A little 'TEST' for us all on Fort Hood

[Hammer]

Should we be ashamed of ourselves:

A little test for us ALL -

I will try to make this short and sweet – it’s really not as LONG as it looks.


PART I - Fort Hood Gunman

Have you seen his photo: (most likely yes)
Name:(Nidal Hasan)
Rank:(Major) J
ob:(Psychiatrist)
Background:(Single, no children, Muslim extremist) Training:(recently completed training in treating traumatic stress disorder)
How training affected that day: (uncertain)
Shot how many times: (Four)
Wounds:(uncertain)
Prognosis from Wounds: (paralysis)
Did you hear comments from any of his family or friends: (probably)
Did he serve in the military:(yes)
Outcome:(12 murdered, 31 wounded)


PART II - Fort Hood Police Officer
Have you seen her photo:
Name:
Rank:
Job:
Background:
Training:
Shot how many times:
Wounds:
Prognosis from Wounds: -we didn't know, did we care, did we even think about it
Did you hear comments from any of her family:
Did she ever serve in the military:
Was she a military police officer or civilian:
Outcome:


(Kimberly Munley) (Sergeant) (Police Officer)


(Engaged, two children, former North Carolina Police Officer, saved NC partner’s life in scuffle where perpetrator was on top of officer and removing his weapon – as she jumped in the air and landed on the perp and knocking him away from her partner….nicknamed “Mighty Mouse” because of her courageous acts on duty in past and known for selfless bravery)


(SWAT, Trained in active-response tactics, she rushed into the building where Major Nidal Malik Hasan began firing – this type of training encourages the officer to act aggressively, not necessarily waiting for back up, so as to identify and immobilize the shooter quickly enough so as to not allow him/her to injure/kill more people)

(She went in after him very aggressively and confronted him – would you rush into a building SEEKING out a shooter ?)

(Three) (Both legs, torso, hand) (SLOW recovery) (No) (No) (civilian) (FEWER casualties)



a) ASK YOURSELF:
How did I do on the test? You probably ‘aced’ PART I
(And if you didn’t know the answer…a QUICK Google search took care of the problem)


You probably didn’t do so well on PART II
It is obvious that the media in this country is more concerned about sensationalizing the acts of a psychotic-sociopath…to the point that we know everything about him because of the OVER reporting than the acts of a truly brave and courageous hero.

b) No offense
but a hero is NOT someone who takes clothes to the homeless shelter or serves soup at the mission every Saturday for 26 years…. a HERO is:
(according to Webster) - a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities
- a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal

*** If you didn’t do so well on PART II, and if that did not demonstrate the media’s OVERLY ZEALOUS approach to ‘news’ reporting (facts and accuracy be damned) then you will really struggle with PART III. ***


PART III
(Other????) Fort Hood Police Officer
(who ACTUALLY STOPPED Hasan…despite the brave attempts of Officer Munley…who NEVER SHOT Hasan.....at all)

Name:
(Mark Woods)
Rank:
(Senior Sergeant)
Job:
(Police Officer)
Background:
(Since REAL and ACCURATE reporting are difficult be found…I don’t really know nor could I find anything)
Training:
(Don’t know…see comments under ‘Background’)
How training affected that day:
(Don’t know…see comments under ‘Background’)
Shot how many times:
(Zero)
Wounds:
(N/A)
Prognosis from Wounds:
(N/A)
Did you hear comments from any of her family:
(Are you kidding me….??? I have not seen him interviewed yet)
Did he serve in the military:
(I don’t know)
Was he a military police officer or civilian:
(civilian)
Outcome:
(Put Hasan DOWN)

It really sucks that we knew nothing of substance about Sgt. Munley and we knew so much about Major Hasan.

It really sucks even more that although Munley IS a HERO – she acted courageously, (“Anyone that runs toward the gunfire intent on saving lives should be considered a hero”). and through that gave Sr. Sgt. Todd the opportunity to take cover and THEN bravely confront and TO BE THE ONE THAT ACTUALLY took down Major Hasan as Hasan’s attention was occupied with her –


c) BUT that this story did not even break until a full week after the event and MOST of us still don’t realize that there is another courageous officer that ALSO needs our praise !!



Blogger:

“The news reporters in their efforts to be 'first' sacrifice the need to be right. News reporting is not conjecture. They should only report what they know and not fill in the blanks with their own version of events.”


--
Thanks,
~ David

[android]

I'm much better at remembering situations rather than names, so I don't even remember the shooters whole name.

I've seen photos. Could probably pick hers out of a line up just because it was such a bad picture that was in all the papers. I wouldn't recognize the shooter if he was standing in line next to me at Walmart.

I knew most of the info about both of the DoD police officers and the lady cops background, but not much about her backup man other than he got in most of the good shots.


But... I don't watch TV of any kind, I just read the news on the web most of the time, so I don't have it repeated to me over and over again.

