BREAKING: SHOOTING AT FORT HOOD

[The Romulan Republic]

You can tell a lot about a person by his name. "Malik Nadal Hasan" suggests he was either raised in an Islamic household, or decided to convert at some point. It isn't too hard to make the leap from there.

Its pretty fucking bigoted to jump from a suspect having a Muslim name to assuming that any act of violence committed by that person must have been an act of terrorism. Its suggestive, but there are a lot of other possible things going on here.

[Lonestar]

Its pretty fucking bigoted to jump from a suspect having a Muslim name to assuming that any act of violence committed by that person must have been an act of terrorism. Its suggestive, but there are a lot of other possible things going on here.

No, it isn't. Like I said, we can determine a lot about the person just from the name alone(either raised Muslim or a convert). That he went on a rampage on an Army base while we're involved in two wars on Muslim Land(tm) lends to the "fanatical-ism of the converted" theory. He's just likely to be unbalanced as well.

I might add that I never said that that must be the reason. But one often tries to justify one's actions to himself, and "sudden Jihadi syndrome" is as good a justification as "I was picked on in school" and "I'm a 42-year old E5".

[Medic]

Interesting news from III Corps CG on the news: the shooter ISN'T dead and neither is the civilian police officer, both contradicting earlier reports.

Actually, I'd say those are BOTH great news, not just the police officer. These mass-murderers typically murder-suicide and never face the justice and guilt they deserve. Not a one has ever deserved to go down in a blaze of glory and for once, one won't.


PS -- obviously I'm okay. ... thankfully, no one I know was there, either.

edit: on Hasan, according to an FNC interview (Shepard Smith, so not so bad) they called his cousin or he called them and said that he was always muslim, not a convert.

[Qwerty 42]

Glad to hear you're okay. Hopefully they get this disaster sorted out as soon as possible.

[hongi]

USA Today.

Update at 8:12 p.m. ET: FOX News interviewed Col. Terry Lee, who worked with Hasan. Here are some excerpts Fox provided:

"He said, 'Maybe the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor." At first we thought he was talking about how Muslims should stand up and help the armed forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan, but apparently that wasn't the case."

"He would make comments to other individuals about how we should not be in the war in the first place… He made those comments and he stuck strongly to his faith, but, as soldiers we have a duty to follow orders from our commander in chief and our political views are set aside."

"He was hoping that President Obama would pull troops out. ... When things weren't going that way he became more agitated, more frustrated with the conflicts over there. ... He made his views well known about how he felt about the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."

This is going to have nasty consequences.

[hongi]

The Beebs.

Asked whether the shootings were a terrorist act, Lt Gen Cone said: "I couldn't rule that out but I'm telling you that right now, the evidence does not suggest that."

Basically, we don't know the motive right now. Was he part of a terrorist organisation? Was he a fundamentalist extremist? Was he opposed to the war because of his faith?

[Haruko]

This is all I have to say about the Muslim aspect of this story:



"I'm also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said such things as: 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is: he is not a Muslim. He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is: No, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she can be President?
Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion: he's a Muslim, and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards -- Purple Heart, Bronze Star -- showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life."
— Colin Powell, while speaking on Meet The Press on 19 October, 2008.

[hongi]

Regardless of why he killed so many people, I hope he pulls through. Dying while unconscious would be a mockery to those dead, he needs to be brought to justice.

[tezunegari]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33678801/ns ... and_courts

[...]
Poor performance evaluation
U.S. officials said Hasan was an Army psychiatrist, NBC News reported. Defense officials said Hasan, 39, arrived at Fort Hood in July after practicing for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, which included a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry.

At Walter Reed, Hasan received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

There was no official word on motive. But Hasan was scheduled to be deployed overseas on Nov. 28, officials said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials had told her that Hasan was “pretty upset” about his deployment, which she said was to be to Iraq.

Image: Nidal Malik Hassan
cstsonline.org
Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan was described as ‘upset’ about his pending deployment to Iraq.
The Associated Press, quoting federal law enforcement officials, said Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats. The officials said they were still trying to confirm that he was the author.

Medical records on file in Virginia, where Hasan was born and was registered to practice, and Maryland, where he received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, revealed no disciplinary actions or formal complaints.
[...]

So it seems he went balloney because he had an upcoming deployment in Iraq.
If he was unwilling to go into a warzone what was he doing in a professional military?!

