Tag Archives: Fort Hood

Nine Soldiers identified in Fort Hood, Texas flooding tragedy

Undated photograph of the U.S. Army post at Fort Hood, Texas

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Nine U.S. soldiers are now known to have died when a troop carrier overturned this week during a training exercise at the U.S. Army base of Food Hood in Texas, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said on Saturday.

“Based on initial reports it was a troop carrier that overturned in a stream,” Carter told a news conference on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore in reference to Thursday’s incident.

“An investigation is under way. As always, we’ll get to the bottom of this incident and others that occurred this week.”

Also on Thursday, a pilot from the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron was killed when his F/A-18 fighter crashed in Smyrna, Tennessee.

Marine Captain Jeff Kuss of Durango, Colorado, had taken off to start a practice ahead of a weekend air show when he went down about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the runway.

In Colorado the same day, a pilot with the Air Force’s Thunderbirds squadron was unhurt when his F-16 jet crashed in a field 5 miles (8 km) south of Peterson Air Force Base.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Tom Hogue)

Texas floodwaters claim five soldiers’ lives at Fort Hood

Emergency crews patrol Fort Bend County after heavy rainfall caused the Brazos River to surge to its highest level causing flooding outside Housto

By Jon Herskovitz and Jim Forsyth

AUSTIN, Texas/SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – A U.S. Army truck overturned in a swollen Fort Hood creek on Thursday, killing five soldiers and leaving four missing as storms dumped more rain on flood-hit parts of Texas.

The rising floodwaters in Texas scrambled transportation, further swelled rivers already over their banks and sent more people to evacuation shelters.

The U.S. Army said the truck overturned at Fort Hood’s Owl Creek low-water crossing during a training exercise. Three bodies were recovered downstream, the Army said. It is unclear where the bodies of the additional two soldiers were found.

A search was being conducted for four soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division, it said in a statement.

Three soldiers were rescued from the water and were in stable condition at a hospital, the statement said. Fort Hood, about 70 miles (110 km) north of Austin, is the biggest active-duty armor post in the United States.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for parts of east Texas and Louisiana. It placed most of Texas on a flash flood watch because of a slow-moving storm system expected to linger through the weekend.

About 200 flights were canceled in Houston and Dallas as of Thursday evening because of heavy rains, according to tracking service FlightAware.com. Major highways have seen delays caused by accidents linked to the storms, transport officials said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster in 31 counties on Wednesday, mobilizing state resources to help cope with the disaster.

Six people were killed in the past week in Texas due to severe weather.

Thousands of people have evacuated their homes in low-lying areas, rivers have swelled to levels not seen in more than 100 years, and emergency workers have completed hundreds of high-water rescues.

Evacuations were ordered for parts of two towns in Fort Bend County, about 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Houston, where the Brazos River has risen to levels not seen for more than a century.

The pounding rains led to some dramatic rescues, including one in San Antonio of a man described as a Polish immigrant with limited knowledge of English who found himself and his car washed away by a wall of water.

Crews putting up flood barricades heard the man scream and a helicopter was sent to look for him, said James Keith, spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department.

“We were able to locate this man standing on the top of a submerged car holding on to a tree,” he said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, and Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Editing by Peter Cooney and Leslie Adler)

Congress Declares Fort Hood Attack Terrorism

Congress is preparing to announce that the victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting will have been victims of a terrorist attack.

The Obama administration had been denying the incident where Major Nidal Hasan was an act of workplace violence despite the fact Hasan had indicated he was making an act of Islamist terrorism.

House Republicans worked with members of the Democrat-controlled Senate Armed Services committee to put a provision in a defense authorization bill that will acknowledge the victims of Fort Hood are terrorist victims, making them eligible for Purple Hearts and for assistance awards to victims of terrorist actions.

The new language inserted by the members of Congress states that Purple Heart medals can be awarded to “members of the armed forces killed or wounded in domestic attacks inspired by foreign terrorist organizations.”

Hasan killed 13 and wounded 32 in his terror attack.  Hasan had e-mail exchanged with Anwar al-Awlaki, a top al-Qaeda leader, who helped plan the attack.  Hasan had tried multiple times to become an official member of al-Qaeda.

Still, the Obama administration continues to deny that Hasan’s actions were terrorist in nature.

Fort Hood Gunman Kills 3; Wounds 16

A gunman who was being treated for depression and anxiety and was being tested for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder opened fire with a handgun at Fort Hood in Texas Wednesday, killing 3 people and wounding 16.

Some of the wounded are in very critical condition at area hospitals and it’s possible the death toll could rise.

Spc. Ivan Lopez, 34, committed suicide when a military police officer confronted him.

Lopez opened fire inside one building, climbed in a vehicle and shot at people as he drove to a second building where he shot more victims.

Military officials say that Lopez did not see combat during his time in Iraq.  They said that he was a truck driver at the time forces were withdrawing from the country. They insisted that even though he was not in combat, it is still possible he was suffering from PTSD.

Lopez reportedly lost his mother in November and he was having trouble dealing with the loss.  He leaves behind a wife and 3-year-old daughter.