A battalion commander at Fort Cavazos in Texas was fired last month following an investigation into his command.
Lt. Col. Damasio Davila was relieved of command of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, part of the 1st Cavalry Division, on April 26 “due to a loss of trust in his ability to command,” Lt. Col. Jennifer Bocanegra, a Fort Cavazos spokesperson, said in a statement.
The Army declined to elaborate further on what the investigation into Lt. Col. Davila uncovered.
Davila is the latest in a string of senior leaders at the installation fired in the last year.
In January, Col. Ann Meredith was fired as commander of the 89th Military Police Brigade. During one week in October 2022 Col. Anthony Wilson was relieved as commander of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 1st Sustainment Brigade and Col. Jon Meredith – husband of the aforementioned Col. Ann Meredith – was relieved of command of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team.
Col. Jon Meredith now faces a court-martial and is charged with two specifications of abusive sexual contact and two specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer, according to the Army.
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Fort Cavazos – until earlier this month known as Fort Hood – has drawn national scrutiny as a dysfunctional Army post following the murder of Spc. Vanessa Guillén in 2020. Guillén, who before her disappearance and death had reported multiple instances of sexual harassment only to be ignored by her command, was murdered by a fellow soldier. A subsequent investigation found that the base’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program was “structurally weak and under-resourced,” and “ineffective, to the extent that there was a permissive environment for sexual assault and sexual harassment,” according to the Army report.
Fourteen senior leaders, including the deputy commander of III Corps and the commander and Command Sgt. Maj. of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, were relieved at the end of 2020 in the fallout of the investigation into Guillén’s death.
As Fort Hood, the installation was often viewed as a symbol Army misconduct and a general lack of quality of life for soldiers. In recent years, soldiers have taken to social media to complain about toxic leadership and the base was named as the installation where female soldiers are at the highest risk of sexual assault.
