Ft. Jackson Pauses for Comrades at Ft. Hood

Fort Jackson paused at 2:34 Friday afternoon, along with every other Department of Defense installation, for a moment of silence in honor of those killed and wounded at Fort Hood on Thursday. After the silence, an honor guard lowered the flag to half staff. Then Chaplain Michael Kelly prayed on behalf of the recruits at the 120th Adjutant General (Reception) Battalion.

“Look mercifully on the suffering which is endured by the souls in Fort Hood this day,“ he prayed.

Some of the recruits had arrived at Fort Jackson Thursday night, just hours after the shootings. Lt. Col. Michael Bineham, commander of the battalion, says, “They are part of the Army the minute they step off the bus, right here at this very flagpole. And we try to make them a part of the Army. Even though they have not been trained yet, they’re a part of the team and we want them to feel that and understand that from the moment they arrive at Fort Jackson.“ 

And while those recruits are starting their training the day after the shootings, another group graduated from basic training at Fort Jackson Friday.

PFC Eric Martinez says when he heard about the shootings at Fort Hood, “First reaction, basically, was like, am I gonna get shot today?“ But then he said he realized that the kind of violence that happened at Fort Hood could happen almost anywhere.

Spc. Jasmine Sims, who also graduated from basic Friday, says of the shootings, “It puts things in perspective. It makes you realize that, you know, everything that we’re doing here, training and fighting, is for a reason. And my heart goes out to the families.“

Across the highway from Fort Jackson is the U.S. Patriot Army supply store. It also houses a barber shop that gives military haircuts and alterations so soldiers can have their patches and ranks sewn on their uniforms. Paul Paterson runs the store, after spending 24-and-a-half years in the Army.

His first reaction to the shooting was to wonder whether the Army is doing enough to make sure its upper-level officers are getting any kind of counseling or help they might need. His next reaction was surprise that it would happen at an Army post, then resignation that it could happen anywhere.

“You go to Iraq or Afghanistan and you survive and then you come home and then you’re engaged by your own military guy. There’s no defense for that. There’s no security that’s going to stop that. You can’t go to work with body armor and a fully-loaded weapon,“ he says.

Jacqueline McKinney is one of the barbers in the back of the U.S. Patriot store. Her husband is in the Army and has been deployed before. She also wonders whether the Army is doing enough to provide psychological counseling for officers and higher-ranked enlisted soldiers, instead of just the lower-level soldiers.

“If they ask for help, it’s like that they’re weak. They wasn’t trained to ask for help. That’s not their job. Their job is for them to be strong and to prepare for war,“ she says.

Lt. Col. Bineham says the recruits at Fort Jackson are told from the beginning that help is available to them, as this tragedy has illustrated.

“The chain of command talked to them. We’ve had the chaplain available. We have on-site clinical social workers that actually work here on a daily basis anyway, just with the reception mission,“ he says.