Two days after the worst mass shooting on an American military base, many questions remained unanswered Saturday about connections between the alleged shooter and a Madison-based combat-stress unit that was on the base preparing for deployment.
U.S. Army officials on Saturday released little new information about the massacre at Fort Hood in Texas that left at least six Wisconsin soldiers dead or injured Thursday among a total of 13 killed and 38 wounded.
Five of the six Wisconsin soldiers were members of the 467th Medical Detachment, which is based at 1402 S. Park St. in Madison and was to be deployed to Afghanistan - reportedly with the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan an Army psychiatrist and American-born Muslim, attached to serve with the unit.
Another victim identified on Saturday was also part of the 467th, but not from Wisconsin. Maj. L. Eduardo Caraveo, 52, a psychologist from Woodbridge, Va., had arrived in Fort Hood on Wednesday and was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. He had worked with students and child protective services in Arizona as well as having been an adjunct professor at Penn State and the University of Arizona. He had practiced clinical psychology for 20 years and offered seminars on marriage, anger management and diversity. His son, also named Eduardo, told the Arizona Daily Star that his father came to the U.S. from Mexico as a teenager knowing very little English and eventually earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Arizona.
The 467th is a relatively small, specialized unit that helps members of the military manage combat stress at locations close to the fighting. It is one of eight such Army Reserve units around the country.
On Friday night, Army Reserve Command Maj. Claudia Jefferson, a public affairs officer, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that Hasan, 39, was to be sent to Afghanistan with Madison's 467th Medical Detachment, where he was to serve as a "professional medical filler." A voice mail message left on Jefferson's Blackberry device by the State Journal on Saturday was not returned.
Also on Saturday, the parking lot of the small Army Reserve building on Park Street in Madison was packed with cars and a uniformed soldier was guarding the front entrance. Officers there said they could not release any information about the unit, noting top Army officials would provide any public statements.
Staff at the reserve building made a copy of several questions that the State Journal wished to have addressed, including how many people were in the unit, how many were wounded and killed, what the unit's role was at Fort Hood, how long it had been at the Army post in Texas and when members were scheduled to leave for Afghanistan or other combat locations, plus the name of the detachment's commander and whether investigators believe unit members were targeted by Hasan.
At Fort Hood, a public affairs staffer on Saturday took a message from the State Journal seeking similar information about the unit, but no one called back with any answers.
Army officials have said Hasan opened fire early Thursday afternoon with two handguns in a crowded base processing center, where about 300 unarmed soldiers soon to be sent overseas were getting vision tests and vaccinations. Hasan remained hospitalized Saturday after two Fort Hood police officers helped stop his rampage by shooting him four times.
According to earlier Army statements and the Associated Press, Hasan was unhappy about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan and had been trying to leave the Army. He also claimed to have been taunted by fellow soldiers after the Sept. 11 terror attacks because he was Muslim and he at times made comments critical about the American militay's fight against Islamic terrorists.
He reportedly shouted the words "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is great" - before he started shooting Thursday, Chuck Medley, Fort Hood's director of Emergency Services, told Reuters news service.
Two soldiers from Wisconsin, Staff Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, and Capt. Russell Seager, 51, of Mount Pleasant, were killed in the rampage. They both were members of the 467th Medical Detachment.
Wounded in the shooting were at least three other Wisconsin soldiers who also were members of the 467th Medical Detachment: Spc. Grant Moxon, 23, of Lodi, whose father, Dave Moxon, told the State Journal that his son had what Army officials called a "superficial" leg wound; Dorothy Carskadon, 47, who had an apartment in Monona and originally was from the state of Oregon; and Sgt. John Pagel, 28, of North Freedom, west of Baraboo, who was shot in the arm and chest.
Also injured from Wisconsin but not attached to the 467th Medical Detachment was Pfc. Amber Bahr, 19, of Random Lake. The Associated Press reported that on Thursday she tore up her blouse to use it as a tourniquet on a wounded fellow soldier before realizing she had been shot in the back. A family spokeswoman said Bahr was released from the hospital Friday night, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on Saturday.
State Journal reporter Jane Burns and State Journal wire services also contributed to this report.
Posted in State_and_regional, Crime_and_courts on Sunday, November 8, 2009 1:00 pm Updated: 1:34 pm. | Tags: Fort Hood Shooting, Forthood
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