[Hillary]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33678801/ns ... and_courts

[...]
Poor performance evaluation
U.S. officials said Hasan was an Army psychiatrist, NBC News reported. Defense officials said Hasan, 39, arrived at Fort Hood in July after practicing for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, which included a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry.

At Walter Reed, Hasan received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

There was no official word on motive. But Hasan was scheduled to be deployed overseas on Nov. 28, officials said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials had told her that Hasan was “pretty upset” about his deployment, which she said was to be to Iraq.

Image: Nidal Malik Hassan
cstsonline.org
Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan was described as ‘upset’ about his pending deployment to Iraq.
The Associated Press, quoting federal law enforcement officials, said Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats. The officials said they were still trying to confirm that he was the author.

Medical records on file in Virginia, where Hasan was born and was registered to practice, and Maryland, where he received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, revealed no disciplinary actions or formal complaints.
[...]

So it seems he went balloney because he had an upcoming deployment in Iraq.
If he was unwilling to go into a warzone what was he doing in a professional military?!

So it seems that you've decided to pass judgement based on pure speculation. Well done.

We will find out his reasons in due course. The fact that there seems to have been three people involved suggest that the "I don't want to be deployed" motive is unlikely to be true. After all, there are much better ways of avoiding a tour than shooting 40 odd colleagues.

[jegs2]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33678801/ns ... and_courts

[...]
Poor performance evaluation
U.S. officials said Hasan was an Army psychiatrist, NBC News reported. Defense officials said Hasan, 39, arrived at Fort Hood in July after practicing for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, which included a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry.

At Walter Reed, Hasan received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

There was no official word on motive. But Hasan was scheduled to be deployed overseas on Nov. 28, officials said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials had told her that Hasan was “pretty upset” about his deployment, which she said was to be to Iraq.

Image: Nidal Malik Hassan
cstsonline.org
Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan was described as ‘upset’ about his pending deployment to Iraq.
The Associated Press, quoting federal law enforcement officials, said Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats. The officials said they were still trying to confirm that he was the author.

Medical records on file in Virginia, where Hasan was born and was registered to practice, and Maryland, where he received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, revealed no disciplinary actions or formal complaints.
[...]

So it seems he went balloney because he had an upcoming deployment in Iraq.
If he was unwilling to go into a warzone what was he doing in a professional military?!

... or why didn't he turn the gun on himself and do the honorable thing, instead of murdering 13 of the Soldiers he was sworn to protect?

[Knife]

So it seems he went balloney because he had an upcoming deployment in Iraq.

It's a possibility, though too early to say. If he did, he wouldn't be the first ever, though the list of those killing others instead of just suicide is a bit shorter.

If he was unwilling to go into a warzone what was he doing in a professional military?!

I'm assuming, so take from that what you will, that the Government paid for his PhD, which is why he was a Major. As I understand it, a doctor gets a bump to O-3 (captain in the army) for being a doc.

[Guardsman Bass]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33678801/ns ... and_courts

[...]
Poor performance evaluation
U.S. officials said Hasan was an Army psychiatrist, NBC News reported. Defense officials said Hasan, 39, arrived at Fort Hood in July after practicing for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, which included a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry.

At Walter Reed, Hasan received a poor performance evaluation, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

There was no official word on motive. But Hasan was scheduled to be deployed overseas on Nov. 28, officials said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials had told her that Hasan was “pretty upset” about his deployment, which she said was to be to Iraq.

Image: Nidal Malik Hassan
cstsonline.org
Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan was described as ‘upset’ about his pending deployment to Iraq.
The Associated Press, quoting federal law enforcement officials, said Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats. The officials said they were still trying to confirm that he was the author.

Medical records on file in Virginia, where Hasan was born and was registered to practice, and Maryland, where he received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, revealed no disciplinary actions or formal complaints.
[...]

So it seems he went balloney because he had an upcoming deployment in Iraq.
If he was unwilling to go into a warzone what was he doing in a professional military?!

So it seems that you've decided to pass judgement based on pure speculation. Well done.

We will find out his reasons in due course. The fact that there seems to have been three people involved suggest that the "I don't want to be deployed" motive is unlikely to be true. After all, there are much better ways of avoiding a tour than shooting 40 odd colleagues.

I had thought they dismissed the other two suspects - Hasan acted alone.

