Robert Bales Charged With 17 Counts Of Murder: PTSD & The U.C.M.J. ("War On Trial")

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is being Charged with 17 Counts of Murder on Friday.
Before everyone gets all riled up please remember Bales is Still a Soldier under UCMJ Law (Uniform Military Code Of Justice).
The Legal System is completely different under the UCMJ.
First there is a Court Martial, then he still has the right to Legal Counsel & an Investigation.
Next where is the Evidence?
There were NO Autopsies because the Alleged Victims were Buried Immediately according to Muslim Law.
on top of all that, Bales had PTSD, Serious Mental Health Issues yet the Army continued to Deploy him to a Combat Zone, thus Bales can't even be Discharged right now.
Higher Standard My Foot!
The Man had a Brain Injury, was Mentally & Physically Stressed Out!
The Army knew this Man had Serious Mental & Health Issues yet they continued to Deploy him to a War that America should have been out of long ago.
So Even if its Fast-Tracked it may take Years to Prosecute because this is NOT a Civilian Case!
So everyone needs to Calm Down.
The U.S. Military does NOT treat its Soldiers like Trash when they get into Legal Trouble.
Especially when they have Served for Several Years as a Good Soldier when On-Duty.
His Military Record is Outstanding even if his Personal life was a little messed up.
So everyone needs to just calm down.
Let's focus on getting Out of Afghanistan NOW to prevent other Tragedies like this from occurring.



Bales to be charged with murder in Afghan killings


Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be charged with 17 counts of murder in connection with a shooting spree in an Afghan village that left women and children dead and severely tested U.S.-Afghan relations, a U.S. official said.

The official declined to be identified because the charges have not been publicly released yet.

Bales will also face six counts of attempted murder and six counts of aggravated assault, as well as dereliction of duty and other violations of military law, the Associated Press reported, citing an unidentified U.S official.

Bales is being held in a solitary cell in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. The charges are to be read to him today.

Bales, who was on his fourth combat tour, allegedly sneaked from his military outpost in Kandahar province at 3 a.m. March 11 and walked to two villages where he shot, stabbed and burned villagers, including nine children.

The military originally said Bales was suspected in the killing of 16 Afghan villagers, but changed that Thursday to 17, raising the number of adults by one but without explaining why.

The massacre followed the accidental burnings of Qurans at a U.S. base in Afghanistan, which touched off waves of deadly rioting. No one has suggested a motive for the shootings, but the massacre has highlighted the issues of combat stress and frequent deployments.

Bales, 38, joined the Army on Nov. 8, 2001, two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Friends say he was driven by patriotism, but Bales' financial businesses had gone bust, and regulators were investigating him for allegedly bilking an Ohio couple of their retirement savings.

He deployed three times to Iraq before Afghanistan. During his second deployment, he fought in Najaf to recover a downed helicopter. His platoon leader praised him, and in a newspaper article, Bales recalled it as one of his proudest moments. He arrived in Afghanistan in December. His unit provided security at a small outpost.

Two days before the killings, one of Bales' fellow soldiers lost a leg after stepping on a mine, said John Henry Browne, Bales' civilian attorney. Bales also suffered a minor head injury in 2010 as a passenger in a Humvee that flipped, Browne said. "I'm not putting the war on trial, but the war is on trial," Browne said.


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Sources: AP, CNN, USA Today, Google Maps

Robert Bales: How The U.S. Military Lost Him (PTSD, Brain Injury, 4 Deployments)

Staff Sgt Robert Bales Enlisted in the U.S. Army out of Patriotism soon after the 9-11 Attack on the World Trade Center. After 4 Deployments & a Brain Injury he's now being treated like Trash.


LOSING SERGEANT BALES


Staff Sergeant Robert Bales began a series of journeys a decade ago, by plane and car and Humvee and on foot. He started out and has ended up, at least for now, in the Midwest: he is from Ohio, and, on Friday, was flown to Kansas, to the prison at Fort Leavenworth.

Bales had gone to Iraq three times; in 2007, in Najaf, in the middle of a battle, his unit was sent to protect a helicopter that had crashed down: “It was like a match lit up. It looked like a toy with a candle lit underneath it,” he said at the time, according to an Army news release.

In 2010, he was driving in a Humvee when it rolled over, and his head was banged up. He flew to Afghanistan in December—his lawyer, John Henry Browne, told the Times that he didn’t want to go:

The family was counting on him not being redeployed…He and the family were told that his tours in the Middle East were over.

Military officials had kept Bales’s name secret since last Sunday, when he left his base and walked by himself for about a mile until he came to a village house, and went inside. When he walked out of that house he went to another, and then another.

