I talked with Senator Roy Blunt's office last week about a proposal in the U.S. Senate to award benefits to the victims of the Fort Hood shooting. Apparently the proposal is still pending as a part of the 2014 Military Defense Authorization Act which is a part of the U.S. Budgeting process so I’m afraid the possibility of anything happening to such a proposal is extremely unlikely.
And this is very sad. It is just another reason why political correctness is destroying our country. The awarding of benefits and/or Purple Hearts should never have been in question in this horrible tragedy.
It was just after 1:00 p.m on November 5, 2009 when Nidal Hasan walked into the Soldiers' Readiness Processing Center, a large open gymnasium-like room at Fort Hood, Texas, and opened fire on his fellow soldiers, killing 13 of them and wounding 30 more. The dead included the following:
Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow who was helping to train soldiers to help veterans file claim forms. He was married and a father and had been stationed in Korea previously.
Capt. John Gaffaney was a 56 year old psychiatric nurse who had arrived at Fort Hood just the day before to prepare for deployment to Iraq.
Spc. Frederic Greene, a combat engineer who was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.
Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, who had already served a stint in Iraq. He had only been married two months.
Sgt. Amy Krueger, who joined the Army after the September 11 attacks because she “wanted to take on Osama Bin Laden”. She had arrived at Fort Hood just 2 days before the shooting and was scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan in December.
Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka was to be deployed to Afghanistan in January 2010.
Pfc. Michael Pearson had talked to his mother 2 days before the shooting and was looking forward to being home for Christmas. He had not been home for a year.
Capt. Russell Seager, 51 years old, was at Fort Hood preparing for deployment to Afghanistan in December 2009.
Pvt. Francheska Velez was two months pregnant and preparing to return home after deployment to Iraq. She had been back in the U.S. only three days.
Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, age 55, was a military physician assistant. She had 2 daughters and 6 grandchildren and was preparing for deployment to Iraq.
Pfc. Kham Xiong was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. He was married and the father of 3 children. He was proud of is family’s military heritage. His father fought the Viet Cong with the CIA in 1972.
Michael Grant Cahill, a physicians assistant and civilian employee who had just returned to work after suffering a heart attack two weeks earlier.
Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, age 52, had a doctorate in psychology and was preparing for deployment to Afghanistan.
These brave soldiers were all victims of a man with a heart full of hatred and a mind twisted by evil, who had enough red flags in his military file to tip off any person with common sense, and had his superiors not been so concerned with political correctness, the massacre at Fort Hood might have been prevented.
But that would have meant profiling him, or questioning his background or religion, or investigating his associates, or even expressing curiosity about the strange language on his business card which we now know identified him as a soldier of Islam.
I am as pro-military as anyone could be so I am not indicting anyone, only reporting what his superiors admitted to after the fact.
In our failure to use common sense in such matters, we demonstrate that we value political correctness more than we value human life.
But this story is much more than just the failure to identify and deal with the questions raised by Hasan's writings and speeches and classroom lectures.
This is a man whose intentions and guilt were so blatant as to warrant swift and certain punishment immediately after the murders. But instead he was allowed to draw his military pay until he was convicted and sentenced to death in August of 2013.
In that time period he received more than $278,000 in military pay which came out of the taxpayers’ pockets. And, we paid for the best of medical care for the injuries he received in a shootout with a brave female police officer who finally brought him down. And of course we paid for his room and board while he awaited trial. And for his attorneys and all expenses of trial.
But at least we got the military pay back, right? He couldn't have used up that money while he was in jail, could he?
If you think there was even a penny left, you are wrong. Court officials said the money was gone, given to a “charity”, according to Hasan's defense attorney. You know and I know that money was not given to the Salvation Army, or the Red Cross, or any other legitimate charity which would actually have benefited any Americans. If it were indeed given away, it was paid into the coffers of the terrorist organization with whom he had been communicating (another red flag known to his military superiors but dismissed as not being important.)
But wait. There's more. In a show of political correctness unimaginable to those of us who normally use good old-fashioned Midwestern American common sense, this White House and current administration refused to acknowledge Hasan's murderous rampage as an act of terrorism and, in the most egregious denial of rights to our military and civilians who were killed or injured that day, our government immediately declared that this was just an act of “workplace violence”, and informed the survivors and the families of the dead to just deal with it as such.
There would be no words of commendation for bravery of service, no medals given, no government benefits such as Hasan received, and still to date no apologies.
Time and space will not allow me to tell you about the 30 survivors who are still dealing with medical expenses and living expenses while receiving no assistance of any type from their own government even after risking their lives in that room on that day. I wish I had time to tell the full story of Shawn Manning who still has at least 2 bullets in his body from the shooting. He says, “Hasan shot me six times that day and left me for dead as he proceeded to gun down my friends and fellow soldiers.”
Finally, I would tell you about Frankie Weaver of Lebanon who had returned from deployment in Iraq and was stationed at Fort Hood at the time of the shooting. His story of bravery and service deserves to be recognized. He was just outside the building when the shooting began. He helped load the wounded and dying into emergency vehicles and when all the available vehicles were full, he helped one wounded soldier into his own vehicle and drove him to the hospital.
I'm sure Frankie would agree with me that we need to continue to contact our U.S. Senators and Representatives to demand that all the victims, both the dead and those surviving, receive all benefits due them as military men and women injured or killed in an act of terrorism against America.
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