In any case, it's not entirely speculation. The New York Times is reporting that he'd been against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and had been trying to prevent his deployment (which was actually going to be to Afghanistan):

November 7, 2009
Suspect Was to Be Sent to Afghanistan
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Investigators began piecing together on Friday how and why an Army psychiatrist facing deployment to Afghanistan gunned down dozens of people a day earlier at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, in one of the worst mass shootings ever on an American military base.

The gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was shot four times by a Fort Hood police officer responding to the scene. Mr. Hasan remained hospitalized on a ventilator on Friday morning, but was in stable condition, Army officials said at a news conference held at the entrance to the base.

Army officials said they had declared a day of mourning on the base for the 13 people killed — 12 soldiers and one civilian — and 28 wounded in the rampage.

Col. John Rossi, an Army spokesman, told reporters that investigators were examining whether Mr. Hasan had registered the two handguns used in the shooting. Major Hasan is the sole suspect.

“He could have just brought it onto the installation,” Colonel Rossi said.

Army officials said that about half the people injured in the shooting had undergone surgery, and all were in stable condition. In interviews with reporters on Friday, they praised the police officer who shot Major Hasan, Kimberly Munley, saying she and her partner had arrived within three minutes of reports of gunfire and put an end to the rampage.

But a day after the shooting unfolded, much still remained unknown about Major Hasan’s life, motive and his forthcoming military assignment, or the lives of the victims, whose names were being withheld until all family members had been notified.

The family of Michael Pearson, 21, from Bolingbrook, Ill. in suburban Chicago, confirmed that he had died after being shot three times. Mr. Pearson, the youngest of four siblings, joined the Army about a year ago, and was set to be deployed to Iraq in January, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Clad in a military uniform and firing an automatic pistol and another weapon, Major Hasan, a balding, chubby-faced man with heavy eyebrows, sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center for soldiers returning from or about to be sent overseas, military officials said.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, a base spokesman, was asked about reports that Major Hasan had yelled “Allahu Akbar” — an Arabic expression for “God is great” — during the shooting. General Cone said soldiers at the scene had reported “similar” accounts.

The victims were cut down in clusters, the officials said. Witnesses told military investigators that medics working at the center tore open the clothing of the dead and wounded to get at the wounds and administer first aid.

As the shooting unfolded, military police and civilian officers of the Department of the Army responded and returned the gunman’s fire, officials said, adding that Major Hasan was shot by a first-responder, who was herself wounded in the exchange.

.

General Cone said that terrorism was not being ruled out, but that preliminary evidence did not suggest that the rampage had been an act of terrorism. Fox News quoted a retired Army colonel, Terry Lee, as saying that Major Hasan, with whom he worked, had voiced hope that President Obama would pull American troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, had argued with military colleagues who supported the wars and had tried to prevent his own deployment.

The rampage recalled other mass shootings in the United States, including 13 killed at a center for immigrants in upstate New York last April, the deaths of 10 during a gunman’s rampage in Alabama in March and 32 people killed at Virginia Tech in 2007, the deadliest shooting in modern American history.

As a widespread investigation by the military, the F.B.I. and other agencies began, much about the assault in Texas remained unclear. Department of Homeland Security officials said the Army would take the lead in the investigation.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, and John M. McHugh, the Army secretary, were traveling to Fort Hood. The Army also said it was sending chaplains and mental health professionals to the base to help with the emotional aftermath of the shooting. A federal law enforcement official said the F.B.I. was sending more agents to join the inquiry. On Thursday night, F.B.I. agents were interviewing residents of a townhouse complex in the Washington suburb of Kensington, Md., where Major Hasan had lived before moving to Texas, and news footage from Killeen, Tex., showed law enforcement officers surrounding an apartment complex where Mr. Hasan had lived.

Mr. Obama called the shootings “a horrific outburst of violence” and urged Americans to pray for those who were killed and wounded.

“It is difficult enough when we lose these men and women in battles overseas,” he said. “It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.”

The president pledged “to get answers to every single question about this horrible incident.”

Military records indicated that Major Hasan was single, had been born in Virginia, had never served abroad and listed “no religious preference” on his personnel records. Three other soldiers, their roles unclear, were taken into custody in connection with the rampage. The office of Representative John Carter, Republican of Texas, said they were later released, but a Fort Hood spokesman could not confirm that. General Cone said that more than 100 people had been questioned during the day.