Bales has two children of his own, a girl and boy ages three and four. In the three houses he allegedly shot and killed nine children, four of them under the age of six, and seven grown-ups, too.
Bales is thirty-eight. His namelessness was never going to last long, or be useful.

(It still hasn’t been released officially: Bales’s name was leaked, and first reported by Fox News.) The explanation was that his wife and children needed to be kept safe, but they were moved from their home in Lake Tapps, Washington, and sent to Joint Base Lewis-McChord days ago.

(Reporters who walked up to their house found a front porch “cluttered with empty boxes and a snow sled, while toys, a barbecue grill and a weathered hot tub sat in the fenced backyard,” according to the Times.) Transporting Bales hastily from Afghanistan to Kuwait only made both of those countries angry, in Kuwait’s case because the press figured it out before the government there did.

Without a name, Bales had been a phantom of suppositions. Browne had begun to make some of them solid, as had military officials who spoke to the press.

Browne told reporters that Bales had lost part of a foot in Iraq; that was in addition to the head injury. He also said that Bales saw a friend’s leg blown off last week.

Military officials told the Times that Bales had been drinking the night of the murders, and that he was having trouble with his wife.

Browne said that the drinking story was “very offensive,” according to the Post, and that Bales had a “very strong marriage.” Browne has hardly said a sentence that wouldn’t fit in a a closing statement in a defense built around post-traumatic stress disorder or diminished capacity—the loving husband and father broken by the war. But not all explanations can double as absolutions.

One shouldn’t stigmatize veterans by implying that this is normal behavior; but one doesn’t want to isolate them, or leave them stranded on a difficult path, by cheerfully failing to recognize real pain.

The decision to pack Bales on a plane and out of Afghanistan may lead to other journeys.

Will the villagers who saw him that night, like the woman who saw another woman taken by her hair and slammed against a wall, be brought to the trial to testify? (The answer may turn on Bales’s right to confront his accusers.)

The dead left behind in the villages had names and stories and maybe strong marriages, too.

We saw some of their faces in images in which mourners lifted up quilts to show their bodies. Now we are getting snapshots of Bales; neither set should banish the other.






Staff Sgt. Robert Bales' Neighbors Described Afghan Massacre Suspect As 'Good Guy'

Shock echoed down the street in Lake Tapp, Wash., where Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, named as the suspect who allegedly went on a rampage, murdering 16 Afghan civilians, was remembered as a family man and "good guy."

"I just can't believe Bob's the guy who did this," neighbor Paul Wohlberg told the Associated Press. "A good guy got put in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Neighbors painted a picture of the career soldier as a family man who spoke little about his deployments.

Kassie Holland, a neighbor, told the Associated Press that she would see Bales playing with his daughter Quincy, 4, and son Bobby, 3.

"My reaction is that I'm shocked," she said. "I can't believe it was him. There were no signs... He always had a good attitude about being in the service. He was never really angry about it. When I heard him talk, he said, it seemed like, yeah, that's my job. That's what I do. He never expressed a lot of emotion toward it."

Bales' platoon leader in Iraq described him to the Washington Post as an exemplary soldier who "saved many a life."

"Bales is still, hands down, one of the best soldiers I ever worked with," Army Capt. Chris Alexander , 28, told the newspaper.

Bales, 38, remains locked up today in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he is being housed in a private cell away from other inmates.

Charges are expected soon against the career soldier, who was flown out of Afghanistan and arrived at the Army prison Friday night.

Bales is accused of breaking into several Afghan homes in the middle of the night last Sunday and killing 16 civilians, mostly women and children. He could face the death penalty if found guilty.

Pentagon officials said that Bales' being brought back to the U.S. does not necessarily mean that his military court proceedings will be held in the U.S., holding out the possibility that they could be held in Afghanistan. The Afghan government is demanding that Bales be tried in Afghanistan.

Details of Bales' military record have also emerged and they depict a soldier who has seen intense combat and lost part of a foot.

Bales, who enlisted shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks, was first deployed in November 2003 when his unit spent a year in Mosul, Iraq.

In June 2006 he and his unit were sent back to Iraq and their year-long deployment was given a three month extension until September 2007. During that time, he saw duty in Mosul in the north, Bagdad when the city was pressed by militants, and then to Baquba where his unit took major casualties.

His final Iraq deployment was from September 2009 to September 2010 in Diyala province, which was also a hotbed of insurgent activity.

In December 2011, he was ordered to Afghanistan.

Bales' alleged murderous rage is in stark contrast to what he said after a fierce battle in Zarqa, Iraq, in 2007.

