News of Thursday's massacre at Ft. Hood, Texas, apparently at the hands of a U.S. Army psychiatrist, quickly spread to military bases throughout the country.
Army officials at Ft. Hood say a police officer and eleven soldiers were gunned down by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as troops gathered at a readiness facility in preparation for deployment overseas.
"It's disappointing whenever a soldier does that,” said Evan Esquivel of the 25th Infantry Division, who returned home to Hawaii Thursday after a twelve month deployment to Iraq. “It's very disappointing, especially if it's another soldier.”
At least 30 people were wounded in the shooting spree inside the largest U.S. military base in the world. Ft. Hood is a sprawling facility covering 339 square miles and is home to more than 50,000 troops.
Initial reports said Maj. Hasan, the alleged gunman, had been killed by security forces responding to the shooting. However that was later recanted with updated reports that Hasan was still alive and was being treated at a local hospital.
Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen, commander of the 25th Infantry Division Headquarters, expressed his condolences to the families of those who had been killed or wounded in the attack. Caslen was part of the last contingent of Hawaii troops returning to the islands from the Iraqi theatre.
"I had heard that there was loss of life and I'm very sad to see that,” he said. “That's unfortunate.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow military families and friends who have been affected by the tragic shootings at Fort Hood, Texas” added Col. Matthew Margotta, the commander of U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii.
While it’s against Army policy to discuss installation security, Margotta said appropriate measures were in place at all of Hawaii’s military bases and that threat assessments were being conducted “as necessary.”
According to the Associated Press, Hasan had expressed anger about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.
Maj. Gen. Caslen says there are many programs available to soldiers who may be experiencing stress about being deployed overseas or those coming back home from a war zone.
"I would say that both here in Hawaii and with the United States Army that they're going to extremes to provide the counseling and the mental health assessments and the mental health counseling that's necessary to help our soldiers to get through that,” he said.
Although his thoughts remain with the victims, Caslen is certain the Army will glean valuable information from the tragedy at Ft. Hood and take steps to prevent future incidents.
“Whenever something like this happens we do the necessary investigations,” said the major general. “We determine what the lessons learned are from there and then we apply them, not only locally but a lot of those lessons may have application across the (entire) Army.”
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