Anti-bvbl has a special connection with Fort Hood. Our very own Gainesville Resident often goes there for business. We will rely on him for details.
12 are dead and a minimum of 31 are wounded. The primary shooter is dead. 2 other shooters are in custody. Details are very sketchy. The primary shooter used 2 hand guns. The entire post is under lockdown. One of the dead is a police officer not associated with the military.
Hopefully Gainesville Resident will be our eyes and ears on this thread. Calling on Gainesville. Where are you? Come out come out wherever you are!
From the Associated Press:
The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said at a news conference. He said all the casualties took place at the base’s Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.
“It’s a terrible tragedy. It’s stunning,” Cone said.
Little was known about the three soldiers suspected of taking part in the attack. The soldier used two handguns, Cone said. It was not clear if the gunman had stopped to reload.
A graduation ceremony for soldiers who finished college courses while deployed was going on in an auditorium at the Readiness Center at the time of the shooting, said Sgt. Rebekah Lampam, a Fort Hood spokeswoman.
Greg Schanepp, U.S. Rep. John Carter’s regional director in Texas, was representing Carter at the graduation, said John Stone, a spokesman for Carter, whose district includes the Army post.
Schanepp was at the ceremony when a soldier who had been shot in the back came running toward him and alerted him of the shooting, Stone said. The soldier told Schanepp not to go in the direction of the shooter, he said. Stone said he believes Schanepp was in the theater.
The base was locked down after the shootings. The wounded were dispersed among hospitals in central Texas, Cone said.
I think I heard the shooter was from Virginia.
A Major Hassan
I think GR is safe and sound in The Commonwealth. I have a friend that moved to Ft. Hood in August due to her husband’s military duty. My friend said she was safe and one daughter was still in school on lockdown. This is a horrible story.
It really is horrible. Fort Hood is no stranger to violence, according to various news reports. GR is safe and sound in VA. I have been in contact via the bat mail.
Glad to hear it. My friend says she’s had four kids in her house during this lockdown, and the one is still at school, and she’s not sure when she’ll be cleared to leave school. This is so very sad. Ft. Hood has definately had it’s share of violence in the past.
Army pschiatrist is what I am now hearing. Geez.
Lafayette – that’s too bad about your friend – there are 9 schools on the base and of course the whole base is locked down – but I’m sure the individual schools are too.
I left Ft. Hood last Friday. I did get a call from my manager this evening wondering where the building I worked in was in relation to the shootings. While it is a huge base (340 square miles) most of the buildings are at one end of the base – the rest is a huge training area. As it happens, I was at most 2 miles from the shootings – the building is on the other side of Battalion Ave. (the south side) from where I was – and I crossed Battalion Ave. each day driving to where I worked.
It is strange that the shooter that was killed was an army psychiatrist. Supposedly he was about to be deployed and was very much against that.
Ft. Hood is an odd place. For one thing, upon exiting there’s a huge sign right outside the main gate that says “You survived the war, now survive the roads” and has this counter that says “Days since last fatality”. Believe it or not, in all 4 of my trips there that number has never been higher than 15! When I got there this time, the first day I was there it was at 3!! I don’t know why they have so many driving fatalities there – but they do.
Then again, there’s something like 50,000 people there on base, and it is the largest active military base in the USA, and the largest US Army base in the world.
It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds as we find out more.
Indeed, shooter was from Virginia and for a time worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
“The vast site in Texas covers an area of more than 200,000 acres (340 sq miles) and is the only post in the United States capable of stationing and training two armoured divisions.
Set in rolling, semi-arid terrain, Fort Hood is located near the town of Killeen.
There are 4,929 active duty officers and 45,414 enlisted army members based there, while 17,954 family members live on site.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/05/fort-hood-army-base
I heard the shooter’s cousin from No.Va. on Fox a little while ago. He made it abundantly clear the Major was an American born in Va. and he was a graduate of Va. Tech. My friend in Ft. Hood said her daughter was finally cleared to leave school and the kids were fed dinner. This is a horrific story. They also, reported the Major was shooting at people he knew.
>>> Anti-bvbl has a special connection with Fort Hood.
Self-aggrandizement for the blog?
[No offense to GR who, truly, has a connection.]
What a horrible frightening story. If you aren’t safe at a military base, where are you safe?!
Very sad, indeed. Makes you wonder why the shooter freaked out and if there were warning signs.
There were warning signs. Evidently, he had blogged about suicide bombing being akin to throwing yourself on a bomb to protect your fellow solders, among other things.
soldiers, that is. This hits very close to home.
An army psychiatrist??? You’d think this person, of all people, would have his head wrapped pretty tight!
Another horrible story. Sigh. I do sometimes wonder if anything is worth fighting a war for anymore. I don’t really know what we are trying to accomplish. When will the mission be accomplished and how will that be determined?
Evidently he was supposed to deploy to Iraq, but reportedly did not want to go.
Mr. Howler just told me the shooter is still alive.
Mr. Hasan also is a graduate of Virginia Tech. Does it ever end for that school?
