The Events at Fort Hood, Texas

Sorry if today's entry is a bit disjointed and without purpose, but I felt a need to write on this subject, but did not really know what to say.

I do not think of Fort Hood as home, but it was the site of my last assignment in the military. As a sergeant in the army, I spent hours in the field there, and I lived in Copperas Cove, a community next to Fort Hood, longer than I have lived anywhere else since I graduated from University of West Florida in 1973. I have had an operation in Darnall Army Community Hospital, and have supervised and trained many soldiers while there.

If I have a place I have thought of as home nearly as long as I was in my parents' home in Warrington (Pensacola), Florida, it is Fort Hood.

It is slightly strange to watch national news, or even local news here in Atlanta, and see sights that have been familiar to me for years....streets I have driven, buildings I have entered, now the center of international interest.

Years ago, I was in Frankfurt at a military building. It was 1982 when General Dozier had been taken hostage and had been rescued. As I entered the building, I saw a lectern in the center of the entry area, with several microphones and a mass of wires. It was only later that I found out that I had just missed Mrs. Dozier's press conference.

Terrorism is, as Geico likes to say, "So easy, even a caveman can do it."

I have memories of lots of places I have been, and I have touched history either before or after the fact. I have stood where Hitler stood, seen what Ceaser saw, walked where Shakespeare walked, but this is one link to history I could do without.

It is a shame when anyone dies, and just as much a shame when a soldier dies in defense of his or her country or beliefs. It is twice a shame that those who died at Fort Hood yesterday, while still "fallen warriors" had their lives snatched away by someone who appeared to be their brother in arms.

We who have worn the uniform usually recognize a bond with all others who have done so as well. When evil befalls them, it befalls us. We feel this as naturally, and often as deeply, as if a member of our family has been involved.

Whether you, as a citizen of the U.S., agree with current events in which the military is engaged is not the point. These people, many just out of high school and in what should be some of the most exciting days of their lives, have signed away control of their lives for the purpose of defending you and the benefits you presently enjoy...including the right to disagree and express your displeasure.

Treat the government as you will. Treat the soldier, sailor, airman, marine as your brother and your sister...and never betray their trust as did Major Nidal Malik Hasan yesterday. Had Major Hasan come under attack from others, American soldiers would have come to his aid. Even after he committed the actions of yesterday, he was treated medically by some of the most professional caregivers in the world.

Even after his betrayal, those who he had renounced as his brothers and sisters, believed that it was right and proper to treat him as if he were still their brother.

Perhaps, sometimes at least, soldiers exist to protect a country which can create such an attitude in its citizens.