Tragic

This isn’t a deployment related post. I’m still in shock over what unfolded yesterday at Ft Hood, TX. The final count today was 13 killed, 31 wounded when a US Army Major opened fire in the Soldier Readiness Facility. For those that don’t know, each post has one of these. It is where soldiers preparing to deploy finalize dental appointments, paperwork, etc, and where soldiers returning home from deployment stop to in process. We are talking about soldiers and families that thought their biggest danger was going to a war zone, and soldiers and families who thought the worst danger was behind them. Attacked by one of their own.  Worse, by someone that took a vow of "First do no harm", and by someone in a position of leadership.

The first thing I thought of was my friend Ms Mo and her three girls. They’re stationed there, and her husband is currently deployed. As soon as I heard I fired off a Text message, and breathed a sigh of relief when she replied they were ok. After that I didn’t know what to think.

I’m trying not to speculate along with the press. We just don’t know enough about the guy. I do know it doesn’t matter what his faith was. It doesn’t matter how he was dressed at the 7-11 the night before. He murdered his brothers in arms. He terrified an entire community. He destroyed families. And my thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by his actions.