Off topic a tad...

You are too young to remember Jonestown, Guyana. Basically, it was a cult. Jim Jones was the leader and he made everyone drink cyanide laced kool-aid. 909 people perished.

Jonestown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Somewhat similar to the Branch Dividians in Waco.

 

They should set this guy loose on that base and let the soldiers that is on the base hunt that animal down and use him for target pratice.

 

Thats too quick of an end. He should be let loose with marksmen armed with pellet rifles.

 

I'm stationed at Ft Hood but I'm in Iraq now. Waiting to go home at the end of the month. I was out at our desert outpost when this happened and my roommate back here at the FOB messaged me on Facebook telling me about it. I thought he was joking so I went and watched the internet feed of the local news. Crazy. I'm sure we'll be coming home to A LOT of changes. I'm sure security has stepped up quite a bit, maybe even us soldiers having to man the gates again instead of civilians. Pretty sure the contract is going to be up for the guys that are supposed to search vehicles.

 

Was the search protocol in place at the time? What's the "treat level?

If the search protocol was in effect, then I'm sure some heads will roll. If not, then it's a moot point. I wouldn't be so quick to point the finger at the "civilians." I've worked with and evaluated (breached) gate security before. Having a soldier man a gate is usually not the best option. Neither are untrained rent a cops (Wachinhut, Brinks, etc).

Contracted (DOD) professionals that do nothing but this type of work really is what you want. They train for and will be intimately familiar with the base, personnel and operations.

We have MacDill AFB here in Tampa, HQ for several major commands. Even then, we don't alway have full searches in effect.

This guy was a member of the military. He was authorized to be on base and I'm sure was routinely seen coming and going. So having him come aboard would not have been unusual.

Unless you're going to search EVERYONE, from the base commander to the visitors and newest recruits, you're going to miss something.
In this case, that "something" would have cost people thier lives.

Having soldiers man the gates vs. civilian or contracted professionals, would have made no difference in this case. Protocol, procedures, may have had an impact.
If there was a full search in effect as he entered the base, then they'd have found the weapons.

The probelm is, if he's truly dedicated, he'll find a way of concealing the weapons. I've yet to see a gate search that was thorough enough to find a well concealed weapon (firearm) and ammunition If it is, it's too time and manpower consumptive, and is usually short lived before it is discontinued.

There's been a lot of knee jerk responses coming from both the military and civilian peanut galleries, regarding base security

Why? Because it's easier to point fingers than address the problem and find a solution.

As I understnd it, the Fed's and quite possibly the military, had enough information and intelligence to at least be concerned over his rantings and behavior. They were concerned enough to look into his behavior and internet comments. So why were the warning signs ignored?
Why wasn't more done? They could have restricted his access, pulled his clearances, and possibly even begun discharge procedures.

The bottom line is, a base that size, is a city!
And like any other city, you're going to have issues among it's "citizens."

Mental health issues (probably a few more than the average city simply because of the nature of the work), Alcoholism, drug use (ask CID about this ), traffic accidents, and everything else that a mid sized city has. You have restaruants, theaters, shopping areas, medical facilities, just like a "real" city. These are no longer the bases of the 50's and 60's. Small, confined, quiet little places that are well secured.

I heard it put best the other day by (IIRC?) a general. He said place a fence around a mid sized city (Del Ray Beach, Florida was his choice) and you have Ft. Hood.

Probably the best course of action would be to privatize all base LE functions and let the military do what it does best, keep the terrorist at bay

Even then, we still can't prevent similar suicides and homicides in the private sector and regardless of who guards the henhouse, the wolf will still get in on occasion.

Without majorly intrusive techniques, something is going to slip by

He claims to have been harassed due to his religion and ethnic heritage?

Jeez!! He was a f**king military officer for God's sake!!!

You can't tell me he couldn't find a way to handle those kind of problems without resorting to violence.

In his shoes, I'd have article 15'd your *** on the first ethnic comment and found a way to have you DC'd on subsequent offenses!

Anyway, back to the points.

Unless you identify them early and take precautions to prevent access, you are not going to stop suicidal/homicidal people from doing what he did.

If it turns out that he was a terrorist, a one man cell so to speak, then again, by ignoring the warning signs, the government has once again allowed the populace to be placed at risk!

Back to base security, quite possibly a better alert system might be considered. Hell, college campuses lock down now for a person with a damned pocket knife!

As for putting a swift end to a similar event in the future, unless you allow soldiers to be armed while on base and in uniform, or allow CCW on base, (probably never going to happen) you're probably not going to stop a determined armed aggressor before he/she does some damage

The best you can hope for is to minimize the damage and loss of life by having trained professionals like this young lady and her partner, put an end to the problem as quickly as possible

RIP to those killed, God Speed to the survivors, friends and family, and stay safe for those still serving

 

I work for the USACE at Ft Campbell Ky the fact is no one excepted a attack from with in. But sorry to say get use to it the way the world is going its probably going to happen again, god forbid, and my heart goes out to the family’s of the ones that were hurt or killed. This is a war unlike any that’s ever been fought before. This one will take all of us military and civilian alike. Stay strong help others and die free.

 

It's happened before and will definately happen again. May not be a soldier disgruntled over a pending deployment or pissed off about being harassed, but something, and no one really knows what will trigger it.
It may be someone pissed over being discharged, not being promoted or another domestic dispute.

You can't really predict these sort of threats and attacks like you can, say a terrorist threat. All you can do is plan your response, and make sure you have an alert system in place to notify the rest of the base, a la the Universities