Fort Hood, near Killeen and 100 miles south of Dallas-Fort Worth, is the largest active duty military post in the United States, 340 square miles of training and support facilities and homes, a virtual city for more than 50,000 military personnel and some 150,000 family members and civilian support personnel. It has been a major center for troops being deployed to or returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The base was open again but under heightened security Friday morning after going into lockdown shortly after the shootings. Gates were closed and barriers put up at all entrance and exit checkpoints, and the military police turned away all but essential personnel. Schools on the base were closed, playgrounds were deserted and sidewalks were empty. Sirens wailed across the base through the afternoon, a warning to military personnel and their families to remain indoors.

Military commanders were instructed to account for all personnel on the base.

“The immediate concern is to make sure that all of our soldiers and family members are safe, and that’s what commanders have been instructed to do,” said Jay Adams of the First Army, Division West, at Ford Hood.

General Cone said the shooting took place about 1:30 p.m., inside a complex of buildings that he called a Soldier Readiness Processing Center. The type of weapons used was unclear, and it was not known whether the gunman had reloaded, although it seemed likely, given that more than 40 people were shot, perhaps more than once.

All the victims were gunned down “in the same area,” General Cone said.

As the shootings ended, scores of emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, which is in the center of the fort, and dozens of ambulances carried the shooting victims to hospitals in the region.

Both of the handguns used by Major Hasan were recovered at the scene, officials said. Investigators said the major’s computers, cellphones and papers would be examined, his past investigated and his friends, relatives and military acquaintances would be interviewed in an effort to develop a profile of him and try to learn what had motivated his deadly outburst.

Major Hasan was assigned to the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood.

The weapons used in the attack were described as “civilian” handguns. Security experts said the fact that two handguns had been used suggested premeditation, as opposed to a spontaneous act.

Rifles and assault weapons are conspicuous and not ordinarily seen on the streets of a military post, and medical personnel would have no reason to carry any weapon, they said. Moreover, security experts noted, it took a lot of ammunition to shoot so many people, another indication of premeditation.

It appeared certain that the shootings would generate a whole new look at questions of security on military posts of all the armed forces in the United States. Expressions of dismay were voiced by public officials across the country.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, speaking for many American Muslims, condemned the shootings as a “heinous incident” and said, “We share the sentiment of our president.”

The council added, “Our entire organization extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed as well as those wounded and their loved ones.”

General Cone said Fort Hood was “absolutely devastated.”

News of the shooting set off panic among families and friends of the base personnel. Alyssa Marie Seace’s husband, Pfc. Ray Seace Jr., sent her a text message just before 2 p.m. saying that someone had “shot up the S.R.P. building,” referring to the Soldier Readiness Processing Center. He told her he was “hiding.”

Ms. Seace, 18, who lives about five minutes from the base and had not been watching the news, reacted with alarm. She texted him back but got no response. She called her father in Connecticut, who told her not to call her husband because it might reveal his hiding place.

Finally, 45 minutes later, her husband, a mechanic who is scheduled to deploy to Iraq in February, texted back to say that three people from his unit had been hit and that a dozen people in all were dead.

By late afternoon, the sirens at Fort Hood had fallen silent. In Killeen, state troopers were parked on ridges overlooking the two main highways through town. In residential areas, the only signs of life were cars moving through the streets. In the business districts, people went about their business.

In 1991, Killeen was the scene of one of the worst mass killings in American history. A gunman drove his pickup truck through the window of a cafeteria, fatally shot 22 people with a handgun, then killed himself.

Fort Hood, opened in September 1942 as America geared up for World War II, was named for Gen. John Bell Hood of the Confederacy. It has been used continuously for armor training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.

It is a place that feels, on ordinary days, like one of the safest in the world, surrounded by those who protect the nation with their lives. It is home to nine schools — seven elementary schools and two middle schools, for the children of personnel. But on Thursday, the streets were lined with emergency vehicles, their lights flashing and sirens piercing the air as Texas Rangers and state troopers took up posts at the gates to seal the base.

Shortly after 7 p.m., the sirens sounded again and over the loudspeakers a woman’s voice that could be heard all over the base announced in a clipped military fashion: “Declared emergency no longer exists.”

The gates reopened, and a stream of cars and trucks that had been bottled up for hours began to move out.

[Hillary]

Fair enough - although I'd still like to wait until something official comes out before we start to jump to conclusions.

It is often the case that initial comments from "colleagues" are exaggerated somewhat as they try to grapple with what on earth could have caused one of their own to go off like that. Being unhappy at going to Afghanistan of Iraq (a pretty rational viewpoint) could easily have been blown up into him being utterly desperate not to go.

