I’m sure we were all horrified to learn of the horrible tragedy that took place at fort Hood, Texas. It was all over the TV, the newspapers, the Internet, the radio, etc. An incident of this magnitude is rare in the United States. We read about all of the escalating crime all over our country, but this was horrific.
An American-born Muslim Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Milik Hasan dressed in a long white garment and white kufi prayer cap suddenly jumped up on a desk at the processing center, shouting the words “Allahu Akbar!” – Arabic for “God is great!” He was armed with two pistols, one a semiautomatic capable of firing up to 20 rounds without reloading.
He opened fire on over 300 unarmed soldiers who were filling out forms and undergoing medical tests preparing them for deployment, mingled with soldiers returning from overseas. There was no warning, however he had been behaving unusually lately. He had been saying goodbye to friends, and given away many of his possessions, including copies of the Holy Quaran. He obviously was on some mission of revenge, but his hatred became insanity.
Pfc. Marquest Smith looked in shock at Hasan with two guns firing into the crowded room. He immed-iately grabbed the woman helping him with some paperwork and forced her under the desk. Waiting for the shooter to stop to reload, Smith made a run for it, and pushed two soldiers that were in front of him out of the center. Then he turned and ran into the building twice more to help the wounded. He grabbed two more wounded by their collars and dragged them outside.
At this time, Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley got the call of “shots fired.” She was in the area, as her vehicle was in the shop. Munley 34, was on the scene in three minutes. Just over 5ft. tall, but she is an advanced firearms instructor and civilian member of the Fort Hood’s special reaction team. As she approached the building, a soldier emerged from a door with a gunman in pursuit. The officer fired, and the shooter wheeled and charged. Munley was hit at least three times in the exchange-twice through her left leg and once in her right wrist. Hasan was hit four times, and authorities say the whole incident lasted ten minutes.
Pfc. Jeffrey Pearsall, 21 from Houston was waiting outside in the parking lot for Smith, when a group of soldiers ran out the door and a window shattered. It was then he heard the gunshots. He pulled his pickup forward, then hopped out and helped the wounded into the bed of his truck. He loaded as many as he could and sped off to the base hospital.
Next door, at the Howze Theater, Spc. Elliot Valdez was filming a graduating ceremony for soldiers who’s completed correspondence courses. Suddenly there was a pounding on the door. The door burst open and shouts filled the theater of “Medic” and “Stay in the building!” An experienced combat photo-grapher, Valdez ran out. Crouching as he continued to roll tape, Valdez saw soldiers in flowing black graduation robes rush to help the wounded, including a soldier with a gunshot wound in his back laying on the grass.
Sgt. Amber Bahr 19 tore up her blouse and used it as a tourniquet on a wounded comrade. It was only later that she learned she had been shot in the back, the bullet exiting her abdomen. Sgt. Andrew Hagerman, a military police officer, hear of the shootings that crackled over his radio. Upon arriving Hagerman saw Hasan laying on the ground, his two handguns beside him, while medics treated his wounds. Hagerman entered the building and saw the carnage inside, worse than anything he’d seen in Iraq.
Sgt. Howard Appleby 32, was at the hospital for a meeting with his doctor for post-traumatic stress disorder from a roadside bomb blast during a tour of Iraq. His appointment canceled, he found himself pulling the dead and wounded from ambulances. In combat, he was used to one or two casualties a day. “This,” he thought, “is crazy.”
As a psychiatrist, Hasan 39, had heard many soldiers’ tales of horror, but now he too was facing deploy-ment to Afghanistan, and instead of facing fighting in the war, he had become the horror that no one will ever forget in Ft. Hood, Texas, as well as the United States. These young soldiers that came to the aid of their countrymen are all heroes, and we will remember them along with all of the innocent soldiers that died needlessly that day.
Helen L. Price
Excerpts from article from Associated Press
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