My account of the Fort Hood Shooting

By now you have probably heard about yesterday's shooting on Fort Hood.  We are safe.  I wanted to write down our experiance.  It's not the most dramatic story (thank goodness), but I wanted to share my account of what I saw, heard, and felt.  

Around 5:00 pm I was cooking dinner and cleaning up the kitchen like I normally do.  Derrick and Lydia were playing in the back yard.  Maddy, my 12 year old neighbor who helps with the kids while I cook was holding Veronica.  Charlotte was in her room taking a rare nap.

Suddenly Maddy stood up and walked outside.  She stared up at the sky.  It was really unlike her to do something so abruptly so I asked her what was wrong.

"I just heard the tornado warning sirens."  She said while still staring at the sky.  She'd heard the sirens a few days earlier when administrators at her school had spotted a possible funnel cloud.  All the students had been herded into the hall to wait out the storm.  The storm had resulted in large hail - but no tornado.

I hadn't heard anything.  The sky had dark clouds and seemed to be threatening rain, but there didn't seem to be any signs of the tornado.  "It was probably just the monthly test of the emergency alert speakers.  They always do that on Wednesdays."  I said.  We went back inside.

A few seconds later I heard the sirens.  I went out into the front yard so I could hear the instructions that followed. Usually it said something like, "This is a test."  This time I heard, "ATTENTION. SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY. CLOSE ALL WINDOWS AND DOORS."

I hurried back inside and told Derrick and Lydia to come in the house.  Then I shut all the windows.  Maddy's mom, Arika, called to see if we were okay.  I told her we were and asked if she wanted me to send Maddy home.  She said she could stay for a little bit.

I was still in the middle of cooking/cleaning but I decided to get on Facebook anyway to see if there were any reports of funnel clouds or something.  I told Maddy, "They probably saw something out on the main part of post and are turning on the sirens for all of Fort Hood just to be safe."

The first thing I saw on Facebook was a status from my neighbor Kelly asking if anyone knew what was going on.  Someone posted a comment saying there was a possible shooter on Fort Hood.  Several other people and local groups that I follow had similar updates.

Instantly I remembered back to November 5, 2009.  At the time I was working in an office.  Brandon had no plans to be in the Army.  I didn't even know where Fort Hood was.  For some reason I vividly remember my friend and co-worker Melissa telling me, "There's been a shooting on Fort Hood.  One of my property managers lives near there and she says the whole place is on lockdown."  That shooting resulted in 13 killed and many wounded.  The trial for the shooter drug on for years.  It wasn't until last year that he was sentenced to death.

Back in 2009 I didn't know what lockdown meant, but this time I did.  Entrance to Fort Hood is controlled by many gates all over the post.  Your car has to be registered and you have to show ID to a guard before you can drive onto the fort.  During lockdown no one is allowed onto or off of the post.  If needed, huge metal barricades even pop out of the road to block access.

I was incredibly grateful that Brandon was in Korea.  Otherwise I would have to worry about where he was in proximity to the shooter and when he would be making it home from work.

I told Maddy that there was a shooting.  She was worried.  We both were really anxious because of all the uncertainty.  We both calmed down a little bit once I found out that the shooting happened on the main part of Fort Hood.  Our neighborhood is located several miles away from where the shooting happened.  We are separated from the main part of post by Texas Highway 190.  Its a busy, 6 lane highway.  Anyone coming from the main part of Fort Hood would have to exit one gate and then show ID at another gate to get into our area.  I knew we were safe.

There wasn't a lot of information on Facebook yet.  I didn't want to cause alarm or spread misinformation, but I knew that I should let people know that we were okay. I posted an update to my facebook page saying we were okay.  Later, as I started to get an idea of the scope of the shooting I also sent out an e-mail to our parents and siblings letting them know.  A little bit later I called my in-laws and left a message.  I knew that they liked to watch the news in the evening and I didn't want them to freak out when they saw news about Fort Hood.  I also called my mom.  My parents don't watch the news, but I didn't want them to worry if they heard about the shooting from a neighbor.  I kept my calls short so the phone service could be available for those people that had emergencies and needed to get a hold of loved ones.

I received calls from our Military Relations Missionaries making sure we were okay.  They had been driving down 190 when they heard all the sirens go off.  Later I received two calls from our FRG people (Family Readiness Group) making sure that we were all safe and accounted for.

Lydia and Derrick were upset that they couldn't play outside.  We were all still pretty anxious so I hurried and got everyone to sit down for dinner so that we could pray.  I said a quick prayer asking for peace for us and for everyone affected.  During dinner we talked about what had happened.  It was hard to tell Lydia that there had been a shooting.  She took it really well though.  Maddy and I talked about the last shooting.  We also talked about what I remember from September 11, 2001.  We also talked a little bit about the statistical likelihood of this type of thing happening.  I told her, "just because bad things happen doesn't mean you have to live your life in fear."

