U.S. Army soldiers fold up the flag following Revile in front of the III Corp Headquarters building at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009.
Unlike many, maybe even most of the soldiers on this enormous military post, privates first class Marquest Smith and Jeffrey Pearsall had never seen combat before Thursday.
But the pair of 21-year-olds emerged from the tragic shootings of 43 soldiers and civilians here as bonafide combat heros.
Smith, from Fort Worth, possibly saved the lives of five soldiers and a civilian Fort Hood employee while repeatedly running back into the building where 39-year-old Army psychologist Maj. NidalMalik Hasan began a shooting spree that resulted in the deaths of 13 people.
Pearsall, of Houston, turned his five-year-old Ford F150 pickup into a makeshift ambulance and hauled five or six wounded soldier to the hospital, at least one of whom, he was told later by medical staff at Darnall Army Medical Center on the post, likely would not have survived had Pearsall not gotten him to the hospital so quickly.
"There's not just one or two heros in this, there's a whole bunch of heros," Pearsall said, referring to soldiers and civilian Department of the Army police officers who responded to the shootings and their bloody aftermath. Caring for wounded soldier amid chaos "is a job we're trained to do on the battlefield, and now it's a job, obviously we have to do here in the United States too."
Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told reporters at a news conference here Friday afternoon that after visiting with Fort Hood's leaders, crime scene investigators and some of those who at the scene on Thursday, that the shootings were a "kick in the gut, not just for the Fort Hood community, but for the entire Army."
But Casey went on to tell how he'd heard stories of Army medics attending an on-post college graduation in the building next to where the shootings occurred "running to the sound of guns," of soldiers carrying the wounded to cover while Hasan was still on his rampage, and "of soldiers who were wounded while caring for other soldiers."
Neither Smith nor Pearsall were hurt in the shootings, at least not physically. But Smith narrowily avoided being shot several times.
When the first shots were fired inside the post's Soldier Readiness Center — a former sports-themed restaurant and bar converted into a paperwork processing center for soldiers leaving for or returning from war — Smith was sitting in a cubicle with a civilian employee going through his paperwork.
"We heard popping but we didn't know what it was so we just kept talking about my paperwork," said Smith. "Then we heard people running and somebody yelled 'gun!' "
Smith quickly closed the cubicle's sliding door and then hid with a civilian employee, a woman, under her desk. After hiding for a couple of minutes, a stray bullet penetrated the cubicle wall and went through the chair Smith had drawn up close to the desk for protection. The bullet apparently deflected downward, toward Smith's feet, where it lodged in the heel of his right boot. The civilian employee survived untouched.
When he let up for minute, Smith made a dash for a side door. "There were a couple of soldiers near the door, one was a major, and I pulled them outside," Smith said, "I don't know if they were wounded or not."
Then he went back inside, found two wounded soldiers and pulled them outside before going back in once again. But upon his second return into the building Smith, a tall, lanky former basketball player at Sam Houston High in Arlington, Texas, discovered that the shooter was less than 10 feet away. He turned and ran back toward the door.
"I just saw his back, but began running away," he said. "That's when I could hear and feel the bullets going past my head on either side and hitting the wall."
Once outside, Smith wasn't done. Pearsall, who Smith called his "battle buddy" had been waiting in his pickup for Smith to complete his paperwork, when he heard the shooting.
"I didn't know what it was at first, but then I saw people running out of the building, covered in blood. I told them to get in my truck," Pearsall said. "I got out and helped several more get in. They were pretty messed up. Blood was everywhere. A couple of medics then got in too. I probablly had five or six people back there, including the medics. Then right before I took off, PFC Smith jumped in."
But not for long. After about a mile, as the truck was nearing the on-post hospital, "PFC Smith realized we'd left one of our guys back there, so when I slowed down a little he jumped out and ran nearly a mile back there," Pearsall said.