"I've never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us," he told Fort Lewis' Northwest Guardian.

"I think that's the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm's way like that," Bales said at the time.

John Henry Browne, Bales' lawyer in Seattle, told The Associated Press Thursday that the soldier had witnessed his friend's leg blown off the day before the massacre.

Bales reportedly spent his entire 11-year career at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state and lived not too far from the base. Originally from the Midwest, he was deployed with the Second Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in December.

Browne said that he was highly decorated and had once been nominated for a Bronze Star though he did not receive it. He also lost part of a foot because of a combat injury.

"He's never said anything antagonistic about Muslims. He's in general very mild-mannered," Browne told the AP.

Bales reportedly left Camp Belambay, where he was stationed to protect Special Operation Forces creating local militias, in the middle of the night wearing night-vision goggles, according to a source. The shooting occurred at 3 a.m. in three houses in two villages in the Panjway district of southern Kandahar province.

In the first village, more than a mile south of the base, he allegedly killed four people in the first house. In the second house, he allegedly killed 11 family members -- four girls, four boys and three adults.

According to a member of the Afghan investigation team and ABC News' interviews, he then walked back to another village past his base and killed one more person. He reportedly returned to the base on his own and turned himself in calmly.

An official told ABC News that the soldier had suffered a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the past, either from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle or in a car accident. He reportedly went through the advanced TBI treatment at Fort Lewis and was deemed to be fine.

He also underwent mental health screening necessary to become a sniper and passed in 2008. He had routine behavioral health screening after that and was cleared, the official said.

When the soldier returned from his last deployment in Iraq he had difficulty reintegrating, including marital problems, the source told ABC News. But officials concluded that he had worked through those issues before deploying to Afghanistan.

On Thursday, Browne said that Bales' marriage was "fabulous."

Afghan political leaders have called for the shooter to be tried publicly in Afghan courts, but U.S. military officials say the case will be handled in U.S. military courts. A U.S. military official says Afghan officials were made aware of the transfer before it occurred.


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Sources: ABC News, AP, Daily Mail, New Yorker Magazine, USA Today, Youtube, Google Maps

Taliban Threatens To Behead U.S. Troops In Retaliation For Afghan Civilian Shootings

Pres. Obama says the "U.S. is Heartbroken over the Killings of Innocent Afghan Civilains". What about Innocent Soldiers Defending their Country?

War Is Hell!

Attention Everyone!

Please Don't Bash U.S. Military Personnel Currently Serving To Defend Our Country.
Those SAME Members of the U.S. Military You are choosing to Blast & Criticize, are the SAME Military Personnel Working Hard each day to Protect You & Defending Your Rights as an American Citizen.

So unless You Have EVER Served in the U.S. Military Or Unless You have members of Your Immediate Family Who served in the U.S. Military, Please Refrain from Criticizing members of the U.S. Military.

Especially U.S. Soldiers who have been Deployed Multiple times.

Have you EVER served in the U.S. Military?
Have you EVER completed Basic Training?
Have you EVER served in a Combat Zone?
Have you EVER been Shot at by Iraq or Afghanistan Citizens?
Have you EVER suffered a Brain Injury or PTSD as a result of serving in Iraq or Afghanistan?

If your response is "NO" to those questions, than why are you complaining about the Actions of U.S. Soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan?

I have a Husband who retired from the U.S. Army after 23 Years of Active Duty Service.
He served in Vietnam & Saudi.

My husband personally witnessed 2 of his Friends getting their heads Blown Off by the Vietcong.
Witnessing such Tragedies Still affects him years later because he is a Human Being.
And during his time in Vietnam my husband was Injured.

My Father Served in the U.S. Army during War time.
My Uncles & Cousins served in the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy & Marines.
Now my Son & his Fiancee’ are also Serving in the U.S. Army.

I am Tired of Arrogant People, Especially Arrogant BLACK Men & Women, who NEVER served One day Defending this Country, Criticizing Members of our Armed Services.

I am also Tired of Politicians from both sides of the Aisle, using Our U.S. Military Personnel as Pawns to win Elections.

If Your Religion disavows War or Military Service, I respect Your Decision NOT to Serve in the U.S. Military.
But please don’t use Your Religion as an Excuse to Bash or look down upon our Brave Men & Women who choose to Defend this Country via U.S. Military Service.

I Don’t Condone the type of Violence which took place last weekend when that Army Sergeant Killed 16 Afghan Civilians but who are we to Judge?

Who are we to Judge?

NONE of us except GOD, the U.S. Army & that Army Sergeant knows what really happened or what that Man has experienced during each of his Deployments to Iraq & Afghanistan.

