Southeast students reflect on Fort Hood

By: Emily Jung

Posted: 11/19/09

Fort Hood in Texas is the largest active duty armored post in the United States Armed Services according to their official website. It also says that it is many times referred to as "The Great Place" because of the great opportunities it offers to soldiers and their families.

However, on Thursday, Nov. 5, Fort Hood was not a "great place" to be when Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a professional psychiatrist at Fort Hood, shot and killed twelve soldiers and one civilian employee and wounded 43 others.

The soldiers were preparing to deploy to Iraq when Hasan, armed with two handguns, fired at least 100 rounds on the base, according to the website.

All over the United States people were shocked to hear about this deadly shooting. Students here at Southeast are feeling the effects.

Kent Walker, a junior at Southeast majoring in English Literature, served as a Sergeant full time in the Army from 2001 to 2005. Walker was deployed to Iraq twice in this time.

"It just didn't make sense to me," Walker said. "He had to be severely mentally ill."

Walker just couldn't understand how Hasan, being both a Major and a psychiatrist, could do such a thing.

"We are not fighting Iraq," Walker said. "We are fighting the extremists who want to cause chaos in Iraq, and Hasan took sides with these extremists."

"He had so many layers of doing good not just for the military but for mankind as a whole," Walker said. "He ruined all this for his extremist views."

Soldiers are not allowed to carry guns on base for a very simple reason.

"It is this way because we all trust each other," Walker said.

Tristan Ketterling is a senior here at Southeast majoring in Exercise Science. He is a member of the Missouri National Guard and has been for about a year and a half.

Ketterling just recently returned from training at Fort Sam Houston also in Texas near Fort Hood.

"It makes me think about what could have happened to me during my training duration," Ketterling said.

Ketterling was also shocked that such a high ranking officer would commit such an act.

"Officers are respected figures in the military and to see this kind of conduct is appalling," Ketterling said.

Walker believes that it all comes down to acceptance and that Hasan, being Muslim, didn't feel accepted in the military. In contrast, Walker always felt very accepted and said that it was one of the great things about the military because you lost the racism.

There are people of all races in the military fighting for the United States, Hasan was not alone.

The event at Fort Hood has caused Walker to question the military a little, because they ignored this problem and it could have been solved sooner.

"I think this occurred while he was in the military which means there are probably more people like him," Walker said.

This leads to the question: what is going to be done in the future to prevent this kind of event from reoccurring?

Fetterling said there is obviously going to be even tighter security than before as a result of the Fort Hood event.

"There will be more strict checkpoints entering and exiting the base, and there will also be a more thorough observation of officers and enlisted soldiers," Fetterling said. "I believe that these security measures will not be limited to Fort Hood either."

As for the Hasan's future, we do not know.

"I believe that the military will not handle this case lightly," Fetterling said. "The families of these soldiers will never be able to forget what has happened."

"Justice will play its role, and I am thankful for that," Walker said.