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Posted by Paul Cook in Kempner, TX [72.173.160.50] on Friday, November 06, 2009 at 13:10:57 :
In Reply to: Message to Paul Cook... posted by LinK [71.233.253.8] on Thursday, November 05, 2009 at 19:55:27 :
My wife works there and had to stay in her office until all possible scenarios could be checked out. She got home at 9:45 PM CST last night.
There were many people that had no connections to Fort Hood but who were contacting local radio and TV stations with rumors. The authorities had to track down each rumor before declaring it was safe for folks to leave their offices.
There are 9 schools on Fort Hood - part of the Killeen School District. There are many safeguards in place to protect the children and none was ever in any jeopardy. Still, these children were confined to the schools until around 9:00 PM. It had to be hard on them spending 14 hours at school.
The authorities had to deal with the possibility of simultaneous attacks at other installations. Thank God, there were none.
My son and his family were just transferred to Fort Carson, CO. Fort Carson is closely linked with Fort Hood. All required safeguards were in place there, as well, and we have exchanged e-mails and phone calls.
We were fortunate because we knew where our loved ones were. Many other families are facing the horror of not knowing the status of their family members. The high intensity of cell phone activity significantly degraded service. Names of the dead and wounded will not be released until their relatives have been properly notified. Then we will find out if any of out friends and neighbors were victims.
We went through this ourselves during the Luby's Cafeteria massacre in nearby Killeen. We were visiting family in Ohio and the only news we had was that "a Fort Hood officer was among the dead." Our son was a Fort Hood officer.
This has affected everyone - military, retired folks like me, civilian employees, and friends and neighbors in the surrounding communities. There are some folks who commute as much as 100 miles to work at Fort Hood.
The ultimate tragedy is that units which had just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan may have had some of their troops in-processing where the shootings took place.
I hope everyone can set their personal feelings about the war aside. Leave that for the politicians. Pray for each individual soldier - dead, wounded, or just lost a "battle buddy." Pray for all of us who may have had friends and loved ones there.