Since he was Suffering from a Brain Injury why was he Still being Allowed to Serve or why was he Still being Deployed to another Dangerous War Zone?

I can bet he was either BLACK or Latino!
I could be Wrong but in this instance I don’t think I am.

BLACK & Latino Soldiers are Often Deployed more frequently to Combat Zones than WHITE Soldiers.

For BLACKS & Latinos serving in the U.S. Military, Racial Discrimination is Still a Major Issue!

Now Add Racial Discrimination to the Stress of trying to Stay Alive while serving in a War Zone.

So unless You plan on Immediately Enlisting into the U.S. Military & Defending the United States Of America (Your Current Home), then please take that Anti-Military Sentiment Somewhere else!
I didn’t Stutter.







Afghan Taliban threaten to behead U.S. soldiers; government team attacked


Suspected insurgents fired on an Afghan government delegation on Tuesday investigating the massacre of 16 civilians by a U.S. soldier, officials said, hours after the Taliban threatened to behead American troops to avenge the killings.

Two of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, Shah Wali Karzai and Addul Qayum Karzai, were with senior defense, intelligence and interior ministry officials travelling to the scene of the massacre in Najiban and Alekozai villages, in Kandahar's Panjwai district, when insurgents opened fire.

Karzai's brothers were unharmed in the brief gunbattle during meetings at a village mosque, but a soldier and a civilian were wounded. The area is a Taliban stronghold and a supply route.

"The Islamic Emirate once again warns the American animals that the mujahideen will avenge them, and with the help of Allah will kill and behead your sadistic murderous soldiers," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, using the term with which the Islamist group describes itself.

As the first protest broke out in Jalalabad city over the weekend shootings, the Taliban said Afghan government demands for an open trial of the U.S. Army staff sergeant being held for the slayings would not blunt civilian hostility towards Western combat troops.

The unnamed U.S. soldier - said to have only recently arrived in the country - is accused of walking off his base in Kandahar province in the middle of the night and gunning down at least 16 villagers, mostly women and children.

A U.S. official said the accused soldier had suffered a traumatic brain injury while on a previous deployment in Iraq.

The shootings, which came just weeks after deadly protests across the country over the inadvertent burning of Korans by U.S. soldiers, triggered a protest by around 2,000 students in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

The demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and demanded Afghan President Hamid Karzai reject plans to sign a strategic pact with Washington that would allow U.S. advisers and possibly special forces to remain in the country beyond the planned withdrawal in 2014.



U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking after a phone call with Karzai - who is said to be furious over the latest deaths - said the shootings had only increased his determination to get American troops out of Afghanistan.

However, Obama cautioned there should not be a "rush to the exits" for U.S. forces who have been fighting in Afghanistan since late 2001 and that the drawdown set for the end of 2014 should be done in a responsible way.

The soldier, from a conventional unit, was based at a joint U.S.-Afghan base used by elite U.S. troops under a so-called village support programme hailed by NATO as a possible model for U.S. involvement in the country after the 2014 drawdown.

Such bases provide support to local Afghan security units and provide a source of security advice and training, as well as anti-insurgent backup and intelligence.

"CAN NO LONGER BE CALLED ROGUE"

A spokesman for Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wisa said that tribal elders in the area of the massacre would urge against protests and work to dampen public anger if the investigation process was transparent.

"They are supporting the government and will accept any conclusion by the investigators. Today we have meetings with people in the area and all will become clear," spokesman Ahmad Jawid Faisal said.

NATO officials said it was too early to tell if the U.S. soldier would be tried in the United States or Afghanistan if investigators were to find enough evidence to charge him, but he would be under U.S. laws and procedures under an agreement between U.S. and Afghan officials.

Typically, once the initial investigation is completed, prosecutors decide if they have enough evidence to file charges and then could move to an Article 32 or court martial hearing.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that the death penalty could be sought in the U.S. military justice system against the soldier, but portrayed the shooting as an isolated event that would not alter withdrawal plans.

While Afghan MPs in parliament called for a trial under Afghan law, Karzai's office was understood to accept that a trial in a U.S. court would be acceptable provided the process was transparent and open to media.

Analysts said the incident would complicate U.S. efforts to reach agreement with the Afghan government on a post-2014 security pact before a May summit in the U.S. city of Chicago on the future size and funding of Afghan security forces.

Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said that despite NATO and White House references to the killings as the work of a "rogue" soldier, other similar events had happened before, including a "kill team" apprehended in Kandahar in 2010.

