FORT HOOD, Texas-The closure process for the November 2009 massacre at Fort Hood hit a milestone six weeks ago.
“Fort Hood’s Directorate of Public Works has completed demolition of Building 42003,” Army officials announced. “The building was part of the Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Building 42003 is where most of the events of Nov. 5, 2009, occurred.”
We were told about trees to be planted and a gazebo and “remembrance plaque” to be installed. There was no further description of “the events of Nov. 5, 2009.” None was needed. They were singular events.
Until Wednesday about 4 p.m.
Three military personnel were killed and 16 were injured Wednesday when Spc. Ivan Lopez, a mentally ill soldier armed with a semi-automatic pistol, opened fire. There was talk of an argument, but we don’t yet know exactly what happened.
During morning-after testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Army Secretary John McHugh said Lopez, who killed himself Wednesday, had shown no signs of “likely violence” nor “suicidal iteration.” I blanched a bit when, after discussing the three deceased victims, McHugh referred to Lopez as “the other killed in action.”
In a sad coincidence, the latest Fort Hood slayings came just after March ended with no U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan, making it the first such month since January 2007.
There’s still much to learn about Lopez, who served four months as an Army truck driver in Iraq in 2011. Army officials say he was not in combat and suffered no wounds. But, said Mark Milley, the post’s commanding general, Lopez “was undergoing behavior health and psychiatric treatment for depression and anxiety and a variety of other psychological and psychiatric issues.”
Somewhere at Fort Hood folks are reviewing the records to see how nobody saw this coming from this soldier.
Sure to be studied is how Lopez got his personal weapon, which was not registered at Fort Hood as it was supposed to have been, on post. Despite heavy security, it’s unrealistic to expect airport-like searches of everybody who enters Fort Hood each day.
The shootings have sparked renewed and proper discussion about keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. Like searching everyone who enters Fort Hood, it’s a fine concept in search of a practical solution.
It’s one thing to use public records-such as court orders declaring mental incompetence-to keep guns from those who shouldn’t have them. But do we want a federal database of everybody who’s ever sought mental health care?
Looking forward, this latest shooting spree scares me more than the events of Nov. 5, 2009.
Wednesday night, Milley was asked if his first reaction was “not again here.”
“My reaction was not ‘not again here,’” he said. “My reaction was immediately to make sure we had a read on the casualties, immediately secure the site and immediately look for one or more shooters and to secure the installation.”
“I wasn’t thinking about ‘not again’ or any of that,” Milley said.
Milley was thinking the things a commander must think when his troops are under fire. God bless him for that.
But the rest of us were thinking “not again.”
Editorial, Pages 18 on 04/05/2014