Following the discovery that paintings of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump had been turned to face a wall, the Army suspended the first female commander of a training base in Wisconsin.
Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez has been suspended as the garrison commander of Fort McCoy, according to an undated statement from the Army posted on the base’s website.
The statement claimed that there was no misbehavior behind the suspension, but it gave no further information and stated that the issue was being reviewed.
On April 14, the Department of Defense uploaded images to X that showed the portraits of Trump and Hegseth on the base’s chain of command wall facing the wall. The images also showed the portraits switched back to face the hallway.
“Regarding the Ft. McCoy Chain of Command wall controversy … WE FIXED IT!” according to the post. “Also, an investigation has begun to figure out exactly what happened.”
After serving as the chief of the Reserve Program for the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Baez Ramirez was promoted to the position of garrison commander at Fort McCoy in July of 2024 from his previous position.
In addition to having a bachelor’s degree in psychology and mental health from the University of Puerto Rico and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, she was commissioned as a military intelligence officer through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in the year 1999.
She is the recipient of a great number of awards and medals, some of which are the Korean Defense Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.
She has held positions such as the head of operations of the United States Army Reserve Command at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the deputy commander of the 501st Military Intelligence Brigade, and the deputy chief of the Special United States Liaison Advisor Korea at Camp Humphreys in the Republic of Korea.
Fort McCoy is a training base that spans 93 square miles and is located in the rural countryside of far western Wisconsin. Since the year 1909, it has been open for business.
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