Hello everyone. I work on Ft. Hood and was here during the lock down yesterday. It was truely like a scene out of a movie. We were notified that there had been a shooting initially, and that we were to lock the doors to our building and cover the windows. There were several different accounts as most of you saw on the news. The husband of one of our employees was in the building when the shooting occurred.He gave us minimal info, as the chaos that ensued was such that there was no time to find anything out, just get the flock out of there. He said they heard a "pop pop pop pop" and screams and feet... people were running out the door past him yelling that someone was shooting up the place and to get out. Next thing he knew the DOD police were pulling up and he was in his car leaving the parking lot. He was able to make it safely to our building.
Peeking out of the blinds we started to see big trucks dropping soldiers off all over the place. It started to look like WW III. They were blocking entrances and patrolling (on foot) all of the parking lots and ensuring everyone was in a building and not out roaming around. It took a while to gather the intelligence to safely release everyone. We had minimal cell access because the phone lines were over loaded as the news started to hit. We tried calling from land lines, leaving messages on myspace and facebook because we didn't have a way to contact anyone to let them know we were okay. All you could hear were sirens for about an hour. They finally started releasing us about 6:30-7:00, but the lines were not moving because they were searching every car. The lines coming on post were the same, people were trying to come and get their children from the schools that were locked down.
Today it is almost like a ghost town. I mean, there are people walking around, cars going by.....but there is an eerie silence in the air. People are talking, but not really saying anything. We are all looking at EVERYONE around us, people in the parking lot, walking in and out of buildings.....just in case. Right now we are all waiting for the moment of silence, I just don't think that a moment is enough.
I can also say with confidence that we should all take what the media says with a grain of salt - more like a load of sand. This is the government. They are only reporting minimal information to appease the public. They do not broadcast the internal tragedies because it only causes those who expect our military to protect our contry to lose their sense of security and empower and encourage our enemies to any weaknesses. We are all curious...and concerned. The fact is like my husband (who is in LE) says to me when I ask about things: If you knew EVERYTHING that happens in this country you would never sleep again. Some things are best to remain on a need to know basis.
