The Army announced Wednesday that the two-star general who was suspended from his duties as commander of 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, has been cleared by a yet to be released administrative investigation and is now moving to a new assignment.
Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Broadwater was suspended by then-Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy in December, following the release of the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee’s report.
The committee detailed an environment at Fort Hood that allowed sexual assault and harassment to proliferate, as well as an overburdened CID detachment filled with rookie special agents.
The committee was dispatched to Fort Hood in August 2020 following a series of macabre deaths there, including the murder of 3rd Cavalry Regiment trooper Spc. Vanessa Guillen inside an armory, and the subsequent sexual harassment allegations that her family brought forth after her death.
But Broadwater has now been cleared and is “not pending any adverse action as a result of either the Fort Hood Independent Review or the Army Regulation 15-6 into the climate and culture of the 1st Cavalry Division,” reads a statement issued by Army Headquarters at the Pentagon.
Broadwater will be reassigned as the deputy commander of V Corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky, the statement said. Maj. Gen. John B. Richardson also assumed command of the 1st Cavalry Division this week.
Army officials did not immediately return a request for comment concerning whether Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Kenny, who was suspended alongside Broadwater, has also been cleared.
Fourteen leaders in total were fired or suspended after the Fort Hood Independent Review completed.
The III Corps deputy commander, Maj. Gen. Scott L. Efflandt, as well as the 3rd Cavalry Regiment commander and senior enlisted soldier, Col. Ralph Overland and Command Sgt. Maj. Bradley Knapp, were all relieved.
Efflandt was left in charge of Fort Hood while the post’s top officer, Lt. Gen. Pat White, had been deployed to Iraq for much of the past year.
Names of the other leaders involved, and the outcomes of their suspensions, were not released.
The Army said it plans to release the findings and recommendations of the investigation that cleared Broadwater when a final administrative review is complete, but no timeline was given.
