expected that to happen, though many surmised the post’s acting commander, Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, likely would take the fall.

Major General Scott Efflandt, III Corps and Fort Hood deputy commander, at a news conference in early July. (Bronte Wittpenn/Austin American-Statesman/TNS)

Photo: BRONTE WITTPENN /TNS

Last week, the Army acted — as expected. Efflandt, who was slated to leave Killeen for El Paso to take command of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, was replaced but told to remain at Fort Hood.

Gen. John Murray, head of the Austin-based Army Futures Command, took over an investigation of Guillen’s death, now expanded to include the post’s entire chain of command. And an independent panel had just arrived at Fort Hood to start an investigation of its own.

Gen. John M. Murray is expanding an investigation of Spc. Vanessa Guillen’s death.

Photo: Monica King /Army Photo

The message in the shakeup wasn’t subtle but the Army also had a talking point, one it made clear at a ceremony Thursday evening for Fort Hood’s new acting commander, Maj. Gen. John B. Richardson IV, and repeated later to news media at III Corps headquarters.

“We’re going to work hard to win back the trust of the American people,” Gen. Michael X. Garrett told reporters, calling sexual harassment, assault, suicide, racism and political extremism “things that break that trust.”

Garrett, who heads Forces Command, based in Fort Bragg, N.C., vowed to “look hard at ourselves” and rectify whatever problems are found.

Bludgeoned with a hammer April 22 on the post, Guillén, 20, of Houston was reported missing from her 3rd Cavalry Regiment’s engineer squadron headquarters, and her remains were found June 30 along the Leon River, miles from Fort Hood.

Authorities identified a fellow soldier, Spc. Aaron David Robinson, as the killer and say his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, helped him dismember and bury Guillén.

Robinson shot himself to death as law enforcement confronted him in Killeen. Aguilar faces federal charges.

On Tuesday, two U.S. House subcommittee chairs announced an investigation into sexual assault, disappearances and the 28 deaths of soldiers at the post so far this year, to see if they were linked to “underlying deficiencies” in leadership, discipline and morale.

That number is about average for annual deaths at the Army’s five largest posts containing deployment-ready frontline units in recent years, statistics provided by Forces Command indicate. But the five homicides at Fort Hood so far this year are the most seen at any of the posts since 2016 at Fort Bragg.

The congressional probe will be conducted jointly by the Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on National Security, and the Committee on Armed Services’ Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

Pressure building

None of the problems raised by the scrutiny that followed Guillen’s death is isolated to Fort Hood, but the post hasn’t been under such a microscope since 2009, when Maj. Nidal Hasan gunned down 13 people and wounded 31 others in the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military base.

Even before Garrett spoke, the pressure was building. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and members of LULAC met the same day with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy to discuss the independent review panel’s work.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and two Democratic senators from Massachusetts asked leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing on command climate and culture at Fort Hood.

Cuellar said Fort Hood averages 129 violent felonies committed by soldiers a year. That’s more than Fort Bragg and Joint Base Lewis McChord, which he said had 90 and 109 per year, respectively. The crimes include homicide, kidnapping, robbery and aggravated assault and violent sexual assaults, he said.

Guillén’s family has said the young soldier told them she was sexually harassed before she went missing, but the Army has said she did not report it and that its investigators could find nobody at the post who was aware of it.

Guillén’s family lawyer said the Army failed her, before and after she went missing, appearing to drag its feet during the initial stages of the search, and McCarthy admitted as much at Fort Hood last month, telling reporters: “Vanessa’s our teammate, and we let her down. We let her family down.”

He also said the post was among the worst offenders in several categories of crime.

“The numbers are high here,” McCarthy said. “They are the highest, the most cases for sexual assault and harassment murders for our entire formation of the U.S. Army.”

The Army couldn’t confirm if he was referring to a Rand Corp. report that showed Fort Hood had 885 estimated sex assault and rape victims in 2014 — the highest in the Defense Department, though five Army posts had 500 or more.

Ford Hood officials issued a missing soldier alert for Sgt. Elder Fernandes, who was found dead off post.

Photo: U.S. Army /TNS

“You can’t blame them for Hasan, but they’ve had two mass shootings, multiple murders, multiple soldiers disappearing, prostitution rings,” said retired Air Force Col. Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military assault and sexual assault victims. “They’ve had a lot of problems over the years.”

Suicides also have been a troubling issue at Fort Hood since 2004, but the seven confirmed so far this year come nowhere near the worst mark — 22 self-inflicted deaths 10 years ago.

On ExpressNews.com: Grim toll of military suicides reaches a new milestone

Fort Hood officials say the 28 deaths recorded there through Aug. 31 include eight by accidents, seven by suicide, five by homicide, two from illness and one in the war zone overseas.

Five other deaths, including that of Sgt. Elder Fernandes and Pfc. Corlton Chee, are listed as undetermined or pending.

Chee, 25, of Pinehill, N.M., died Aug. 28 during physical training. Fernandez, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was the latest GI to go missing at the post and was found dead Aug. 25 in Temple, a half-hour east of Fort Hood, hanging from a tree near Lake Polk.

He had filed an official sexual abuse complaint but an investigation had not substantiated it, officials said.

On ExpressNews.com: As search intensifies, family slams Army response to missing Fort Hood soldier

Activists have decried the deaths of Guillén and others, saying the military has failed to stop sexual harassment and sexual assault. As outrage built over her disappearance, social media exploded with testimonials from former service members who said they had been sexual assault victims.

Even if Guillen did not want to report sexual misconduct, “there are other indicators the chain of command should have noticed and dealt with,” said retired Col. David Maxwell, who served in the Army’s special forces.

“As an outsider now looking in, it does seem there were systemic breakdowns,” he said. “Overlooking indicators or the fear of other soldiers to report incidents gives the appearance of a command climate problem, which unfortunately is often the root of these problems.”

Garrett, the head of Forces Command, defended Efflandt and said it made sense to keep him at Fort Hood as the various overlapping probes continue.

“I have not lost, nor has the Army lost, any confidence in Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt,” Garrett said. “The decision not to put Scott Efflandt into command (at Fort Bliss) was based on allowing these investigations, and there are a number of them, to run their course.”

Multiple probes

The Army has a Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program, called SHARP, and the Forces Command Inspector General is reviewing Fort Hood’s version of it and briefed Congress last month. An Army Criminal Investigation Command probe of Guillen’s death continues as well, in collaboration with the FBI and Killeen authorities.

The Army-appointed Fort Hood Independent Review Committee, a five-member civilian panel drawn from across the country that includes a former Bexar County veterans services officer, Queta Rodriguez, will look at command climate and culture at the post and surrounding military community. It’s expected to produce an interim report this month and a final report in October.