[mctowalot]

I could swear that the night of or the day after the shootings, Larry King (?) did a a very brief phone interview with Officer Woods. He gave a very brief run down of the "event". He was really soft spoken, and there wasn't even a still photo of him on the screen. There was mention of Hassan running behind a building, Woods running to intercept him, then soldiers shouting that Hassan had reversed course and Woods running back and engaging him. I do not recall Officer Woods mentioning a female officer and (I) thought that was odd considering all the hoopla being reported.
Later in the week I read that after Hassan was shot, soldiers were shouting "2 more!" and that led to eronious reports that there was 2 more shooters, but really they wanted Hassan to be shot 2 more times. So I have to ask - did anyone else see this or is all in my head?

[LaserTex]

I saw the 2 more report as well - from several sources.

D

[Dave01]

I've long believed that the media gives way too much attention to the shooter in cases like this. I can't help but think the "celebrity" bestowed on these psycho's by the media is a big part of the problem. Everyone wants their 15 minutes.

Dave

[Tha_Veteran]

I tried to google him and found no results. Is his name Todd or Woods? Neither one of those names brought anything up in google about a Fort Hood hero.

[mctowalot]

Gentlemen I apologize for my confusing prior post. I mixed up the Officer's names. I would never have even known them if not for Hammer's post. I would think "they" have had enough time by now to release at least some official run down of the events but it's clear they want this act of terrorism off the radar. IMHO the fact they let this "man" even treat our soldiers, and seem to be trying to blame his actions on what our soldiers told him is disgusting. Today I read that Hassan wanted to file charges against his own patients based on their statements made during therapy sessions!
For once, I'm speechless. I just can't get my head wrapped around this one.

[Lodge2004]

For once, I'm speechless. I just can't get my head wrapped around this one.

I believe we have only seen the tip of the iceberg regarding the shooter. He wanted out of the Army. We didn't let him go. My bet is that he did everything possible to draw attention to himself and it was ignored. In essence, he made himself into a caricature of a terrorist and those responsible for detecting such things simply wrote it off because they did not want to be viewed as insensitive or bigoted.

Back in the first Gulf war, we had a doctor in our unit who also wanted out. He participated in anti-war protests, shaved his head, went on hunger strikes, did sit-ins to block deploying units, gave press interviews, wrote editorials, etc...Eventually he was court martialed, but it took a long time and caused significant disruption.

[Wisewr]

Just putting this out there for thought...

What is a hero? We have discussed this extensively at work and there are different opinions on the matter. I know that we all have different ideas of what a hero is. Example: my son fell between the bed and the wall one day and started screaming for help. I went and pulled him out and he looked at me and told me I was his hero. Now really, was I a hero for pulling him out from between the bed and the wall? No. But in his eyes he thought I was and he expressed it so. In reality, I was being a Dad and doing my job. I think that we use the term hero very loosely today. What started our conversation here at work about true heroes was when the pilots that landed the plane in the Hudson River were called heroes. A few of us said these men were not true heroes. Here is the reasoning behind this. Those men were trained to do what they did. They are paid to do a job and landing a plane in the water, although not the norm, was gone over in their training. Landing the plane in the water without killing everyone on board was essentially doing their jobs very well. On the flip side, United Airlines Flight 93 had some true heroes on the plane that day. None of the people to my knowledge were trained to be able to handle a high jacking. No one was trained to fly a plane. They did something that they were not getting paid to do. They did not go over "How to Handle a High jacking" at the start of the flight or go through a crash course on flying a plane. These people, in my opinion, were true heroes. I think the same applies to the Fort Hood incident. These people mentioned here, Kimberly Munley & Mark Woods, did something amazing. But, these individuals were trained to do this type of thing. This is what all their training comes down to, maybe this one moment in their entire career. Yes, it is a very hard thing to be an officer or in the military, but these people choose this line of profession and are paid to do just exactly what they did. I am thankful that these two individuals risked their lives to stop the gunman and they NEED TO BE RECOGNIZED. Please don't misread what I'm trying to say, I just think the true definition of hero is lost in today's society. We as a society have started calling people heroes for doing their job and doing their job well. To me, an example of a true hero would be something like the UPS man making a routine stop at Fort Hood and upon hearing the shots, runs in and takes the gunman to the ground. Now that man/woman is a hero in my book. They are not getting paid to protect the public nor have they been through any type of training to handle that situation. I guess when we hear about things like this, we relate to the situaation easily because we're all human. Most of our instincts would be to run and hide. So when we hear of someone doing something we would consider against our natural instinct, we automatically consider it a heroic act when in fact they are doing what their getting paid to do and have been trained to do and doing it well. Understand that I would also rather hear about Kimberly Munley & Mark Woods and how they did an extraordinary job rather than about Mr. Nutcase. I have the upmost respect for people in this line of duty because they do indeed risk their lives for the public and this nation, but they aren’t doing it for free and they are trained to do what they do. And if they didn't do it, who would? And for that my hat is off to them.

Okay, so beat me up now about how I don't consider them true heroes and instead just really good at what they were trained to do and get paid for.