We’re still trying to wrap our minds around Thursday’s deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, an event that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded.
By now, you’ve likely heard the story: an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is accused of opening fire at a military readiness center (read, deployment center) at Fort Hood, killing 12 soldiers and a civilian and wounding 30. Hasan is the sole suspect in the shooting.
What would cause a man to allegedly gun down the very soldiers he has sworn to help? In nearby Killeen, Texas, a SWAT team and FBI agents were searching Hasan’s apartment Thursday and Friday, hoping to find clues to answer that very question.
We can’t answer that question. To us, this seems like a senseless tragedy.
We do wonder if Hasan had shown any signs of mental instability. A commissioned officer, we assume he had undergone numerous physical and psychological examinations during his time in the Army. After all, he had to have been in a number of years, and undergo a number of tests, to rise to that rank.
Hasan, a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent, may have been worried about an upcoming deployment to Iraq. Born in Virginia, he had never been deployed outside of the United States.
While we can’t wrap our minds around this tragedy just yet, we can relate.
When we first heard about the shooting, our minds went back to that tragic afternoon in August 2007, when an armed gunman entered First Congregational Church here in Neosho during a Micronesian worship service and gunned down three church leaders. Because of the quick actions of law enforcement, that tragedy ended without further loss of life.
Secondly, we have a National Guard base in our community. Many of our friends and neighbors serve in the 203rd Engineer Battalion and many of us are all-too-familiar with the apprehension our loved ones face as deployment dates grow nearer.
Third, as Fort Hood is one of the largest U.S. military bases in the world, many of us either served there or had friends or loved ones who did — or are.
As we still reel from the reports out of Fort Hood, we offer our most heartfelt sorrow to the families of those who lost their lives, and our fondest hope of a full and speedy recovery for those wounded in the attack. Our thoughts and prayers are definitely with our soldiers as they cope with this senseless tragedy.
DAILY NEWS