As I said, we'll find out in due course. Before then, it is not really helpful to speculate.

[Guardsman Bass]

Fair enough - although I'd still like to wait until something official comes out before we start to jump to conclusions.

It is often the case that initial comments from "colleagues" are exaggerated somewhat as they try to grapple with what on earth could have caused one of their own to go off like that. Being unhappy at going to Afghanistan of Iraq (a pretty rational viewpoint) could easily have been blown up into him being utterly desperate not to go.

As I said, we'll find out in due course. Before then, it is not really helpful to speculate.

I agree. We'll probably find out a good deal in the trial process, seeing as how it's likely he'll survive (by the way, assuming he did go Crazy Jihadist, he missed his chance at martyrdom. Now he'll go through a trial, get everything squeezed out of him, and then go on to execution).

[Guardsman Bass]

The Wall Street Journal has a fairly extensive profile of him up, although I can't vouch for its accuracy:

A Helper With Worries of His Own
Coming Deployment to Iraq Said to Have Upset Maj. Hasan, Who Specialized in Treating Other Soldiers

By BEN CASSELMAN, ANN ZIMMERMAN and MIGUEL BUSTILLO

The U.S. Army major who allegedly went on a killing rampage at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas was a psychiatrist who specialized in helping soldiers deal with the emotional stresses of combat -- and he had anxieties of his own about entering war zones.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39 years old, was held by security forces Thursday after allegedly killing 12 people and wounding dozens of others, weeks before he was set to be deployed to Iraq.

He is a Virginia native of Jordanian descent, military sources said. He grew up in Vinton, a small town outside Roanoke, and graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1995, where he was listed on the honor roll.

At Virginia Tech, Maj. Hasan was enrolled in the school's Army ROTC Program, according to defense officials, and subsequently became an Army mental-health professional, graduating in 2003 from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., which trains military physicians. He performed his medical residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, completing it in 2007.

Maj. Hasan then served as a fellow in Walter Reed's Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry Unit, according to his profile with the Virginia Board of Medicine. He was promoted to major last year and was transferred to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center.

Faizul Khan, the former imam of a mosque in Silver Spring, Md., where Maj. Hasan prayed sometimes five days a week, said he was "a reserved guy with a nice personality. We discussed religious matters. He was a fairly devout Muslim." Mr. Khan said that Maj. Hasan was also interested in meeting a wife through a program the mosque sponsored.

On the Muslim Matrimonial Inquiry Form for the Islamic Society of the Washington Area, an application filled out by those seeking to marry, Maj. Hasan wrote about himself: "Quiet, reserved until more familiar with person. Funny, caring and personable."

He also listed his height at 5 feet, 6 inches and his weight at 190 pounds. The form lists his date of birth as Sept. 8, 1970. He also described himself as of Palestinian descent. His mother's 2001 obituary in the Roanoke Times said she was born in Palestine in 1952.

On the application, he said he spoke minimal Arabic.

A former neighbor of Maj. Hasan from Vinton, David Cook, 43, who lived on the same street with his children until about 1997, said two sons were living with Maj. Hasan at that time, and they attended local schools. "He always seemed to be working. He was always gone," said Mr. Cook. "He basically kept to himself."

"As far as I know, he was a single father. I never saw a wife," he said.

Maj. Hasan's professional specialties included treating soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental problems stemming from the ordeal of military combat and other grave stresses.

But, soon to be pressed into an overseas military assignment, Maj. Hasan may have developed emotional issues of his own.

Pentagon officials said Thursday that Maj. Hasan had indicated he was deeply upset about a pending deployment to Iraq in coming weeks.

A former Fort Hood colleague, retired Col. Terry Lee, told Fox News that Maj. Hasan would often make "outlandish" comments about combat. A Muslim, he was sometimes vocal about the war.

"He said maybe Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," Col. Lee told Fox News, adding, "Other times he would make comments we shouldn't be in the war in the first place."

[The Yosemite Bear]

Well from what I've read of the shep smith interview he was being harrassed at work, and schedualed for deployment. So we just had an army officer "Go Postal" from the looks of it...

[KrauserKrauser]

I actually graduated from Virginia Tech a year after this guy and was in the Corps of Cadets around the time he would have been in.

Have there been any photos of him posted? I might actually know the man a bit more than I thought.

