Killeen is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 153,095, making it the 17th-most populous city in Texas and the largest of the three principal cities of Bell County. It is the principal city of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Cavazos Metropolitan Statistical Area. Killeen is 55 miles (89 km) north of Austin, 125 miles (201 km) southwest of Dallas, and 125 miles (201 km) northeast of San Antonio.
Fort Cavazos is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. The post is named after Gen. Richard E. Cavazos, a native Texan and the US Army’s first Hispanic four-star general. Formerly named Fort Hood for Confederate General John Bell Hood, the post is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about 60 mi (97 km) from each, within the U.S. state of Texas. The post is the headquarters of III Armored Corps and First Army Division West and is home to the 1st Cavalry Division and 3rd Cavalry Regiment, among others.
Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave, which are temporary forms of absence.
Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki was an American Islamic scholar and lecturer who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama. Al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be targeted and killed by a drone strike from the U.S. government. U.S. government officials argued that Awlaki was a key organizer for the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda, and in June 2014, a previously classified memorandum issued by the U.S. Department of Justice was released, justifying al-Awlaki's death as a lawful act of war. Civil liberties advocates have described the incident as "an extrajudicial execution" that breached al-Awlaki's constitutional right to due process, including a trial.
Dwight Jeffrey Loving was one of six military personnel on death row until President Barack Obama commuted his sentence to life without parole on January 17, 2017. Loving, a private in the United States Army, was sentenced to death following his conviction for murdering two soldiers, working as part-time taxi drivers on December 24, 1988. He was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas at the time of the murders. Loving said he killed his first victim to see if he could get away with it and killed his second one for fun.
Katherine Jashinski was the first female soldier to refuse duty in American military operations following September 11, 2001. Katherine was born in Milwaukee, WI and enlisted in the Army National Guard as a cook in April 2002 signing a six-year service contract. She cited a desire to experience military life as a primary reason for enlisting in the Army. In June 2004, she applied for discharge as a conscientious objector. The Army denied her claim a year and a half later. In late 2005, she was ordered to weapons training in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan at which time she refused and was brought up on charges. In court on May 23, 2006, Katherine was acquitted of the more serious charge of missing movement by design, but pleaded guilty to refusal to obey a legal order. She received a bad conduct discharge and was sentenced to 120 days confinement, with credit for 53 days already served, and 20 days off for good behavior. Katherine was released from custody on July 9, 2006. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.
In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.
The 2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting took place on June 1, 2009, when Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, born Carlos Leon Bledsoe, opened fire with a rifle in a drive-by shooting on soldiers in front of a United States military recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas. He killed Private William Long and wounded Private Quinton Ezeagwula.
Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam, is an American convert to Islam and a part-time cook who attempted to bomb the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock in downtown Springfield, Illinois, on 24 September 2009. He pleaded guilty in federal court on 9 May 2011 and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Victor Manuel Agosto is an American anti-war activist and a former United States Army private. He is noted for his direct and public resistance to the War in Afghanistan as an active duty soldier.
Under the Hood Café was a coffee house located at 17 South College Street in Killeen, Texas. It provided services for soldiers located at Fort Hood, one of the largest American military installation in the world. Under the Hood Café was first managed by Cynthia Thomas, but later managers were Kyle Wesolowski, Lori Hurlebaus and Malachi Muncy. Under the Hood is a project of the Fort Hood Support Network. It bills itself as being a safe place for local soldiers to spend off-duty time at, where the normal issues of rank are irrelevant. It is also the host of the monthly Killeen Poetry Slam.
On November 5, 2009, a terrorist mass shooting took place at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others. It was the deadliest mass shooting on an American military base and the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11 attacks until it was surpassed by the San Bernardino attack in 2015.
Nidal Malik Hasan is a Palestinian-American former United States Army major, physician and mass murderer convicted of killing thirteen people and injuring more than 30 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. Hasan, an Army Medical Corps psychiatrist, admitted to the shootings at his court-martial in August 2013.
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American-Yemeni cleric killed in late 2011, who was identified in 2009 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a known, important "senior recruiter for al Qaeda", and a spiritual motivator.
A pressure cooker bomb is an improvised explosive device (IED) created by inserting explosive material into a pressure cooker and attaching a blasting cap into the cover of the cooker.
On Wednesday, April 2, 2014, a shooting spree was perpetrated at several locations on the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas. Four people, including the gunman, were killed while 14 additional people were injured; 12 by gunshot wounds. The shooter, 34-year-old Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims "within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship" as the victims. There are many definitions of terrorism, and none of them are universally accepted.
GI coffeehouses were coffeehouses set up as part of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War era as a method of fostering antiwar and anti-military sentiment within the U.S. military. They were mainly organized by civilian antiwar activists, though many GIs participated in establishing them as well. They were created in numerous cities and towns near U.S. military bases throughout the U.S as well as Germany and Japan. Due to the normal high turnover rate of GIs at military bases plus the military's response which often involved transfer, discharge and demotion, not to mention the hostility of the pro-military towns where many coffeehouses were located, most of them were short-lived, but a few survived for several years and "contributed to some of the GI movement's most significant actions". The first GI coffeehouse of the Vietnam era was set up in January 1968 and the last closed in 1974. There have been a few additional coffeehouses created during the U.S. led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The murder of Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old United States Army soldier, took place inside an armory at Fort Hood, Texas, on April 22, 2020, when she was bludgeoned to death by another soldier, Aaron David Robinson. Guillén had been missing for over two months when some of her dismembered remains were found buried along the Leon River on June 30. Upon hearing about the discovery, Robinson fled Fort Hood and fatally shot himself when law enforcement attempted to apprehend him in nearby Killeen, Texas.
