The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Politics => Topic started by: 5412 on November 14, 2009, 10:12:36 PM
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Hi everyone,
I received the following email and have no way to verify if it is true. If it isn't the author has one hell of an imagination; however the person who sent it to me is not prone to pass along stuff that is trash.
One way or another it is a very interesting read to say the least.
regards,
5412
This was sent to me by a brother Marine, who got it from a friend
stationed at Ft. Hood.
What happened.
Since I don't know when I'll sleep (it's 4 a.m., now) I'll write what
happened (the abbreviated version...the long one is already part of
the investigation with more to come). I'll not write about any part
of the investigation that I've learned about since (as a witness I
know more than I should since inevitably my JAG brothers and sisters
are deeply involved in the investigation).
Don't assume that most of the current media accounts are very
accurate. They're not. They'll improve with time. Only those of us
who were there really know what went down. But as they collate our
statements they'll get it right.
I did my SRP last week (Soldier Readiness Processing) but you're
supposed to come back a week later to have them look at the smallpox
vaccination site (it's this big itchy growth on your shoulder). I am
probably alive because I pulled a ---------- and entered the wrong
building first (the main SRP building). The Medical SRP building is
off to the side. Realizing my mistake I left the main building and
walked down the sidewalk to the medical SRP building.
As I'm walking up to it the gunshots start. Slow and methodical. But
continuous. Two ambulatory wounded came out, then two soldiers
dragging a third who was covered in blood. Hearing the shots but not
seeing the shooter, along with a couple other soldiers I stood in the
street and yelled at everyone who came running that it was clear but
to "RUN!" I kept motioning people fast.
About 6-10 minutes later (the shooting continuous), two cops ran up;
one male, one female. We pointed in the direction of the shots. They
headed that way (the medical SRP building was about 50 meters away).
Then a lot more gunfire. A couple minutes later a balding man in
ACU's came around the building carrying a pistol and holding it
tactically.
He started shooting at us and we all dived back to the cars behind us.
I don't think he hit the couple other guys who were there. I did see
the bullet holes later in the cars. First I went behind a tire and
then looked under the body of the car. I've been trained how to
respond to gunfire...but with my own weapon. To have no weapon I
don't know how to explain what that felt like.
I hadn't run away and stayed because I had thought about the
consequences or anything like that. I wasn't thinking anything
through. Please understand, there was no intention. I was just
staying there because I didn't think about running. It never occurred
to me that he might shoot me until he started shooting in my direction
and I realized I was unarmed.
Then the female cop comes around the corner. He shoots her
(according to the news accounts she got a round into him. I believe
it, I just didn't see it. He didn't go down.) She goes down. He
starts reloading. He's fiddling with his mags. Weirdly he hasn't
dropped the one that was in his weapon. He's holding the fresh one
and the old one (you do that on the range when time is not of the
essence but in combat you would just let the old mag go).
I see the male cop around the left corner of the building. (I'm about
15-20 meters from the shooter.) I yell at the cop, "He's reloading,
he's reloading. Shoot him! Shoot him! You have to understand,
everything was quiet at this point. The cop appears to hear me and
comes around the corner and shoots the shooter. He goes down. The
cop kicks his weapon further away.
I sprint up to the downed female cop. Another captain (I think he was
with me behind the cars) comes up as well. She's bleeding profusely
out of her thigh. We take our belts off and tourniquet her just like
we've been trained (I hope we did it right...we didn't have any CLS
(combat lifesaver) bags with their awesome tourniquets on us, so we
worked with what we had).
Meanwhile, in the most bizarre moment of the day, a photographer was
standing over us taking pictures. I suppose I'll be seeing those
tomorrow. Then a soldier came up and identified himself as a medic.
I then realized her weapon was lying there unsecured (and on "fire").
I stood over it and when I saw a cop yelled for him to come over and
secure her weapon (I would have done so but I was worried someone
would mistake me for a bad guy). I then went over to the shooter. He
was unconscious. A Lt Colonel was there and had secured his primary
weapon for the time being. He also had a revolver.
I couldn't believe he was one of ours. I didn't want to believe it.
Then I saw his name and rank and realized this wasn't just some
specialist with mental issues. At this point there was a guy there
from CID and I asked him if he knew he was the shooter and had him
secured. He said he did. I then went over the slaughter house...the
medical SRP building.
No human should ever have to see what that looked like, and I won't
tell you. Just believe me. Please, there was nothing to be done
there. Someone then said there was someone critically wounded around
the corner. I ran around (while seeing this floor to ceiling window
that someone had jumped through movie style) and saw a large
African-American soldier lying on his back with two or three soldiers
attending. I ran up and identified two entrance wounds on the right
side of his stomach, one exit wound on the left side and one head
wound. He was not bleeding externally from the stomach wounds (though
almost certainly internally) but was bleeding from the head wound.
A soldier was using a shirt to try and stop the head bleeding. He was
conscious so I began talking to him to keep him so. He was 42, from
North Carolina, he was named something Jr., his son was named
something the III and he had a daughter as well. His children lived
with him. He was divorced. I told him the blubber on his stomach
saved his life. He smiled.
A young soldier in civvies showed up and identified himself as a
combat medic. We debated whether to put him on the back of a pickup
truck. A doctor (well, an audiologist) showed up and said you can't
move him, he has a head wound. We finally sat tight. I went back to
the slaughterhouse. They weren't letting anyone in there not even
medics.
Finally, after about 45 minutes had elapsed some cops showed up in
tactical vests. Someone said the TBI building was unsecured. They
headed into there. All of a sudden a couple more shots were fired.
People shouted there was a second shooter. A half hour later the SWAT
showed up. There was no second shooter; that had been an impetuous
cop apparently. But that confused things for a while.
Meanwhile, I went back to the shooter. The female cop had been taken
away, and a medic was pumping plasma into the shooter. I'm not proud
of this but I went up to her and said "this is the shooter, is there
anyone else who needs attention...do them first." She indicated
everyone else living was attended to. I still hadn't seen any EMTs or
ambulances.
I had so much blood on me that people kept asking me if I was ok. But
that was all other people's blood. Eventually, (an hour and a half to
two hours after the shootings) they started landing choppers. They
took out the big African American guy and the shooter. I guess the
ambulatory wounded were all at the SRP building. Everyone else in my
area was dead.
I suppose the emergency responders were told there were multiple
shooters. I heard that was the delay with the choppers (they were all
civilian helicopters). They needed a secure LZ, but other than the
initial cops who did everything right, I didnt' see a lot of them for
a while.
I did see many a soldier rush out to help their fellows/sisters.
There was one female soldier, I dont' know her name or rank but I
would recognize her anywhere, who was everywhere helping people. A
couple people, mainly civilians, were hysterical, but only a couple.
One civilian freaked out when I tried to comfort her when she saw my
uniform. I guess she had seen the shooter up close. A lot of
soldiers were rushing out to help even when we thought there was
another gunman out there.
This Army is not broken no matter what the pundits say. Not the Army I saw.
And then they kept me for a long time to come. Oh, and perhaps the
most surreal thing, at 1500 (the end of the workday on Thursdays) when
the bugle sounded we all came to attention and saluted the flag in the
middle of it all.
This is what I saw. It can't have been real, but this is my small
corner of what happened.
=
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