Looking at the grainy photos that are on cnn I can't say it rings a bell. I'll look in my yearbooks and see if I can find him.

Never mind, he graduated in 97 and I didn't start at Tech until 2000 so no chance of knowing him.

[Coyote]

My personal feeling is that we have a guy who joined the military to pay for college, and never seriously contemplated that he'd actually have to go fight anywhere. Especially as a psychologist, something probably seen as nice and safe.

Once the war started in A-stan and Iraq, he probably started getting apprehensive and realized his butt could be in danger, and his morale and attitude started going downhill. Being picked on as a Muslim, if that happened, probably didn't help.

So I think he started "identifying" with his "Muslim brothers" (with whom he probably does not have any actual, real ties with) and as his deployment loomed closer and closer, and it came down to the wire and he knew he was going to be sent regardless, he decided to use his "Muslim identiy" as a cover for the real problem: he pussed out.

[Sela]

*snip*

Dont' know much about military myself; but can you really "puss out" and slink by yet remain in the military long enough to become a Major? Or phrased alternately, can the 2-4 years of service (or whatever amount it is) that you agree to for the college loan actually be long enough to rise that high when you're really only in the military half-assed?

That's why I think your theory isn't all too likely. He would have been out before now. Do we have any record of when he first entered or how long his tour is?

[Coyote]

*snip*

Dont' know much about military myself; but can you really "puss out" and slink by yet remain in the military long enough to become a Major? Or phrased alternately, can the 2-4 years of service (or whatever amount it is) that you agree to for the college loan actually be long enough to rise that high when you're really only in the military half-assed?

That's why I think your theory isn't all too likely. He would have been out before now. Do we have any record of when he first entered or how long his tour is?

It is incredibly easy to join the military for the purpose of soaking up the benefits while avoiding the hard stuff, and in fact I constantly criticise our recruiting comercials for pretty much encouraging just exactly that attitude. Up until recently, at least, Army recruiting commercials pushed the notion that the Army was sort of a cross between a Vo-Tech school and a rod & gun club.

Those of us who have been in for awhile look down on those guys that are going to get deployed and start whining "but I just signed on for the college benefits!" but in the long view, can you really blame them? Especially before the war, that was how the Army was portrayed, especially by recruiters. A place to "learn a skill" and then move on with your life, never having to face anything more rigorous than the notion of getting up at the asscrack of dawn and dressing like a salad.

[MKSheppard]

Dont' know much about military myself; but can you really "puss out" and slink by yet remain in the military long enough to become a Major?

I *THINK* (not sure, caught this somewhere else); that if you go through the Doctor Course (we pay your bills, and we own you for 17 years), you automatically enter the service upon graduation as a Captain.

Keep in mind this is hearsay I'm repeating from somewhere else.

[FSTargetDrone]

If this guy wasn't really a True Believer, why not just take one of his shiny guns and aim it at his own leg or something? Assuming any rationality on his part, surely he must know that the results of harming himself physically and perhaps spending some time in prison for shirking his military duties are preferable to what he did yesterday. The mass murders will certainly result in a life sentence at the very least.

[Tsyroc]

Dont' know much about military myself; but can you really "puss out" and slink by yet remain in the military long enough to become a Major?

I *THINK* (not sure, caught this somewhere else); that if you go through the Doctor Course (we pay your bills, and we own you for 17 years), you automatically enter the service upon graduation as a Captain.

Keep in mind this is hearsay I'm repeating from somewhere else.

People with medically related (nurses, pharmacists, etc..) degrees coming in as an O-3 (Captain for Army/Marines/AF) is pretty common. I don't think they are stuck any longer than a typical 6-8 year officer hitch though. As a psychologist I don't really get what this guy's issue would be about deploying. He would have been there to help people. Unless he thought that by directly helping the soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan deal with their psychological issues that he was aiding them in a way that he couldn't accept.

He had been in long enough to go from Captain to Major so at least initially his fitreps must have been pretty good, unless things are a bit more automatic for officers in the medical fields.

[Lonestar]

Dont' know much about military myself; but can you really "puss out" and slink by yet remain in the military long enough to become a Major? Or phrased alternately, can the 2-4 years of service (or whatever amount it is) that you agree to for the college loan actually be long enough to rise that high when you're really only in the military half-assed?

Yes. Anyone who has been in the military knows that all the real clusterfucks are field-grade officers.


(Jegs excluded).