"In the stress of an environment of escalated violence - by both sides, but particularly after Obama's troop surge in early 2009, it looks as if most soldiers simply see Afghanistan as a whole as ‘enemy territory' and every Afghan as a potential terrorist. This can no longer be called ‘rogue'," Ruttig said.

NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, Marine General John Allen, has promised a rapid investigation of the massacre, while security was being reviewed at NATO bases across the country.


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Sources: AP, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, Reuters, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

Soldiers Urge Congress & Pentagon Officials' Help For PTSD-Related Illnesses (Fewer Deployments)

G.I.'s plea: Give troops with PTSD more help


The American soldier who allegedly shot and killed 16 Afghan civilians served three tours of duty in Iraq before serving in Afghanistan.

Some experts say U.S. troops are being stretched too thin - and it's having an effect.

The suspect in the rampage in Afghanistan was stationed here until a few months ago.

We talked to an active duty soldier here who says he worries that our military men and women are being stretched to their breaking points.

"It will get better and it will get easier, but you won't ever forget faces and things you saw; it becomes part of you," says Specialist Jared Enger.

He should be in Afghanistan right now, fighting alongside the very soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians.

"He's in the same brigade I'm in," Enger notes. "He's in a unit I've done work with, so it's very well someone I could have crossed paths with and done some training with."

Enger spent two tours in Iraq - nearly 27 months of combat - during which he saw one of his best friends die right in front of him.

Like hundreds of others here at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Enger was diagnosed with chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"I'm having nightmares. I'm having flashbacks. I'm really just feeling completely on edge," he said.

And news about how the base is responding to its soldiers' issues has been dismal.

Last month, the head of the base medical center was placed on administrative leave for reversing the diagnoses of nearly 300 soldiers who were told they had PTSD, allegedly to save the military money.

Jared was one of them. But his diagnosis has now been reinstated and he's about to be discharged. Yet, he worries about his fellow soldiers, who have endured more than a decade of deployments.

Thirty-four thousand soldiers have been deployed from Lewis McChord, and 20,000 of those have served multiple tours, deployed more than once to Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the base.

"Is two tours too much?" Enger asks. "Is five tours too much? Who's to say? There needs to be a better system in place."

He's particularly upset about this: In the past two years, officials at Lewis McChord said, 26 soldiers at the base have committed suicide.

"Something like that should never happen, and the only way it's not going to happen is with guys getting the help they need," said Enger.

Members of Congress are now looking into how those PTSD issues have been handled here at the base.

As for Jared, he told us that, if he could, he would prefer to be in Afghanistan, because being in a battle zone is now where he feels most normal.


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Sources: CBS News, CNN, Google Maps

Political Pundits Weigh In On Obama's Afghan Exit Strategy Speech

Political Pundits react to Pres. Obama's recent Afghan War Strategy Speech.




Obama: U.S. security at stake in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama explains his decision to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops Afghanistan. Watch his entire speech here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Google Maps

Pres. Obama's Afghan War Strategy Speech (Video)...30,000 More Deployed

Obama: U.S. security at stake in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama explains his decision to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops Afghanistan. Watch his entire speech here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Sources: MSNBC, Politico, Google Maps

Fort Hood Soldiers On Edge As Deployment Dates Approach...Pray For Our Troops

Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert Gates expands review of Fort Hood shootings. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

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Authorities knew about Fort Hood suspect. FBI officials admitted they knew months ago that Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was e-mailing a radical Muslim cleric overseas. A Morning Meeting panel discusses how authorities missed what appeared to be multiple red flags in the Fort Hood massacre.

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Nerves fray at Fort Hood as Deployment nears


Even before the shootings at this sprawling military post, Pfc. Nicolas Woodworth was wary of shipping out for Afghanistan in early January. As a combat engineer, he is supposed to serve on a route-clearance team, creeping down Afghan roads at 5 mph looking for bombs.

To steel himself for the dangerous and nerve-racking job, Woodworth relied on Pfc. Aaron Nemelka. Nemelka often slept on the couch in the small apartment that Woodworth and his wife had rented just outside Fort Hood. The two soldiers entered bowling tournaments together and spent hours watching Quentin Tarantino movies.

Woodworth didn't want to go to war, he said this week. But he also couldn't bear the thought of letting his best friend go without him.

Nemelka was among the first soldiers killed when Maj. Nidal M. Hasan allegedly opened fire on his fellow soldiers Nov. 5. Now Woodworth is wavering. "I am absolutely not ready to deploy," the 20-year-old said as he nervously gnawed on the edge of his black Army beret. "I don't know if I am mentally ready" to lose someone else.

