Way OT - 12 Dead 31 Wounded at Fort Hood TX
At least one U.S. soldier opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, killing at least 11 people and wounding 31 others, military officials said. One gunman was shot to death, and two other soldiers were in custody. Every news channel is covering it but not much else is known. FT Hood is on lockdown. I have heard other reports suggest that they still have not found another suspect but i could be wrong.
Update: Apparently there are 2 potential gunmen, including the one that was killed. The other 2 originally arrested were released and another individual has been detained.
Update2: The one identified gunman is not dead, but wounded and in stable condition.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:51 PM ^
Hugely tragic.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:55 PM ^
Very tragic. Terrible.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:56 PM ^
is crazy huge. Something like 340 square miles, 52,000 soldiers. You're right formerlyanonoymous (there has to be a proper way to shorten that) - this is "hugely tragic".
November 5th, 2009 at 6:55 PM ^
I was there for training, huge training areas. That does not count the public (I think)hunting areas that are also huge. Think a small or kinda small county.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:57 PM ^
Just awful. Hard to fathom what could have sparked something this terrible.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:05 PM ^
and to think one of the locations hit was the processing center where people are gearing up to deploy to the war theater. Imagine the parents and relatives of these kids - sons and daughters getting killed by their own, or so it appears.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:02 PM ^
Everyone hug their children and loved ones a little harder tonight.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:29 PM ^
All those now trapped at Fort Hood were thinking of you.
News Info: Major Malik Nadal Hasan, from Virginia, has been identified as the primary shooter in todays horrific events.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:06 PM ^
Strongly discouraging news story. Will pray for the families who were affected.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:06 PM ^
According to ABC News, the gunman that got killed by police has been identified as Malik Nadal Hasan. He was about to be deployed to Iraq. One can only wonder what drove Hasan and the other suspected gunmen to do what they did.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:10 PM ^
Basing this solely on his name, this story is going to be huge for a couple weeks. I don't know anything about the guy, but the media is going to have a firestorm with his name sounding Middle Eastern.
After a brief look up, he is Muslim and was an Army psychologist.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:18 PM ^
This can go so wrong in so many other ways.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:19 PM ^
I fear there is going to be a significant backlash against Islamic-Americans akin to post-9/11. I'm reading some of the comments from the ABC article, and many people, without knowing any facts besides his name and rank, are already writing things like:
"murderous muslims"
"Muslim terrorist"
"sleeper cell"
November 5th, 2009 at 6:27 PM ^
The local paper(Houston Chronicle)'s first comment was blaming this on a particular political figure of note that some people claim to be a closet Muslim. So yeah, not much better here either.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:49 PM ^
That's a legitimate point and I agree.
I also think the talking heads of the Islamic religion in this country would do well to condemn this type of behavior.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:16 PM ^
It's Major Hasan... an officer. Stunning. I know most of my fellow Soldiers were thinking "PV2 with a mental issue" as soon as we heard the news. If any of you have business on military instillations in the next few weeks I would recommend putting an extra 30 minutes into your travel plans for increased gate security measures. I haven't received any word on it personally, but that train's never late...
November 5th, 2009 at 6:47 PM ^
I was active duty in the Navy when the U.S.S. Cole was bombed. You couldn't even leave base for lunch with all the vehicle inspections. Obviously there were bigger concerns at the time, but this aggrevation just added to the "hysteria"*.
*Hysteria may be a little extreme, but everyone was hella nervous.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:42 PM ^
at how or what would cause someone to act this way at there family. It breaks my heart in a way that's terrible and tough to explain. God bless my brothers and their families.
November 5th, 2009 at 8:18 PM ^
thoughts and prayers to all the families of those killed and injured.....and thank you to all the soldiers and veterans out there for your service to us all
November 5th, 2009 at 8:51 PM ^
Was to welcome back my sister from Iraq (the second time). That entire area is nothing without that Fort and the entire Fort Hood/Copperas Cove/Killeen area is all tied into it as one big military family - scary to think one (two? I thought I read that there were 2 gunmen?) of their own would do this at a place that knows very well the pain and sacrifice of being a US Soldier. Thoughts and prayers to my fellow military families :(
November 5th, 2009 at 9:05 PM ^
when are people going to learn that violence is never an answer.
November 5th, 2009 at 9:19 PM ^
never.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:17 PM ^
I just heard from my sister in Killeen, who told me my niece stationed in Fort Hood made it home from post.
For any prayers you sent to those men and women stationed there, thank you. Keep sending your thoughts to those affected by this.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:13 AM ^
My prayers go out to the families effected by this terrible
tragedy. I posted this earlier and it was deleted.
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
This is the swearing in for anyone inducted into the Armed
Forces.
This is real life. You can negbang this all night, just think
about why you have that right. Veteran's day is next Wed.
The people that commited this crime swore to uphold the Constitution.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:25 AM ^
Your post got deleted for vilifying an entire religion based on the actions of one of its members. This MAJOR did not record a video in a cave screaming death to the infidels. He simply lost his friggin mind. To make baseless accusations based on his name and religon is not only detrimental to the mission, it is detrimental to the reasoning behind the mission. Having no insider information to the case, I can only imagine that this guy simply couldn't face the fact that he was getting re-deployed to fight a war he didn't believe in. Many soldiers feel this and flee, this guy took his opposition to an extreme. The fact that he was already receiving racial harrassment, only added to his confusion. I have no doubt that your message comes from a good place, and I have the utmost respect for another poster that took the oath, to simply say that this is anythig other than PTSD is short-sighted.
AW3(NAC/SAR)NAME REDACTED
November 6th, 2009 at 12:45 AM ^
but there is definitely more to the story than him just losing his mind.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33695256/ns/us_news-military/
November 5th, 2009 at 11:55 PM ^
It is unbelievable what these families must be going through. At this time, there are soldiers and Marines who have deployed 4 and 5 times since 9/11. These people survive the war only to be killed by one of their own officers upon their return.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:02 AM ^
This thread is being frozen. No disrespect to the families, just the way part of the thread was going (no longer shown) needed to be stopped.