Published: November 07, 2009 11:26 am      

Soldiers, local vets react to Fort Hood shooting

As Army officials continue to investigate Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, suspected in killing 13 and leaving 30 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood Thursday, soldiers at the base and Johnson County veterans reacted to the event.

The Associated Press reported on the alleged shooters’ Muslim background, his goodbye phone message to a friend, and Hasan’s pending deployment to Afghanistan and pressure in his work with distressed soldiers.

Whatever the motive, local veterans said more military police on base and a better look into soldiers’ lives might be a good idea.

David Bowers, a 25-year veteran and commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6872 & Ladies Auxiliary at 3409 C.R. 920 in Crowley, was wounded in Iraq and retired in Johnson County.

He said that although the suspect could have been under pressure, he thinks lax security is a problem at military bases.

“They’re talking in the news that he had a bad situation report up in Walter Reed [Army Medical Center]. Something like that sticks to an officer’s record for his whole career. Getting ready to be deployed and knowing you have a bad situation report, yeah, there’s pressure and stuff,” he said. “But one of the main issues is they ought to have tighter security.”



Should have been watching

The quartermaster for the post, Vietnam War veteran Larry Seaton, said the suspect should have been declined to serve.

“They know what he was, and they should’ve kept an eye on him,” Seaton said. “I know this wasn’t really a terrorist act; he just went off the deep end and all of us can do that.”

But two soldiers stationed at Fort Hood said the shooters’ will to kill could have been enough to bypass security.

“Even the tightest security measures could’ve been surpassed without rolling over our 2nd Amendment right,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Nashif, who has lived at Fort Hood for eight years and was leaving just as the gates were closing during lock down.

Nashif founded the Combat Warrior Crisis Network, which offers soldiers means to heal after an injury and any other combat-related issues.

“It’s just one of those things that, you know, if somebody is going to do it, they’re going to do it. And it was obvious that this man was intent on killing soldiers,” he said.

Larry Chatto, a retired 21-year Army veteran, has lived at the base since 1985.

He said his wife was working at a school on-base, just one block from where the suspect opened fire just after 1 p.m. Thursday.

“It’s tough to prevent something like that. There’s restrictions and stuff that apply, but I don’t know what we could have done,” he said. “There are people way above me addressing that, but I don’t know how I could’ve prevented it.”

Cleburne resident and five-year Army veteran Sgt. Jonathan Laureles was never stationed at Fort Hood but said this latest shooting reminds him of his time in the Middle East and underscores his personal goal to establish a Cleburne VFW post.

“There was a shooting at a behavioral health clinic and from somebody who was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder,” he said about his last tour in Iraq as a medic with the Washington Army National Guard’s 181st Brigade Support Battalion, 81st Brigade Combat Team. “I’m not sure what the situation was or who the soldier was but it just makes me think about all the soldiers that are under a great deal of stress and dealing with post traumatic stress and post deployment stress.”



A state of shock

Former Granbury resident Vicky Field worked for five years helping soldiers and families affected by war with the Department of Defense as the Texas State Representative for the Severely Wounded, including several in Cleburne, she said.

“I think everybody is just so shocked. I think, even on the military side, you’re trying to be so trusting, and you can’t imagine even though somebody changed faiths and went to his Muslim belief, you don’t think with all the military training that they would turn like that,” she said. “That’s what it seems to be: he did not want to go to Iraq and it looked like he had no remorse in pulling the gun and shooting his comrades.”

As hospitals tend to the victims and officials investigate the home and computer of Hasan, now comatose, President Barack Obama warned the public to not jump to conclusions until all the facts are in a statement Friday, but the weight of this tragedy is one thing all acknowledged.

“It’s sad that something like that happened down there because there’s a lot of innocent kids whose lives were ended quick for no reason,” Bowers said. “It’s something that just should not have ever happened.”