Posted on 11/10/2009 8:04:13 AM PST by leapfrog0202
Warning from me: This is pretty graphic and is touching at the same time. You may need tissues handy...
This was read on the air by J.D. Hayworth, talk show host at KFYI in Phoenix. He received it from an officer that was just about to enter the building at Ft. Hood where the shooting happened. He wanted an accurate account out there since so far there's a lot of different accounts and they've yet to come together into 1 complete version.
Here's what he sent to KFYI:
First-Hand Account from Ft. Hood Monday 11-09-2009 2:57pm MT
Since I don't know when I'll sleep (it's 4 am 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 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. 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
I apologize if this has been posted already. I did not see this and did search. I heard this on the air yesterday and felt it was important to share with the folks here. When I did not see it posted I figured I’d do so.
Thanks for taking the time to read it.
Obama’s blueprint—Stalin: Man of Steel
You want to see where this will all lead?
View this video from the web on Stalin. You won’t be able to take your eyes away.My wish would be that you would pass this on to others. As many as you can. The similarities to Obama are mind blowing
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9118985704353138889#
Just wow. Words fail.
Just wow!
Thanks leapfrog0202.
Thanks for posting.
speechless
Right now my son is on a year deployment to a place which is not--technically--a combat zone, but I sure don't think of him as being out of harm's way since he is REAL close to the place he where he was living back in 1996 when a bomb went off and killed 19 airmen at the Khobar Towers. And even today, some call this an "ALLEGED" terrorist attack.
And how I've come to HATE that word, "alleged"--as it seems my son does also, since he told me--in clear and certain terms--how much it offends him--as it should everyone who knows DAMN WELL the "alleged shooter" at Fort Hood was the killer the eyewitness in this article describes. Next the press will start calling the dead and wounded the "alleged" victims.
Lord, save us from this insidious PC that, like leprosy, eats away at so many truths that are SELF_EVIDENT!!
Amazing account. Thank You.
BTT
Not only the fear of labeling the lousy terrorist but the way the news treated Sgt. Munley--she was A hero, but Todd stopped the jihadist...
I am sure those shot will be told they were lucky not to have been shot by a terrorist in a statement from a government spokesmodel.
Why the he!! should he fell "not proud of this"? It's leftist PC crap that no person is more valuable than any other person. ALL the wounded (and dead) soldiers are muchmore valuable people than this homicidal maniac.
This is consistent with a media report I read, and still blows my mind. How do 300 trained soldiers fail to stop ONE crazed shooter for this long a stretch of time?
Read later
CHANGE IS COMING TO AMERICA......
Am I reading this wrong ?
It seems like the female cop didn’t take down Hasan, but, it was actually the male cop ?
Thank you - I live in Houston, a few hours drive from Fort Hood. I have neither heard this letter, or knew of its existence until you posted it here.
I'm an Air Force brat and I have such vivid memories of that moment in the late afternoons when everyone - enlisted next to officer next to civilian - would come to a complete stop, stand at attention, and salute while the bugle played.
It was very powerful and yet very humbling at the same time.
Mrs. Prince of Space
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