Emotional fallout of Fort Hood shootings felt locally
A retired U.S. Army general visiting Rochester on Thursday called the Fort Hood shootings “almost unbearable.”
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, in town for the Veterans Outreach Center’s Stars and Stripes Celebration at the Riverside Convention Center, talked about the shootings at the Army post in Texas before his keynote speech.
“These soldiers and their families have gone through eight-plus years of war,” said McCaffrey. “Forty-three thousand killed or wounded. Now to go suffer a tragedy of this dimension … is just almost unbearable.”
McCaffrey described Fort Hood as a very safe community and as unlikely a place for a mass murder as any other place in the country.
“It’s a great place to train. It’s a great place to be a soldier. …The shocking piece is to have one of their own involved in this criminal act of murder.”
McCaffrey, who served for 32 years and retired as a four-star general, did not mention the shootings during his keynote address.
Emotional fallout from the mass shootings is being felt by military families in Rochester and elsewhere.
Ray and Nancy DePauw of Newark, Wayne County, said they first heard the news via telephone from their son, Army Pfc. Matthew DePauw, 23, who is stationed at Fort Hood.
“It is very scary, very scary,” Nancy DePauw said.
Matthew DePauw has been out on field training all week and away from the shooting areas, said his parents, who attended the Stars and Stripes Celebration.
“They got word that the whole fort was on lockdown, so they were kind of just sitting out in the field just waiting for the next command,” Nancy DePauw said.
Their son’s call helped calm their fears, they said.
At home in Henrietta on a two-week leave before returning to Iraq, 1st Lt. Brian Roman said he spent Thursday talking to family and friends, trying to get as much information as possible about the shootings.
The graduate of Rush-Henrietta High School and Rochester Institute of Technology was stationed at Fort Hood from January 2008 to April 2009 and will be there again this spring.
“I feel for the guys over there now because I know it’s an emotional day. We are all family down there at the base,” said Roman.
He said he’ll still feel comfortable going back to Fort Hood.
” … That kind of random act could have happened at Ford Bragg or any military base,” said Roman, 25. “This also shows that life is dangerous by itself and you don’t have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan for something to happen.”
Roman said he never had any contact with suspected shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39.
Brian Roman’s father, John, said he couldn’t believe the news. He’s thankful that his son, who was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division, wasn’t there and feels sorry for the other military families.
“Soldiers join the Army to risk their lives for freedom, and the shock that they actually get shot by one of their own is absolutely surprising,” said John Roman, a Henrietta resident.
“Nobody thinks when you send your sons and daughters to the military that something like this will happen.”
U.S. Rep. Chris Lee, R-Clarence, Erie County, was sitting in his office in Washington, D.C., when he heard about the shooting, which he called a sad state of affairs.
“I know how close the soldiers are, so something like this must be hitting them very hard,” said Lee, who came back this week from a four-day trip to Afghanistan, where he met with Army, Navy and Air Force troops. “For so many young men and women who are heroes of the country to have their lives taken on American soil is even more disheartening.”
Rep. Eric Massa, D-Corning, a retired Navy commander and member of the House Armed Services Committee, said his heartfelt condolences go out to each family member.
