Fort Hood, November 06: Stretching over two counties in a swathe of central Texas, Fort Hood military base is a town in itself.
Emergency personnel carry the wounded at the US Army post in Fort Hood, Texas, in this video grab taken and released on November 5. – Reuters
To its south, the town of Killeen, Texas with a population of 116,000 is dwarfed compared with the vast complex of shops and residences that make up one of the biggest US military facilities in the world.
Spanning 340 miles (880 kilometers) squared and nicknamed “The Great Place,” the base has an arts and crafts shop, museum, a boat dock, travel agents, a cinema, a hospital, various gyms, a fire station and a flower shop.
Its population of up to 50,000 troops even have their own archaeologist and newspaper.
But that community was shattered on Thursday when a army psychiatrist went on the rampage, killing at least 11 of his colleagues, ahead of his deployment to Iraq.
The shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, had been on course to follow in the footsteps of countless personnel from Fort Hood — which has provided fighting forces to every major US military conflict since the Vietnam War.
After its opening in 1942 Fort Hood trained and deployed numerous units for duty in Vietnam, Operation Desert Shield in the Arabian Gulf and deployed to Somalia for Operation Restore Hope.
Fort Hood military units formed the core of the military deployment that went to Somalia in 1992 and supported military operations in Bosnia beginning that same year.
Since the September 2001 terror attacks, the base has played a central role in the US “war on terror,” with sizable contingents deploying to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom and to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The base’s Fourth Infantry Division was responsible for the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in December 2003.
Local media reported that a total of 500 soldiers from Fort Hood have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, more fatalities than from any other US military post.
Several Fort Hood units also deployed for relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina in September 2005.
The base opened in September 1942, and was named for the famous Confederate General John Bell Hood, who gained recognition during the Civil War.
–Agencies