Secretary of Army, Christine E. Wormuth, wraps up trip to Fort Cavazos

KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - The secretary of the Army, Christine E. Wormuth, was in Killeen on post at Fort Cavazos speaking with soldiers and looking for ways to improve as they move towards the future.

Since taking her role in 2021, she has come to our area twice. The last time she was here, the post was still Fort Hood. Some of her agenda items this trip included improving the quality of life for soldiers and their families and going deeper than that, she also detailed improving soldier mental health resources and transparency from leaders after tragedy strikes.

Sec. Wormuth spent 48 hours talking with the ones who have their boots on the ground.

“They’re doing a lot of experimentation, for example with project convergence so a big takeaway I had was that the III Armored Corps is busy, busy, busy,” Wormuth says.

She did note how things have improved since her last trip as she says work continues to be done across the board to help soldiers in and out of work. However, she also focused on what she noticed still needed more attention like mental health resources for soldiers.

“How to help our soldiers build up their life skills, and build up their resilience and be able to talk to soldiers about uncomfortable things that I think can help us get ahead of issues like suicide, for example,” Wormuth explains.

Also discussed, was increasing transparency from post leaders when the post makes headlines like after the murder of Vanessa Guillen.

“I think culturally we have been a little reluctant to be transparent, and I think we need to lean into that a little more. But also, you are innocent until proven guilty and there are privacy concerns,” Secretary Wormuth says.

And with money at the core of most resolutions, “If I am given one dollar, I have to figure out if it would best to spent on renovating barracks or on advertising to increase recruitment numbers. Those are the hard decisions we have to make,” Wormuth says.

An extra one billion dollars is being put into improving housing and barracks on post, as well as finances being allocated to improve other vital resources for soldiers.

Another thing worth noting is that the III Armored Corps deploys the most people overseas, so her eyes are also on developing the post’s readiness and lethality.

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