Let the bullshit begin Fort Hood Shooting

[Marlene Zenker]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/02/us/fort-ho...?hpt=hp_t1

[Marlene Zenker]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/02/us/fort-ho...?hpt=hp_t1

oh, and of course the shooter is dead. I am so damn tired of this.

[Charlie Prima]

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[David Guyatt]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/02/us/fort-ho...?hpt=hp_t1

oh, and of course the shooter is dead. I am so damn tired of this.

Not so png ago I did very basic research of the number of suicides following these sort of atrocity killings, and it is a very high percentage that those whodunnit then kill themselves afterwards. For my taste the percentage is far too high.

[Marlene Zenker]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/02/us/fort-ho...?hpt=hp_t1

oh, and of course the shooter is dead. I am so damn tired of this.

Not so png ago I did very basic research of the number of suicides following these sort of atrocity killings, and it is a very high percentage that those whodunnit then kill themselves afterwards. For my taste the percentage is far too high.

and for the legitimate suicides if they only would kill themselves first and spare the innocents.

[Peter Lemkin]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/02/us/fort-ho...?hpt=hp_t1

oh, and of course the shooter is dead. I am so damn tired of this.

Not so png ago I did very basic research of the number of suicides following these sort of atrocity killings, and it is a very high percentage that those whodunnit then kill themselves afterwards. For my taste the percentage is far too high.

and for the legitimate suicides if they only would kill themselves first and spare the innocents.

Just maybe that wasn't their 'program' - i.e., how they were programmed.....::darthvader:: Just too many cookie-cutter incidents to all be 'angry or crazy people with guns run amok'....these things didn't happen before in the USA and they don't much elsewhere. MK/ULTRA [etc.] was clearly a success and is being used in many [perhaps not all] of these incidents IMHO....next one coming right up!

[Keith Millea]

A quote from another article:

The gunman, who was married and served in Iraq for four months in 2011, had sought help for depression, anxiety and other problems. Before the attack he had been undergoing an assessment to determine whether he had post-traumatic stress disorder, according to Lieutenant General Mark Milley, the senior officer on the base.

So it appears to me that this soldier was probably taking some kind of anti-depressant medication.It should be clear by now that these drugs do aggravate suicidal impulses.The VA gives these drugs to soldiers and Veterans that have PTSD.There's the problem friends.......

[Lauren Johnson]

A quote from another article:

The gunman, who was married and served in Iraq for four months in 2011, had sought help for depression, anxiety and other problems. Before the attack he had been undergoing an assessment to determine whether he had post-traumatic stress disorder, according to Lieutenant General Mark Milley, the senior officer on the base.

So it appears to me that this soldier was probably taking some kind of anti-depressant medication.It should be clear by now that these drugs do aggravate suicidal impulses.The VA gives these drugs to soldiers and Veterans that have PTSD.There's the problem friends.......

Here's a post by pro-military, ex-spook, pro-gun, libertarian, anti-stupid war Col. Pat Lang:

"Spec. Ivan Lopez, 34, was a military truck driver who served four months in Iraq in 2011. He had arrived at the post in February from another military base in Texas. He was married and had family living in the Fort Hood area, Milley said. The man was living in a rundown apartment complex in northwest Killeen where neighbors said he and his wife kept to themselves. "He was the kind of person that even if you tried to talk to him wouldn't open up," Jessie Brown, a neighbor who often passed him on morning walks, told the Post. About 4 p.m. Wednesday, the soldier assigned to the 13th Sustainment Command fired shots inside a building housing the 1st Medical Brigade and in a facility belonging to the 49th Transportation Battalion. He was soon confronted by a female military police officer who has not yet been identified, Milley said. Milley said the man put his hands up but then pulled out a gun from under his jacket. He shot himself in the head with a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol that was purchased recently but not authorized on base." Washpost ----------------------------------


Soldiers are grouped by Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) into three broad categories:

- Combat Arms (Infantry, Armor, Artillery, Aviation, Special Forces and Combat Engineers (these people are the fighters)
- Combat Support Arms (Other Engineers, MI, Military Police Corps, Signal Corps, non combat aviation)(These people are those who directly support the fighting and in many instances are involved in some fighting themselves)

- Combat Service Support (Acquisition Corps, Chaplains Corps, Finance Corps, Judge Advocate Generals Corps, Medical Corps, Ordnance Corps, Quartermaster Corps and Transportation Corps) (These people may be involved in fighting but in the normal course of events are not)
Former major Nidal Hassan and Specialist Ivan Lopez both were in the Combat Service Support category. All soldiers are inherently fighters with the exception of medical personnel and chaplains, but most do not have the direct function of fighting. If they fight, this usually occurs as self defense.

This man was 34 years old. His rank was Specialist (E-4). This is a low rank in the enlisted force of the US Army. How long had he served? Nine years in the Puerto Rico National Guard and then in recent years in the Regular Army. He certainly was not prospering in the Army. His MOS made him not a non-combatant but certainly not someone whose basic business was fighting.