My neighbor Ange called. I assumed that she was calling to check on us.  Instead she asked if her two pre-teen sons could come to my house.  Before the lockdown she'd gone off post for a quick appointment and now she was stuck at the gate.  Her husband was stuck on the main part of post.  Of course I said that the boys could come over.  Ange asked me to not tell the boys what was happening.  She wanted to be the one to tell them.  I was fine with that, but after I got off the phone I turned to Maddy and said, "they have facebook accounts, I bet you anything they know what happened."

Ange took this picture of all the cars at our gate.

They did know what had happened, but they didn't know all the details.  Since the details were still sketchy I figured we could just leave it that way.  I turned on the movie, Back to the Future, and everyone watched it. Charlotte woke up. Maddy's dad came and got her around 6:00.  I went outside with her when she left and I could see two helicopters circling over the Main part of Fort Hood. I went back inside and monitored facebook and the local news channel while cleaned my kitchen.

When emergencies like this happen there are a lot of rumors and speculation that occur during the first few hours.  This was no exception.  There were reports of multiple shooters.  There was even a point where people in my neighborhood reported that the MPs (Military Police) were knocking on doors looking for someone.  Alex and Dade had to run home for some necessary stuff.  Right after they left a police car drove down on our street and ordered some other neighbors back into their homes over a mega phone.  I went outside to see what the ruckus was about and the MPs asked me if I had seen a man in a baseball cap walking around.  I told them no and they told me to stay inside.

A cool thing about the MPs is that they were recently issued new tactical vests.  The new vests are black with the word POLICE written on them.  The new vests were deemed necessary because of the last shooting.  When that shooting happened it was hard to know the difference between victims and police because everyone was in the same ACU uniforms.  The vests help distinguish the police from the regular soldiers.  I was glad to know that at least this was different from last time.  

Ange called a few times throughout the evening.  She was hearing reports that she might be stuck out there all night.  I told her the boys were welcome to stay the night.        

Derrick was freaking out that he couldn't go outside.  I was so grateful that I'd taken the kids to the park earlier in the day so at least he'd had some energy burned off.  The girls were also freaking out because there were some giant mosquito type bugs that had come in our house.  Alex and Dade were pretty calm and just played mine craft the whole time.

We were all set for a long night ahead of us.  Around 9:00 I was about to start putting my kids to bed when we received word that the lock down was lifted.  Apparently the sirens went off outside to let everyone know.  I didn't hear them.  I got my news from all the Facebook updates that suddenly started blowing up my newsfeed.  Many of my friends had husbands who had been stuck on post.  They were happy to know they could come home.

Ange came over to pick up the boys a few minutes later.  After they left I put the kids into pajamas and put them to bed.  It was way after their bedtime so I just sang them some songs.  I also talked to them about the shooting.  I told them that a bad guy killed 3 people and hurt a lot of other people today.  I told them it was really sad.  I made sure that they knew the bad guy was dead too.  We talked about Jesus and the resurrection.  And we prayed together.  I think the hardest thing was when they asked if it was "Army guys" who were shot.  I said yes and I could see that they took a minute to process that.

I took my computer into my room after the kids were in bed.  I was just in time for a press conference given by Lieutenant General Mark Milley.  This is what I had been waiting for all night.  The local news had been reporting on the event since the lockdown started, but they hadn't had a lot to report.  In some ways it had been kind of amusing to watch them try to keep talking.  They'd been showing the same footage of a press conference that doctors at the off post hospital had given in regard to the wounded that they were treating.  They also kept showing footage of cars being turned around at the main gate.

The press conference would be the first chance to get some concrete information. Most everything had already been reported, but I liked knowing that it was official and not just rumors. We were informed that there were in fact 4 people dead including the shooter.  He had shot himself after being shot at by an MP.  There were 16 other people who were wounded.  He'd served 4 months in Iraq in 2011.  He was being evaluated for PTSD but hadn't been official diagnosed yet.  The Lt General declined to give the name of the shooter or victims because their next of kin hadn't been notified yet.

Of course more information will become available over the next few days.  But for me the emergency ended with the press conference.  Soon after it was over Brandon was available to Skype with me during his lunch break.  They'd been doing some drills for a possible attack over there and hadn't heard anything about the shooting.  I teased him and said that Fort Hood soldiers were more deserving of Hazardous Duty Pay than he was right now.

It was a scary experience.  I'm glad that we were home and safe when everything happened. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.  We don't know who they are yet, but I'm sure that information will be released today.

Thank you all for your concern and your prayers.  Please keep praying for this community.  No one should have to go through this once - let along twice.