@Emma
That’s a hell of a way to show it. He still lives. Wouldn’t wanna be him.
Indeed, at a 9:30 PM news conference at Ft. Hood they corrected the misinformation that the shooter had been killed and was one of the 12 killed. He is in stable condition at a hospital. He will indeed be in for an interesting time in the military as the days progress and they start investigating and interrogating him.
The fact he’s a psychiatrist makes it even more bizarre.
There’s some indication he’s a bit of a loner, and had issues when he was at Walter Reed–possibly the reason why he was transferred to Fort Hood. I’m getting ready for another death-penalty moral struggle.
Emma those struggles are difficult. I gave up the struggle many years ago.
In general, I was having the hardest time figuring out why regular cops were involved on an army post. (and yesterday I learned from Mr. Howler that the army has posts, not bases. All other branches of the service have bases) I guess someone called the cops because miltary isn’t armed on post. That is just something I would have never even considered. I think military = readiness which includes being armed. I was wrong.
I just wanted to remind everyone that Manassas will have its Veteran’s Day parade tomorrow at 11 am. The parade committee located over 100 WWII Vets living in Manassas Area. The First Cavalry Honor Guard from Fort Hood Texas is supposed to present colors.
I think it’s going to have a lot more meaning than anyone anticipated, and I would encourage everyone to get out there and cheer on our vets and honor our active-duty soldiers.
Forgot to add that the parade will feature a Blackhawk flyover, a moment of silence and the national anthem right after the WWII veterans arrive at the reviewing stage. It sounds awesome.
What is the parade route? It all sounds very neat! Will it be televised? Thanks for that information.
The military police (or rent-a-cops which they often use) are armed. At the main gate they have someone in military uniform with a submachine gun at each entrance (like a toll booth – 4 or 5 lanes wide). This however does nothing to stop someone on the inside like what happened yesterday. Military personnel on the base aren’t usually armed unless they are participating in some exercise, which would not be in the area where the shooting occurred but further north on the base. I think police from neighboring jurisdictions were called just because they wanted all the manpower they could muster to track down any potential shooters.
I don’t know about posts vs. bases – the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps – the installations all have the word “Base” in their name. Army uses either Fort or Camp, depending on the size. When I was in South Korea that installation was called Camp Carroll – the Camps are usually much smaller in size, which this one was. I’m not sure there’s any Army installation with the word “Post” in its name – but that might be a generic way to referring to any Army installation.
Quantico also went on alert from what I have read. It makes sense to take into consideration that a base/post attack might be part of a larger plan and is not an isolated situation.
GR, I think it is the generic way to refer to any Army installation. Only they say on post, according to the all-knowing one who lives in my house. Marines, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard all say ‘base.’
Well ex-cuuuuuusssssseee me.
The parade route is the same as the Christmas parade, and ends at the Pavilion. Here’s the website:
http://www.manassasveteransparade.org/route.htm
“There shall be no standing army but in time of actual war.” –Thomas Jefferson
Goes back to the Revolution. Military Law Enforcement.
“Military Law Enforcement” should have read the “Military is NOT Law Enforcement”. Some filtering went on with my previous note.
Ring, must be on your end. Our filter equipment only throws people into moderation for being the wrong person or saying those 2 words, H and N having to do with WWII Germany.
I think you are saying something very worthwhile in your last 2 comments. Would you please expound?
Having been to many Army installations, and often heard the term “base” being used and not really hearing the term post, I did a little bit of research on this. Even on the official US Army website – there’s tons of references to Army bases – here’s just one example:
http://www.army.mil/ArmyBTKC/articles/july312006a.htm
It appears to me even in press releases the US Army at times refers to its installations as bases.
Now, the official names are usually have Fort, Camp, Barracks, Arsenal, or something like that in them, and not Base. On the other hand, a lot of Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force installations have the word Base in them.
I actually don’t think it is incorrect to refer to an Army installation as a “base” – not when I see it in a lot of places on the US Army’s official website.
That is neat about the parade in Manassas tomorrow, and with the Ft. Hood Cavalry unit.
I should mention, the 1st Cavalry has a huge museum at Ft. Hood – that anyone can visit even though it is inside Ft. Hood. You just have to obtain a visitor’s pass specifically for it at the Visitor Pass Center outside the main gate. They have a huge amount of tanks, artillery, and so on there – both US as well as captured enemy German, Russian, Iraqi, and other countries’ tanks from various wars. Really something to see.
Their website has a lot of pictures of what’s on display there at http://www.first-team.us/tableaux/apndx_12/ – in the middle of the page below the Historical Vehicle Exhibit there’s a drop down box with a list of some of the stuff there and shows pictures of them. I spent about 2 hours walking around and looking at all the tanks – each has a nice description of it, what war it was used in and when it was captured by the 1st Cavalry.
Good, then I am exonerated.
Thanks for the information on the Fort Hood Museum.
Who is going to the Veterans Day Parade tomorrow?
Glad I helped exonerate you, MH!