On the recordSeptember 28, 2010
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Concurrent Resolution 319 commemorating the 1-year anniversary of the terrible shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas. On November 5, 2009, a gunman entered the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Ft. Hood, Texas, and mercilessly opened fire on military and civilian personnel who were preparing for deployment or who had recently returned from being overseas in a deployment. Thirteen people were killed in this attack, including 12 soldiers, one of whom was an expecting mother and one former soldier. Thirty-one people were wounded. Some of the wounded, like Staff Sergeant Patrick Zeigler, have required months of care and rehabilitation, and that is an ongoing situation. But wonderful stories come out of this. One story that I heard, as a young soldier saw his sergeant get shot the third time, he jumped between his sergeant and the shooter and took the rest of the rounds into his body because he just was afraid his sergeant wouldn't be able to survive any more. At the time there was a graduation ceremony going on at Ft. Hood from college, and a bunch of young soldiers were graduating from college right next door. When the call went out for medics, multiple members of that group threw off their cap and gown before they graduated and took off next door to the processing center to work with the wounded.