Smith found the wounded soldier he was search for trying, without much success, to drive himself to the hospital in his own car. "I stopped him and threw him in the back seat and drove him to the hospital," he said.
But while both young soldiers escaped with nothing more than a small bullet hole in one boot heel, both say have been shaken badly.
"I didn't get any sleep last night," a visibly tired and upset Smith said. "My experience was terrifying. I never thought this could happpen at Fort Hood. I'm very distraught right now, and angry."
"I'm angry because I feel betrayed. He (Hasan) was one of our own and did this to our own family."
"We're soldiers' first and we did our jobs even though this happened to my family I'm going to do my job," he said.
Pearsall said the only good to come from the tragic event was witnissing his fellow soldiers rallying to the aid of the wounded. "It shows me that when I do go into combat everybody knows what to do."
Pfc. Marquest Smith, on his way to Afghanistan in January, was completing routine paperwork about a bee-sting allergy when the sounds erupted.
A loud, popping noise. Moans. The sudden, urgent shout of "Gun!"
Smith poked his head over the cubicle's partition and saw an extraordinary sight: An Army officer with two guns, firing into the crowded room.
The 21-year-old Fort Worth native quickly grabbed the civilian worker who'd been helping with his paperwork and forced her under the desk. He lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.
After the shooter stopped to reload, Smith made a run for it. Pushing two other soldiers in front of him, he made it out of the Soldier Readiness Processing center — only to plunge into the building twice more to help the wounded.
Smith had survived the worst mass shooting on an American military base, a rampage that left 13 dead and 30 wounded, including the alleged shooter, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
It could have been much worse, but for the heroics of Smith and others — like the 19-year-old private who ignored her own wounds, and the diminutive civilian police officer who single-handedly took down Hasan.
"Unfortunately over the past eight years, our Army has been no stranger to tragedy," said a somber Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff. "But we are an Army that draws strength from adversity. And hearing the stories of courage and heroism that I heard today makes me proud to be the leader of this great Army."
---
---
RELATED POSTS:-
- Army: Fort Hood shooting rampage suspect is alive-12 dead ,31 wounde worst gun rampage in USA military base.
- Suspect, a devout Muslim, asked Army to discharge him, Fort Hood gunman aunt said
- US encounters stumbling blocks in training Afghans
- Afghan, US troops kill 40 militants in east-Obama aids told to keep Afganisthan policy advice quiet.
- Missile tests underscore the threat Iran poses in Mideast-Isreal ,US bases in the Middle East, and southeastern Europe are within range-To provoke USA
- Iran test-fires short-range missiles
- PM Isreal condemn UN allow PM iran to give speech. Ahmednijah denies Holocaust occur.
- Millions of Muslim celebrate the end of the Holy Month Ramadan with Festival -Eid al-Filr
- Mr Obama Wish Muslim world Happy Fasting for the holy month of Ramadan
- After Afghan vote, an awkward task for Obama
- Car bom kills 90 as Hillary Clinton visits Pakistan
- Mass. man arrested for alleged terror attack plots-'Jihadist' arrested over plot to kill US forces
- Young soldiers show heroism in Fort Hood tragedy
- Suspect, a devout Muslim, asked Army to discharge him, aunt said
- Army: Fort Hood shooting rampage suspect is alive-12 dead ,31 wounde worst gun rampage in USA military base.
- Reports: At least 15 hurt in Pakistan explosion
- Executed in broad daylight: The chilling moment a Mafia hitman strikes outside a Naples bar... but no-one saw a thing
- Coroner says 6 women whose bodies were found at home died violently
- Calif. searchers seek survivors after air crash-Midair crash betw CoastGuard aircraft and Marine Helicopter
- UN chief slams deadly attack on UN guest house in Kabul
- At least 155 killed in two Baghdad suicide bombings Al Qaeda linked group claims responsibility
- Garbage trucks lead to discovery of dead Fla. girl
0 comments:
Post a Comment