I remember November 5, 2009 and spent most of it locked down at Palmer theater at Fort Hood. That morning I was preparing for a deployment to Iraq and had two things left on my pre-deployment checklist. One was the SRP site (we do a medical screening for pre-deployment/post-deployment there, hearing, vision etc.) where the shooting occurred and the other was a cultural awareness briefing at Palmer theater. I chose the latter simply because I didn't want to wait in lines that morning and I was slightly hungover. I decided to go to Palmer theater and try to sneak some shuteye while they gave us a very boring powerpoint explaining how to avoid offending Muslims during our deployment.
My friend Matt chose to go to SRP and was seriously wounded. The shooter was one of our own, an Army officer. The entire post was locked down, and cell phones nearly became useless. I am assuming that because people were trying to call their loved ones, the volume of calls and texts slowed the networks. In the theater, we had no idea what was happening just down the road.
In the early afternoon, we managed to get on a news website on someones phone and there were multiple shooters. We came to find out later that this was not true at all and Nidal Hasan was in fact the sole shooter. When the all clear was given (after Hasan had been shot and paralyzed), we returned to our units. Upon arrival, I saw a Soldier that had blood on him, and was not wearing his entire uniform. He had been shot, and I was trying to figure out why he wasn't at the hospital, and everyone seemed alright with this. He had apparently already been, but the bullet was unable to be removed at that time.
Coming back on to Fort Hood was very difficult. Both because of security being very tight, and not knowing how we should move on from this. As I drove through the main gate for the first time after the shooting, I noticed that there were shipping containers stacked high surrounding the parade field of the Headquarters building for III Corps. I found out later that then President Obama was to make a visit to the post. A couple weeks later, they brought in all of these famous musicians and a bunch of carnival rides as a signal to put this behind us.
At the SRP site, which was eventually torn down, there was a building next to it that was part of the processing that was still used. From there we could see the areas that we weren't allowed to go because it was still an active investigation. There were military police that now stood at the front door of the building and would have us empty our pockets, and they would use a wand to detect anything in our pockets. It was a somber time because we all felt betrayed. How could one of our own kill and wound so many?
13 people were murdered that day, and an additional 32 wounded. Nearly 4 years later, August 28, 2013, Hasan was sentenced to death. I have my reservations whether I believe that will ever happen. President Obama called it workplace violence, ignoring that the FBI knew that Hasan was communicating with a known terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki. Hasan had communicated with Awlaki for a year leading up to his assault on the Soldiers of Ft Hood.
It took until 2015 for the government to recognize this as a terror attack and award the 47 Purple Hearts to the dead and wounded. Where many think of this as closure, it is really just the beginning for the surviving victims. This award isn't simply a pat on the back, it allowed the survivors very needed benefits to help them move forward in the future. The victims are quickly forgotten by the people because the story leaves the headlines. Now they are trying to cope with that day that everyone seems to have forgotten.