His struggles pose a dilemma for his platoon leader, 2nd Lt. Ryan Corken. His two dozen soldiers, members of the 20th Engineer Battalion, were tense before the shootings. The 20th Engineers will replace a 700-member battalion that has lost 11 soldiers in Afghanistan. Four were killed in late October when a 1,000-pound bomb struck one of their mine-clearing vehicles.

"Is Woodworth kind of scared to deploy?" Corken, 24, asked rhetorically. "Yes. We are all scared. But you don't want to perpetuate that by making it an easy out. You have to balance those who truly need help with those who are getting cold feet and trying to avoid their responsibilities."

Corken's platoon, which began November with 27 soldiers, lost three in the Fort Hood attack. This week the platoon's troops finished their final tributes to the fallen. Soldiers loaded their belongings into shipping containers, completed their wills, and took inventory of the physical and emotional damage wrought by the shootings.

Waiting for his friend

On the day of the attack, Nemelka and five of his platoon comrades were getting immunizations and filling out pre-deployment paperwork at Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Woodworth was in his car in the center's parking lot, waiting for his friend, when the shootings began. Nemelka was one of the first soldiers to die, witnesses said.

Woodworth watched as the gunman left the building, still shooting at fleeing soldiers. A few feet from Woodworth, a volley of bullets struck a soldier, who crumpled onto the hood of a car.

Woodworth removed his T-shirt to use as a bandage, and he handed his belt to a medic, who fashioned it into a tourniquet to save a major who had been struck in the leg.

In Woodworth's combat lifesaver classes, treating the wounded seemed relatively straightforward. "When blood is actually gushing from them, it is much harder," he said.

Since the shooting, he said, he has been unable to sleep more than a few hours a night. When he looks at his kitchen table, he sees Nemelka, a skinny 19-year-old, grinning back at him. To memorialize his friend, Woodworth went to a tattoo parlor and had a black rose with Nemelka's name inked into his rib cage, along with his friend's dates of birth and death.

Woodworth tries to talk to his wife, whom he met and married only a few months after moving to Fort Hood. She is seven months pregnant with their first child. "It feels like stuff is crashing down," he said.

Most of the other soldiers in his platoon aren't grieving in the same manner as Woodworth. Pfc. Nicholas Buchman was inside the readiness center and dived for cover when the gunfire began. Crawling on his belly, he hid in a hallway off the main meeting room. A sergeant handed him the plastic base of an oscillating fan for self-defense. "I guess I was going to hit [the shooter] with it," Buchman said.

There were only two ways out of the building. One exit ran through the hallway where Buchman was hiding. The gunman took the other exit.

Once the shooting stopped, Buchman rushed to help with first aid. He hopped into a pickup truck ferrying wounded soldiers to the hospital and was quickly drenched in their blood.

The experience, Buchman said, has left him more confident in himself and his training.

Last week, the platoon's soldiers gathered on the Fort Hood runway and stood at attention as transfer cases bearing their dead colleagues were loaded on a plane for Dover Air Force Base. Corken addressed his men on the edge of the tarmac. "These soldiers wanted to deploy and wanted to be in the Army," he said. "When we go to Afghanistan, we need to make them proud. We will carry their names with honor and pride."


A Leadership issue

Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak said Corken told him that the shootings had increased anxiety about deploying among a few of the soldiers in his platoon. All of the affected soldiers, including Woodworth, have seen mental health counselors or psychiatrists.

But Andrysiak told Corken that he couldn't just rely on the counselors to get his troops mentally ready to go. "This is a leadership issue," he recalled telling the young officer. "You have got to be engaged in talking to your soldiers over and over. You have to talk to them every day and help them understand that what they are experiencing is normal. . . . This is not something I can solve for you in morning formation with the battalion."

The contrast between Woodworth and Buchman is particularly puzzling to Corken. "Buchman was more affected by the shooting than Woodworth, and he is ready to deploy," he said.

The lieutenant has spent a lot of time thinking about how he can reach Woodworth and whether it makes sense to force him to go, especially if he continues to say that he can't handle the mental strain. With the deployment drawing closer, Corken has thought about invoking Nemelka's name, telling his struggling soldier that his friend would want him to go.

So far he has resisted the urge. "I don't want Woodworth to feel that I am leveraging the death of one of our soldiers to get him to fight," Corken said. "Nemelka doesn't deserve that."



