Making Sense of the Tragedy at Fort Hood

Since he survived the shootings, Major Hasan will now have his forty years to relieve the massacre and try to make some sense of it. War just isn’t worth it and this shooting proves it.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - Making sense of the Fort Hood shootings will be a difficult process for Americans. While some may swiftly consign this tragedy to the context of a black and white struggle between Islam and Christianity or Arab vs. American, others will look for more complex and more personal explanations.

How Americans and our military interpret and respond to this event will determine whether we have more or fewer tragedies like this in the future.

Thus, I would like to offer a personal and more complex explanation of what happened yesterday, an explanation that rings true for me.

When I read of the circumstances surrounding Maj. Hasan’s recent life, I broke into a cold sweat. His nightmare was my nightmare. I had been down the same road as he forty years earlier.

Like Major Hasan, I had been trained by our military to work with returning combat veterans suffering from PTSD. In my case, it was the Philadelphia Naval Hospital in the wake of the Tet Offensive and stressed-out Marines were arriving in droves every day.

I was the admissions corpsman on ward T-15, the first place a medically evacuated psychatric casualty came to in the US. My job was to listen to their stories and then file a report for the doctor who would care for them in our hospital. It didn’t take long for this job to wear me down.

Day after day, I listened to horrific stories. One Marine had shot his best friend in the back of his head and couldn’t get his buddy’s blood off his uniform. Another had “blown away” an innocent mother and child and had transformed himself into a german shepherd to avoid the responsibility for his action.

Six to ten times a day, I heard stories full of gore told by men unable to bear the burden of what they had done and seen. Even the glassy-eyed catatonics with no stories could not conceal the horror that they brought into my interview room.

The only way I could continue in this job was to disassociate, to refuse to believe that these stories were real or that any of it could happen to me. Then, one day in August of 1968, my armor was stripped away.

When I got my orders to be shipped out to Vietnam, I went into a complete panic. It was one thing to go into a war zone blind, not knowing what to expect, but it was an absolute nightmare when you already knew all the worst of it.

This was the point of the sword that both Major Hasan and I had been placed upon. Both he and I had been placed in positions of supreme responsibility on account of our intelligence and steady good judgement, but when the horror of the war became immediate and immanent, intelligence and judgement vanished. Panic set in.

I didn’t know what to do as, I am sure, Major Hasan didn’t know either. The real horrors that we had been living and working with so long tumbled over us and screamed at us to do something and do it fast.

Since we had been putting so much effort into disassociating, remaining objective about our PTSD victims and their circumstances, we hadn’t given a glimmer of a thought to what we would do when faced with the possibility that we, too, would get in line for horrors of our own. Under such conditions, only the most irrational solutions seem possible. The use of force seemed the only way out.

In my case, the force I used was on myself; I attempted suicide. I had seen so many others pass through my station on their way to a lifetime of reliving war’s deepest agony that I thought it better to take the quickest detour to a peaceful end. I did not want a life of veterans hospitals and tranquilizers. It was a stupid decision made by a man incapable of thinking clearly. I have no idea what Major Hasan could have been thinking.

Perhaps he sought to save the soldiers he killed from the horrors of war by dispatching them swiftly and unexpectedly at home. Whatever he may have thought, I’m sure he was certain that he would not survive his deeds, that he, too, was attempting suicide. Any explanation for what he did, no matter how crazy, has to be correct because what was done was done in a panic. When you are nuts, anything goes. When you are going to die, die now.

Both Major Hasan and I survived our moments of extreme panic. He will recover from his wounds, stand trial, be convicted and will have a lifetime to think about the consequences of his deeds.

I have been thinking about mine for forty years. While some may make conclusions about what happened based on Major Hasan’s name, religion or origins, I choose to make my own conclusion based on my eerily similar experience during an earlier war. Here’s how I see it.

War is the culprit in this tragedy, war and the people who declare it and wage it. It is easy for the Osama bin Ladens and George Bushes of this world to declare wars and prosecute them for they are the sons of wealth and privilege who will never suffer the consequences of the conflicts they seek.

Take away the war and everything is different. I end up going straight through college without being drafted and Major Hasan has a nice career as an army psychiatrist. Osama bin Laden and George Bush get lost in history. No matter what justification there may be for war, any war, the consequence of the horrors of combat are so deep and so lasting that all of us, even the best of us, are ruined by it.

Since he survived the shootings, Major Hasan will now have his forty years to relieve the massacre and try to make some sense of it. War just isn’t worth it and this shooting proves it.

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Toinou June 8, 2012 2:48 am (Pacific time)

and understand it witouht changing the point.THIS IS WHAT I SAID-"I don't think you can make a logical arguement for your views." NOT!" you don't think I can make a logical argument"What I said was that you are NOT making logical arguements to fully explain your views. I am NOT talking about issues!And the 'of course', means exactly what you said, 'I am personally going to hold the dems feet to the fire.'I agree with that statement and that I will hold your feet to the fire in making that statement.What is so illogical about that?FTGF!