He served in Iraq for four months as a truck driver in a Transportation Corps unit. This was in 2011. The withdrawal was in full progress and there was then something approaching a cease fire observed by various enemies of the US. It was clear that their intention was to allow US forces to withdraw. There is no indication that he ever heard "a shot fired in anger." He drove trucks, big trucks hauling equipment to Kuwait. The degree of stress involved in this has been much exagerated in the present atmosphere. There is little in such duty that would drive a man mad. There is no indication that he was wounded or seriously injured in Iraq.

Lopez had a wife and a child. His pay and allowances would not have been enough for them to live comfortably. They were probably eligible for food stamps and are reported to have lived in a shabby apartment complex off post in Killeen, Texas just outside the post gate. IMO it is a fair question whether or not a soldier of so low a grade should be allowed to be married with family. The money is just not there. It used to be the rule that soldiers of that rank were required to have the permission of their commanding officer to marry. Perhaps that was a good idea. The stresses set up by poverty are great.

Lopez bought his weapon in a civilian gun store in Killeen. He had not yet been officially diagnosed as mentally ill although the process was underway and he was medicated for depression and anxiety. A conclusion had not been reached with regard to PTSD and presumably for that reason no input had been made into the national firearms background check system that presumably would have kept Lopez from buying his pistol.

It should be remembered that the US Army cannot be in the business of generating veterans' disability benefits for anyone who wants them unless it is established objectively that these benefits are deserved. The troops have learned that a diagnosis of PTSD or TBI brings with it a substantial benefit from the VA in the form of lifetime: treatment at no expense, tax benefits and disability payments. These are particularly helpful for people who separate from the military before serving long enough to achieve retired status.

There will, of course be, an outcry from the anti-gun people. pl

[David Guyatt]

An odd and curious snippet. The same playbook?

Fort Hood gunman bought weapon at same store as Nidal Hassan

Ivan Lopez purchased his .45 Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol at the same shop as Nidal Hassan, who killed 13 people at the military base in 2009.

Ivan Lopez, the Ford Hood gunman, killed three comrades (Facebook)









By Nick Allen, Fort Hood, Texas

7:33AM BST 04 Apr 2014



Fort Hood gunman Ivan Lopez bought his semi-automatic handgun at the same shop where Nidal Hassan purchased the pistol he used to carry out a previous massacre at the base in 2009.

Lopez, 34, who killed three comrades and wounded 16 on Wednesday before shooting himself dead, bought his Smith & Wesson from Guns Galore, which would have been just a few minutes' drive in his grey Toyota Camry from the gate of Fort Hood.

The simple, warehouse-style store, located next to a strip club, contains around 1,700 weapons including high powered rifles and cases full of pistols.

Lopez bought his .45 Smith & Wesson there legally in March but a manger politely declined to say exactly when. He said the store had turned over all information it had, which is believed to include CCTV, to the US government.

In 2009 Hassan, also legally, bought a semi-automatic Belgian-made FN Herstal Five-Seven tactical pistol for $1,139.99.

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Fort Hood is the largest military base in America. When soldiers working there, families, and civilian contractors are added together it has a daytime population of over 100,000. Senior officers said it would be impossible to check every soldier passing through the gate to see if they were armed.
On his Facebook page Lopez went under the name Ivan Slipknot, a reference to the US heavy metal band Slipknot. He had played drums in a school band in his native Puerto Rico.
Amid photographs of himself brandishing large guns and a shoulder held rocket launcher Lopez had also recently posted on the internet a Spanish comment reflecting his anger at being robbed.
Fox News translated the comment as: "I have just lost my inner peace, full of hatred, I think this time the devil will take me. I was robbed last night and I am sure it was 2 flacos. Green light and finger ready. As easy as that."
Fort Hood base commander Lt Gen Mark Milley said there was a "strong possibility" there had been an altercation with one or more soldiers before the shooting. However, there was no indication that Lopez targeted specific soldiers, he said.
He added: "We have very strong evidence that he has a medical history that indicates an unstable psychiatric or psychological condition.We believe that to be the fundamental underlying causal factor."
Lopez, who served four months in Iraq as a truck driver in 2011, was being evaluated for possible post-traumatic stress disorder, but his superiors said they had seen no sign he posed any danger. He was taking anti-drepressants and Ambien for insomnia.
He had previously been assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas as an infantryman but became a motor transport operator in December 2013 and transferred to Fort Hood.
His mother Carmen, a nurse, died recently and friends said he was upset that he had not been given more time to go to her funeral in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico.
They said he was only allowed to leave the base after five days and given a 24 hour pass.
Edgardo Arlequin, the Mayor of Guayanilla, said: "That was one of the reasons why he was very upset. They only gave him 24 hours. He was very, very close to his mother. His mother was a nice person and everybody in the town knew her."
Near his home on the edge of Fort Hood neighbour Mahogoney Jones, 21, said she last saw Lopez when he came back for lunch a few hours before the shooting,
She said: "He was calm. He petted my dog and then went back to base. They get an hour to come home. He was going to his car and I was like 'Hey, how's your day going?' and he seemed perfectly fine."
She said he replied: "Day's going pretty good. I'll see you whenever I come back home."

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[Charlie Prima]

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