Richard Halliday was in the process of being chaptered out of the Army when he vanished without a trace on July 23, 2020.
Assigned to 1-43 Air Defense Artillery at Ft. Bliss, Halliday had gotten himself into a spot of trouble with the Army by getting a DUI, violating an order to quarantine in the barracks during the pandemic, and allegedly trying to cross the border into Mexico, a charge he denied.
Halliday was supposed to have another soldier escort him wherever he went as he was undergoing the chaptering process, but according to family members on July 23, that escort was not even on Ft. Bliss. And just like that, Halliday was gone.
He left behind his passport but, apparently, he did take a recently purchased pistol. Presumed AWOL, the Army did not initially inform Halliday's family.
Weeks went by without his parents hearing anything before his father, a retired Lt. Col., eventually called on Ft. Bliss to track him down.
Richard Halliday joined the Army straight out of high school, after growing up with his sisters as Army brats, he spent most of his childhood on bases around the United States and Europe. After their father retired, the family lived in Ireland until the Great Recession hit and they returned to the United States.
It was only after Halliday's father called that he was informed his son had been missing for over a month.
“36 days," Halliday's sister Hannah Joeng told Connecting Vets. "He was lost July 23 and my dad called because he had not heard from him by August 28. We had no idea.”
With Halliday considered AWOL by the Army, little was done to find him until his parents met with Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (D-TX). According to a source within the Air Defense Artillery community at Fort Bliss, this was when the unit started taking some initial actions.
"A mass formation was held at the end of August 2020, and that mass formation was within the 1-43 battalion area, asking all the soldiers if they had heard or seen anything. But nobody knew anything," said a source who requested anonymity due to the threat of professional reprisals.
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A sweep was made of the barracks and a few training areas, and about 100 soldiers were organized to search the Franklin Mountains, a state park north of El Paso, but no trace of Halliday was found.
The source at Ft. Bliss did not know Halliday but said that based on his experiences in ADA, the work was boring and the unit could experience low morale.
"The job is unglamorous," he explained, saying that ADA is pitched to incoming soldiers as a combat arms position, "but it is just sitting in a vehicle waiting to press a button to intercept a missile. It is really boring. Air Defense drinks heavily."
With Army investigators divulging little, if any information, Halliday's family has been left to contemplate rumors that have washed across Fort Bliss since their son's disappearance.
“To be honest we know so little and have differing opinions," Joeng, Halliday's sister, explained. "Mom thinks he was made an example of, we don't really know why."
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Fort Bliss' Public Affairs Office directed Connecting Vets to the FORSCOM PAO in regard to the Richard Halliday investigation. At the time of publication, phone calls had seeking information had not been returned.
Meanwhile, the family continues to search for answers.
"The biggest thing is just sharing it and putting the word out there to bring a lot of attention to it because I think that is the only way there will be some pressure on looking into and investigating what happened,” Joeng said.
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