While the nation tries to analyze and understand why three soldiers would take aim at their own, one soldier stationed at Fort Hood says, "soldiers are human."
Capt. Adam Reeves sat just two miles from sprawling military post in Texas at a Vietnamese restaurant with his wife when he saw a couple of ambulances fly by, he said.
- As soon as the news broke that soldiers had opened fire at the post, shooting and killing 12 and wounding 31, Reeves and his wife Brande headed home, which is about 15 miles from the Fort Hood. Like many Americans, he sat glued to his TV, his computer and his phone.
The 35-year-old officer, who graduated from Eastern Kentucky University, knew that his family and friends from his hometown of Xenia, Ohio, and all over the world, would want to know how he was doing as soon as possible. So while answering a slew of phone calls and text messages, Reeves jumped on his computer and updated his Facebook status: "Seven dead and twenty wounded on Fort Hood but Brande and I are fine...as are all of our Soldiers."
That’s how KyPost.com caught up with Reeves, who is set to deploy Friday to Iraq where the rest of his unit already has been sent. But on Thursday in Texas, Reeves experienced a day that was quickly labeled "tragic."
Lt. Gen. Robert Cone held a news conference at Fort Hood—which was on lock-down for most of the afternoon Thursday—just after the shootings had ended, calling it a " terrible tragedy," reassuring the public that the base would work through this.
Reeves, who has been at Fort Hood since February 2005, said the whole situation was "sickening." He explained that the ranks of the Army are filled with good and bad alike, just like any other part of society.
Soldiers are people, a "cross-section of society," he said. "There are all types of people who join the Army...even the sick ones."
A soldier since ’97, Reeves said that as soon as he got the first phone call from a friend on post, his first thought was that "[it] might have been a disgruntled soldier."
He wants people to realize that soldiers are people.
"[Soldiers are] normal people, who do other than normal things. I don't want people to think that we're mentally unstable or anything like that," said Reeves. "Soldiers are people and some people are just sick."
While he said many people may try to blame what happened at Fort Hood on multiple deployments, the bottom line is that "soldiers are humans; humans that are exposed to more stress than most I guess."
As more details come out about the shooters, Reeves said more questions will be answered.
"It will clear a lot up about why he did what he did."
