Quotes of the Day: ‘There Was a Burst of Shots … And People Running Everywhere’
Email"There was a burst of shots and more bursts of shots and people running everywhere.” — Rev. Greg Schannep, who was about to enter a graduation ceremony at Ft. Hood when shots rang out
“He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy. He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.” — Nader Hasan, cousin of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who took twelve lives before being shot at the Fort Hood Army post in Central Texas
“Unemployment sometimes goes up at the end of a recession because some workers are encouraged to start job-hunting again and therefore get counted. Not this time. Also, economists had at least hoped to see an increase in hours worked every week. If they go up it is a sign employers have more business and at some point will need more workers to support it. Not this time. Finally there is the psychological impact of double digit unemployment weighing on consumers as they head into the holidays. This may cause a retrenchment after two months of improving retail sales numbers.” — ABC News’ business correspondent Betsy Stark, on the morning’s unemployment numbers
“We all need a little euphoria.” — Renee Rosales-Kopel, fan of the New York Yankees and worker in lower Manhattan, anticipating this morning’s ticker-tape parade, to The New York Times
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How about letting soldiers carry their standard issued pistols. I don’t understand why all these soldiers are unarmed.
Posted by: Huh | November 6, 2009, 11:23 am 11:23 am
How about letting soldiers carry their standard issued pistols. I don’t understand why all these soldiers are unarmed.
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I do not know about today, but 40 years ago we were not issued pistols. I was issued a 45 whenever I was carrying certain equipment, but it was not standard issue.
Posted by: Thinking | November 6, 2009, 11:51 am 11:51 am
Thinking -Thanks for the head up. I still don’t know why all these folks trained to use firearms are sitting ducks on a military base. Just seems a bit off to me.
Posted by: Huh | November 6, 2009, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
“We all need a little euphoria.” Sometimes one needs the touch of fierce reality but not now, when there is more than the touch of it.
Posted by: Candadai Tirumalai | November 7, 2009, 9:29 am 9:29 am
Agree – or at least the security posts for military bases need to be re-evaluated and expanded, just like with most public buildings unfortunately.
I was surprised at something World News included in its piece on the Ft. Hood first responders. They seemed to praise and idealize one soldier who is poorly-trained, maybe a little cowardly, and has not achieved the skill or maturity I would want a private to have in my unit if we were getting our final readiness tests. Where was the judgement, and why include this guy. — Maybe his superiors should also be re-evaluating him.
He states that he saw the gunman and ran, then the gunshots went past him. So far, a reasonable response. Then he says he went back in and dragged victims out. (1) That didn’t happen – check the facts. (2) It’s almost like he was embarrassed that he said he ran, and had some immature macho attack, and was trying to seem brave for the news crew.
(3) That WOULD HAVE BEEN an incredibly stupid thing to do. The gunman moved from one area to an exterior where he was stopped. This was not a battlefield. All soldiers should use basic common sense and know a victim should be triaged for possible spinal trauma before being “dragged”, and moved with correct technique by medics when possible.
Thankfully, qualified medical personnel were available and did attend to the victims in this case. And this apparently immature media hound should have been edited out of this piece. Just as there is a strong feeling that doctors with mental problems should be screened out of the Army, the same should apply to soldiers who maybe are not mature enough to have developed the judgement necessary for performance in a combat UNIT.
Posted by: Anne | November 9, 2009, 2:08 am 2:08 am