Heroics cut down on Fort Hood casualties

Heroics cut down on Fort Hood casualties
Allen G. Breed and Jeff Carlton Associated Press
November 07, 2009 06:04 AM

Fort Hood, Texas -- Pfc. Marquest Smith, on his way to Afghanistan in January, was completing routine paperwork about a bee sting allergy when the sounds erupted.

A loud, popping noise. Moans. The sudden, urgent shout of "gun!"

Smith poked his head over the cubicle's partition and saw an extraordinary sight: an Army officer with two guns, firing into the crowded room.

The 21-year-old Fort Worth native quickly grabbed the civilian worker who had been helping with his paperwork and forced her under the desk. He lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.

After the shooter stopped to reload, Smith made a run for it. Pushing two other soldiers in front of him, he made it out of the Soldier Readiness Processing center -- only to plunge into the building twice more to help the wounded.

Smith had survived the worst mass shooting on an American military base, a rampage that left 13 dead and 30 wounded, including the alleged shooter, an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

It could have been much worse, but for the heroics of Smith and others.

"Unfortunately over the past eight years, our Army has been no stranger to tragedy," said a somber Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff.

"But we are an Army that draws strength from adversity. And hearing the stories of courage and heroism that I heard today makes me proud to be the leader of this great Army."

'Nice knowing you'

Home of the 1st Cavalry and 1st Army Division West, Fort Hood has seen more than its share of deployments and casualties in the past eight years.

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(Image: Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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