Scott November 10, 2009 2:41 pm (Pacific time)

Someone said it right already here on S-N. The murdered Soldiers at Ft Hood must be counted as war casualties. It's obvious the shooter was motivated by extremist Islamic ideals. I do apologize for inserting this a bit out of place in this particular article - I tried to go back and find the original article I wished to comment on.

gp November 9, 2009 3:48 am (Pacific time)

Hoppe, You miss the point, this was a personal story about insanity and war, it was not a history lesson, the writer is a historian and can write good history when he does. You want a lesson on the Viet Nam War? Get the movie Hearts and Minds, still available at your public library. Or do a google search. Short op ed bits on the newswire don't have the space for everything.

Henry Ruark November 8, 2009 3:55 pm (Pacific time)

Hoppe: For me yr two simply prove up precisely the perfection of potent UN-attention sometimes paid within the military to the very symptoms we must manage, somehow, not only to recognize but to cut out completely from those who must manage our demanded defenses, while the world remains in the worst state ever yet recovered from some previous more peaceful times. Desperate depression can be contained only by desperate measures, defined and then, sometimes desperately, treated by those trained to recognize and remedy. Worldwide resort to force for malignant purposes will never substitute for essential responsible, reasonable and rational measures to make sure we must never again resort to war as duplicitous distortion of what must, now, for sure, be accomplished short of that Biggest Bang Ever Heard...if indeed anyone survives to hear it !!

Hoppe November 8, 2009 10:46 am (Pacific time)

Regardless how one "feels" about the below news article the fact remains this individual methodically planned and then carried out a vicious act of terrorist mass murder. Please recall the so-called Washington sniper, the recent killing of a young soldier outside of a recruiting office, and so many other killing here in the states: "Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.

He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6526030/Fort-Hood-gunman-had-told-US-military-colleagues-that-infidels-should-have-their-throats-cut.html

Hoppe November 8, 2009 10:45 am (Pacific time)

My God! I re-read this article and still I cannot believe how this individual could write such a story completely free of any historical chronology that happened during this time period, not withstanding that it has nothing to do with the atrocity at Ft. Hood. Note: There were many section 8 cases going on during this time period, but this article has absoluetly nothing to do with facts, much less written by an individual trained in interpreting DSM diagnostics. By the way, PTSD was not listed in the DSM for many years after 1968.

Henry Ruark November 8, 2009 10:40 am (Pacific time)

Friend Eddie: Your courage in revelation here highly appreciated, for special personal reasons. Do not be "put off" by some insensitives seeking to see name-in-print; your action is leadout for millions more with guts-enough to dothesame, and keep on screaming "Enough is enough ! until other millions, now on warnings deeper and bloodier than ever, really listen and then act.

Vic November 8, 2009 8:31 am (Pacific time)

Silvy...you mean the bloodthirsty American "christians" who want to kill everyone who doesnt agree with their fairy tales? The American "chrstians" who are responsible for millions of deaths, atomic bombings and wars around the world? Yes, lets lock those fanatics up !! Maybe send em back to their bloodsoaked god of arrogance and hatred...in ribbons.

Anonymous November 7, 2009 3:48 am (Pacific time)

hey nikomo, how about i start wearing the burka and give up all the rights of a women. would that make the muslim community happy? this guy was a terrorist, yelling allah akbar before he started shooting. end of story

Silvy November 6, 2009 11:57 pm (Pacific time)

Maybe the Government should do as the did in WWII,intern all those who are trouble makers and who can't leave their extreme religious believes back whjere they originated

stephen November 6, 2009 4:04 pm (Pacific time)

Too many U.S. military Captains are being killed in the middle east. There was something, was it called "fragging"?, where soldiers were killing their own Captains. Too many soldiers are tired of fighting wars of aggression for a country that has 5 wars of aggression while obama gets the peace prize. The torture, and the endless wars we are LOSING. Then they hear, the U.S. wants to start a war with Iran? What would YOU think? No wonder we have foreign soldiers training in the U.S. they fight for paychecks, not the integrity. No wonder we have soldiers giving up.

nikomo November 6, 2009 2:11 pm (Pacific time)

we as members of the salem community need to show solidarity and atonement to Muslims of our community to lead the way in showing inclusiveness.wearing the Hijab would give visual support to this healing process.BB...

Nikomo, does that include the men, too? Daniel Johnson

stephen November 6, 2009 12:59 pm (Pacific time)

Thank you for not focusing on the persons arabic name. I tend to lean towards your assumption. I am also hoping that we can find out if he was on any anti-depressents, such as prozac etc. I actually also hope he lives, it could possibly bring out more truth in regards to what really happened.

Daniel Johnson November 6, 2009 12:25 pm (Pacific time)

Eddie: Exceptional input. Thank you for telling it to us.

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