Free Republic

After years of work, the Interstate 35 reconstruction project in Bell County is pretty much done, while a similar project to widen Interstate 14 still has years of work ahead. “Overall, the I-35 Reconstruction Project ... particularly in Waco, is continuing at an aggressive pace, well on track for a 2023 completion. Bell County work remains substantially complete with minor ‘punch list’ items such as completion of the Temple Welcome Monument and the standard establishment of vegetation along the corridor within the Temple/Troy area remaining, prior to final acceptance of the project,” Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Ken Roberts said...

Two mass shootings at U.S. military installations in one week, including one in which the perpetrator was a foreign national, have prompted questions over firearm use on American bases. .... To have two shootings clustered one after another on military bases is unusual. In the past two decades, there have only been about seven other active shootings on bases; the deadliest was a November 2009 shooting spree in Fort Hood, Texas, which killed 13 and injured 32. ... Government-issued firearms are locked in an arms room on base and only distributed when they are needed for training ,... This regulation...

Vice President Mike Pence deserves praise for not only remembering the national horror but also personally showing up and speaking out at Fort Hood, Texas, the scene of the Nov. 5, 2009, terrorist massacre that killed 13 American soldiers and citizens. It has been a decade since that terrorist attack on U.S. soil by a self-identified Islamic terrorist and American traitor. Ten years on and only a damnable trickle of mainstream media bother to reflect on this horror. In terms of mainstream printers, TV images and internet pixels, this savage outrage has been ... briefly mentioned, barely touched. For the...

Hasan has remained on death row for seven years and counting. Manning said he hopes "justice gets served" but realizes Hasan may never be executed. ... When it came to Hasan, Manning said, there was a double standard. Hasan wrote emails to radical American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki seeking advice on reconciling his Muslim faith with serving in the Army. This fact was known to the FBI. “You could lose your security clearance in the Army for having bad credit and be kicked out of the Army. But you can't lose your security clearance for talking to a member of Al...

Remarks by Vice President Pence to Service Members and Veterans at U.S. Army Fort Hood | Fort Hood, TX U.S. Army Fort Hood Fort Hood, Texas 10:27 A.M. CDT THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, hello, Fort Hood! AUDIENCE: Hooah! (Applause.) THE VICE PRESIDENT: It is great to be back in Texas and it’s great to be at the Great Place. (Applause.) And thank you all. And especially to all of those troopers behind me: At ease. Congressman Carter, Congressman Williams, Deputy Secretary of the VA Jim Byrne, General Ken Kamper, General Jeff Broadwater, Command Sergeant Major Adam Nash, but especially to...

Dallas (WBAP/KLIF) – The crowd is already gathering outside the American Airlines Center for the Trump campaign rally tomorrow evening. Among those in the small crowd that is slowly building, this group of women talked to us about why they came out so early. “Mr Trump, President Trump. [What are some of the things that you support that he’s done?] Oooh so much, (the wall), the wall for sure… security … he brought faith back out in the community … all of the above and being able to say God again.” The women, mostly strangers before today are from Des...

In military death penalty cases, there are several mandatory appeal stages that could take up to 10 to 15 years. Author: Marcelino Benito Published: 10:03 PM CST January 31, 2019 Updated: 10:04 PM CST January 31, 2019 A KHOU 11 News viewer named Mike reached out with this question: "Has the Ft. Hood shooter been put to death, and if so why not?" Here's what we verified. Major Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and injured 32 on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood back in 2009. It is considered the worst mass murder at a military base in U.S history....

Just a reminder....Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan is scheduled to be executed on May 5th

Talks have been bubbling in recent months about making major route changes to Interstate 14, but the primary organization behind the push says it’s facing resistance from a West Texas representative and the state’s senior senator. Regional transportation lobby group Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance (MOTRAN) has pushed to change the congressionally approved western route of I-14, also known as the Forts to Ports Highway and the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway System. Forts to Ports aims to connect Fort Bliss in El Paso with Fort Hood in Central Texas and Fort Polk in Louisiana. The plan also connects to military deployment ports...

An All Souls Day Traditional Latin Mass was celebrated Wednesday on the Fort Hood Military base. The Mass was offered on the hood of a military humvee, the traditional way Mass is offered during time of battle. With some 60 people in attendance, the Mass was especially offered up for the fallen 1st Cavalry Division soldiers who died in the Battle of Unsanin during the Korean War on November 2, 1950. The Mass was held on the grounds of the 1st Cavalry Division Museum and was also in honor of Fr. Emile Kapaun, 1st Cavalry Division chaplain and Medal of...