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Sources: Washington Post, MSNBC, Nature.org, Google Maps

US Army Welcomed Muslims But Didn't Stop Harassment...Wrong Environment

Alleged gunman's cousin says Hasan was harassed. The cousin of Nidal Malik Hasan said the Army psychiatrist was "ridiculed for being a Muslim." NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

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Stresses at Fort Hood Were Likely Intense for Hasan


While no one yet knows what ignited Major Nidal Malik Hasan's murderous rage Thursday afternoon, Nov. 5, at Fort Hood, the kindling was hiding in plain sight. The US Army had ordered Hasan, wrestling with the conflicting demands of being a soldier, a Psychiatrist and a Muslim, to the post with the highest toll of Army suicides. Fort Hood is one of the Army's most stressed posts because of its units' revolving-door deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally, the US Army made clear that Hasan couldn't escape his own pending deployment to Afghanistan, where he'd have to salve the mental wounds of fellow soldiers killing members of his own faith.

Soldiers nursing the mental and emotional scars of war have overwhelmed the central Texas base, the Army's largest. Cases of post-traumatic stress disorder quadrupled from 2005 to 2007, and PTSD affects even those — like Hasan — who haven't gone off to war. "Mental-health issues are a real problem for the Fort Hood population," an Army study concluded last year. "Soldiers don't live in a vacuum," it added, noting that they have "families and friends who are also affected by the trauma the soldiers experience."

Hasan had spent six years dealing with the mental wreckage of war at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and, since July, at Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center. His own susceptibility to mental problems was likely heightened because he was pretty much a loner: he wasn't married or in a relationship. After his parents died a decade ago, he seemed to become more religious. Absent close family, he spent much of his time counseling soldiers whose minds and bodies were scarred in combat.

His growing opposition to the wars — which apparently spiked when President Barack Obama decided not to pull U.S. troops out of region, as Hasan had hoped — crystallized when he received orders for his first combat deployment. "We've known for the last five years that that was probably his worst nightmare," Nader Hasan, a cousin, told Fox News. "He would tell us how he hears horrific things ... that was probably affecting him psychologically." Authorities took note six months ago when someone with Hasan's name posted messages on the Internet likening suicide bombers to soldiers who protect their buddies by diving atop a live grenade, although no formal inquiry was launched.

Any opposition Hasan had toward the wars could have deepened because of his constant contact with soldiers suffering from PTSD, that 2008 Army study suggested. More broadly, an Army study released in July found that major crimes have been on the rise at U.S. Army bases since 2003. It noted that crime rates — and mental illnesses — are rising with increased deployments and casualties.

Exactly what role Hasan's faith played in the shooting, if any, is unknown. Since well before 9/11, the U.S. military has welcomed Muslims into its ranks, and nearly all have served as fine soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. But since the 2001 attacks, there have been concerns that some Muslims, once in uniform, would put religion above country. In April 2005, Army Sergeant Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death for killing two officers in Kuwait just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Prosecutors said he launched the attack because he was concerned about U.S. troops killing fellow Muslims. That is apparently the only recent case of a Islamic soldier citing his faith as a reason for killing fellow troops.

Muslim scholars have long believed it is proper for Muslims to serve in a military force fighting other Muslims so long as they remain free to practice their faith. "If the leadership says another country is a threat, then the Muslim has the obligation to defend his country," says John Voll, an Islamic historian at Georgetown University, "... even if the other country is Islamic." But concerned over "the hatred that could come out," Representative Chet Edwards, a Texas Democrat whose district is near Fort Hood, told TIME he and Representative Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota and the lone Muslim in Congress, are seeking data on how many Muslims are now serving (perhaps 5,000 out of 1.4 million enlistees) and how many have been killed or wounded in combat. Hasan probably wouldn't appear on such a list, because he didn't specify a religion in his Army file.

It will take years to ease the trauma Fort Hood suffered Thursday. The Army will have to deploy more psychiatrists to deal with the surge of PTSD cases sure to come. The post recently has taken steps to ease stress on the home front, including creating "Phantom Family Time." It occurs every Thursday at 3 p.m. That was 86 minutes after one of those psychiatrists dispatched to central Texas to help ailing troops instead began shooting and shouting "Allahu Akbar" — God is great — at those counting on him for solace.



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Sources: TIME, MSNBC, US Army, Google Maps

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Woman who stopped Fort Hood rampage is Hoggard grad, former Wrightsville Beach officer


Those who know Kimberly Barbour Munley said they aren’t surprised the Carolina Beach native is the female civilian police officer credited for stopping the deadly shooting at Fort Hood, where 13 people were killed and several others injured.

Munley herself was injured, but she managed to shoot the gunman four times within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday morning.

“She was not afraid of anything,” said Wrightsville Beach Police Chief John Carey, who knew Munley when she worked for the department from 2000 to 2002.

“She is very small, but she had no fear,” he said.

