Tragedy at Home

This is where I was born. Yesterday, this is where 13 soldiers were killed and 30 were injured. One man opened fire in the Solider Readiness Center. This man was also an American Soldier. It is difficult to fathom how this happened or why. On American soil, at the home base of these soldiers, more died than we typically see die in a day in combat. The place that it was least expected is where it occurred. The Soldier Readiness Center is where troops who are getting ready to deploy or returning from a deployment are processed. I cannot imagine the feeling of the weight being lifted when my loved one returns home from war just to lose them at home or thinking that I have X amount of days to spend with him before he deploys, only to lose him right before. I cannot imagine being the Soldier who is so relieved to be home and in a safe place to be met with gun fire from one of his own.

As details emerge about the shooter, he is a Major in the Army and was possibly getting ready for his first deployment. He was opposed to the war and vocal about this opposition. I don’t understand why he did not separate from the military before now if he was so against the war. As a Soldier, you know that there is the chance of combat - especially now. This man was clearly an intelligent, well-educated man in psychiatry. Why continue to serve? Why not seek out civilian employment? There is speculation that he had recently been posting alarming messages on the Internet about suicide bombings and had been on the Federal radar for the last six months. Could there have been intervention before now? And what was the purpose of killing his fellow soldiers? There are so many unanswered questions at this juncture, but I do hope that they are answered in time. This was a senseless tragedy and my heart hurts for these soldiers and their families.