The media have lost their minds after Trump's magnificent speech on Monday. It's all hands on deck, no attack is too extreme. Their main point is: DO NOT LOOK AT THAT SPEECH. It has "words that wound." Much too dangerous even to read it. Instead of reporting what Trump said, the media give us the "gist" of it (in the sense of an unrecognizable distortion). It was awful, Hitlerian, beneath our dignity as a nation. They lie about what he said and then attack their own lies as if they're attacking Trump. The Washington Post's headline, which got their reporters...

Fort Hood officials released the names of eight of the nine soldiers Saturday who were killed earlier this week in Texas after floodwaters overturned an Army tactical vehicle at a low-water crossing during a training exercise. Officials identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Miguel Angel Colonvazquez, 38, of Brooklyn, New York; Spc. Christine Faith Armstrong, 27, of Twentynine Palms, California; Pfc. Brandon Austin Banner, 22, of Milton, Florida; Pfc. Zachery Nathaniel Fuller, 23, of Palmetto, Florida; Pvt. Isaac Lee Deleon, 19, of San Angelo, Texas; Pvt. Eddy Raelaurin Gates, 20, of Dunn, North Carolina; Pvt. Tysheena Lynette James, 21, of...

Three soldiers have died, and six others are missing, after a military vehicle was swept away by fast moving flood waters Thursday at Fort Hood. According to a Fort Hood statement, a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle overturned at about 11:30 a.m. at the Owl Creek Tactical low-water crossing and East Range Road. [Snip] The six soldiers who remain missing are from the 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

(CNSNews.com) - "I've been around guns all my life. I know how to use them, and arming our people on our military bases and allowing them to carry concealed, privately owned weapons -- I do not recommend that as a force protection," Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley told Congress on Thursday. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked Milley what the Army is doing to provide force protection at military bases and facilities in the United States, following last summer's attack on a Marine recruiting center and a Navy Reserve facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that killed four Marines and one...

Alex Meluskey, the Scottsdale, Arizona businessman who has launched a primary challenge against long-time Sen. John McCain for the seat he has held since 1987, this week launched a new ad attacking the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, saying he favors allowing some Syrian refugees into the United States. "In the three years since, the attack at Fort Hood in Texas has been forgotten by many," the one-minute ad begins.

Rick Perry just endorsed Ted Cruz and I posted that news in a thread this morning. It's gotten over 100 comments. On it I posted Rick Perry's comment in defense of Ted Cruz about the "New York Values" dust-up [Comment #84 at the link above]. [Rick Perry: "...."Mr. Trump took umbrage by Ted Cruz talking about New York values, and, you know, became very serious about - as we all were - what happened on September the 11th of 2001," he said. "We were all New Yorkers that day - don't get confused with that, but you know, I would...

This is a petition to honor Miss Elizabeth (the Fort Hood Hug Lady) by posthumously renaming the Fort Hood Deployment center the Elizabeth Laird Deployment Center. Miss Elizabeth has doled out more than half a million hugs to soldiers leaving and coming home from Ft. Hood. She's touched so many lives. For some, her's was the last hug that they had on this earth. For others, her's was the first good thing that happened to them when they got home. She was there days, nights, weekends, holidays... rain or shine, Miss Elizabeth was there for our troops. And she did...

More than six years after a Muslim army major shot dead 13 people at Fort Hood, President Obama on Sunday night - for what may be the first time - publicly identified it as a terrorist attack. In his primetime Oval Office address on the threat of terrorism in the wake of last week's attack in San Bernardino, California, Obama said the threat had evolved in the years since 9/11. "As we've become better at preventing complex attacks like 9/11, terrorists turn to less complicated acts of violence like the mass shootings that are all too common in our society,"...

From Wikipedia: On November 5, 2009, a mass shooting took place at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas.[1] Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others.[2][3] The shooting produced more casualties than any other on an American military base.[4][5] Several individuals, including Senator Joe Lieberman,[6] General Barry McCaffrey,[7] and others have called the event a terrorist attack.[8][9] The United States Department of Defense and federal law enforcement agencies have classified the shootings as an act of workplace violence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Fort_Hood_shooting

On November 2nd, approximately 85 Fort Hood Soldiers, civilians and Family members observed a solemn memorial tribute to the 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers who fell at the battle of Unsan, North Korea, 1-3 November, 1950. After attacking north to relieve South Korean Army elements along the Sino-Korean border, the 8th Cavalry Regiment found themselves surrounded by more than 40,000 Communist Chinese Forces and were ordered to retrograde to a more advantageous defensive position. The 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment was the last to withdraw, losing nearly 600 men while inflicting thousands of casualties upon the CCF. As the last Soldiers...