Cone lauded Munley for encountering suspected gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is hospitalized on a ventilator. “In an exchange of gunfire, she was wounded but managed to wound him four times,” Cone said. “It was an amazing and aggressive performance by this police officer.”

Munley, 34, is the daughter of former Carolina Beach mayor Dennis Barbour. She grew up in Carolina Beach and graduated in 1993 from Hoggard High School.

Her father and stepmother, Wanda Barbour, were busy Friday afternoon trying to get a flight to Fort Hood so they could visit Munley in the hospital, where she remained in stable condition. They were also fielding calls from local and national media, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Inside Edition, according to workers at Island Tackle and Hardware in Carolina Beach, which is owned by the Barbours.

“We’re just so grateful and thankful to the Lord that she’s safe,” Wanda Barbour said. “Our hearts just ache for the loss of others, too, and hers, too. She’s still upset about that.”

Barbour said she and her husband found out Thursday afternoon Munley was involved in the attack, but they didn’t find out until later she was the one the top commander at Fort Hood credited with stopping the shooting.

Like others, Barbour wasn’t surprised it was Munley who helped stop the shooter. “When they said a female officer, a little part of me just knew,” she said.

“She is a very great person with a great spirit,” she said.

Ron Strickland, a retired teacher from Hoggard High School, coached Munley’s volleyball team and remembered her as a fearless athlete who was interested in law enforcement.

“This doesn’t surprise me at all,” Strickland said of Munley’s heroism. “She was always very matter of fact.”

Munley graduated in 1999 from Cape Fear Community College’s Basic Law Enforcement program, said David Hardin, public information officer for the college.

Carey said the Wrightsville Beach Police Department was Munley’s first law enforcement job. She was first employed March 1, 2000 as a reserve officer and later worked as a beach patrol officer and as an officer in the Uniform Patrol Division. She left the department in February 2002.

Munley received three letters of commendation and recognition for her performance as a Wrightsville Beach police officer.

“The Town of Wrightsville Beach expresses our most sincere condolences to the families of the soldiers that were killed and wounded in the shooting that occurred yesterday at Fort Hood Texas,” a news release from the police department states. “The Town of Wrightsville Beach and the Wrightsville Beach Police Department are proud of Officer Munley’s quick action and her dedication to the highest ideals of police service and wish her a speedy and full recovery.”

On Friday afternoon, many people sent messages to Munley’s Twitter account, expressing gratitude and wishes for a speedy recovery.

In the biography section of Munley’s Twitter account, she summed up her life with the following message: “I live a good life … a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone’s life.”





Military hails 2 heroes in Fort Hood rampage

The top commander at Fort Hood is crediting a civilian police officer for stopping the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at the Texas post. Lt. Gen. Bob Cone also hailed a young Army nutritionist who helped wounded victims.

Both women heroically intervened despite being shot.

Cone said Friday that Fort Hood police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon. Cone said Munley shot the gunman four times despite being shot herself.

Officials said Munley was in stable condition.

Cone said, "It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer."

On Munley's Twitter page, Munley is pictured with country music star Dierks Bentley at the Fort Hood "Freedom Fest." Her Twitter bio read: 'I live a good life. ... a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone's life."

Munley's father, Dennis Barbour, was making plans to travel to Fort Hood to see his 34-year-old daughter on Friday, Starnewsonline.com in Wilmington, N.C., reported. Barbour is a former mayor of Carolina Beach, a barrier island town near Wilmington.

“We're just so grateful and thankful to the Lord that she's safe,” Munley's stepmother, Wanda Barbour told the newspaper Web site. “Our hearts just ache for the loss of others, too, and hers, too. She's still upset about that.”

Munley is a native of Carolina Beach and served as a police officer in Wrightsville Beach, Starnewsonline.com reported.

Cone also hailed Amber Bahr, 19, as an "amazing young lady."

The commander told NBC's TODAY show that the nutritionist put a tourniquet on a wounded soldier and carried him out to medical care. And only after she had taken care of others did she realize she had been shot, he said.

In and out of pain

On Thursday, her mother, Lisa Pfund, told the Sheboygan Press that she spoke briefly to Bahr after she was taken to a community hospital.

"I actually got to talk to Amber and I talked to her for about 30 seconds and she was in a lot of pain," Pfund said. "She couldn't tell me nothing, either."

Later that night, she was able to speak with her recovering daughter, she told the Sheboygan Press. She was "in and out of pain" and on medication but in good spirits, adding that she tried to help others during the rampage, the Sheboygan Press reported.

The suspected gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is hospitalized on a ventilator.




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Sources: Star News Online, MSNBC, US Army, Google Maps