Ft. Hood Massacre

[TheOneBigWill]

No offense to any Muslims on this forum, but I really blame our own Government for this. The reports on Yahoo are saying the Major who opened fire was named Hasan, and they believe he could've "converted" to the Muslim religion.

My question is simply this.. we're at a seemingly major "war", with the middle east.. so why are any of our military leaders of middle eastern descent? Maybe its my naive thinking, but you'd assume our great Government MIGHT have thought to check into his background before.. oh, I don't know, allowing him to join our army.

I had friends stationed at Ft. Hood. 1 was just sent down there for training, no less than a week ago.. another was simply stationed there, and a 3rd was living down there. To be quite honest.. this is just another reason why I not only have NO faith in our Government and our military..

 

[Shadowmancer]

there are two things that you should be allowed, everyone has the right to have arms.

 

[X]

So what if he's a Muslim? Muslims shouldn't be allowed to join the military now?

 

[TheOneBigWill]

So what if he's a Muslim? Muslims shouldn't be allowed to join the military now?

Not saying he can't.. but if you'd go read the Yahoo report, its clearly blaming him and the whole situation on his religion.

I merely replied to that in saying.. you'd think they would've checked into his background and hired him based on believing he WASN'T going to be a mole or whatever you wanna call it.

 

[NSL]

Will, he was a Major...I'm sure he's been there long enough for them to know what they needed to know about him...

 

[TheOneBigWill]

Will, he was a Major...I'm sure he's been there long enough for them to know what they needed to know about him...

I don't think you guys are following. YAHOO reported his religion and him turning on everyone, was because of the muslim issue. Not me.

I merely said, in reply to yahoo's report, that you'd think our great government would have checked into that. Clearly.

How is this hard for you guys to understand? What am I not saying clearly?

 

[X]

Will is a racist.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

Your face is a racist.

 

[NSL]

Will is a racist.

Very.

 

[Fizzy]

Somehow in this sad horrible thread Will manages to make me laugh.

 

[falconsault]

Will, as NSL stated he's a Major, though that doesn't mean he's been in a long time just about 7 years or so, depending on his job the promotion rate will vary.

Anyways, he has been in long enough to have a background check, and if you'd read my initial post on this thread, you'd know that they did do a background check. Everyone is required to go through a background check before even being able to finish basic, and most people don't realize it that they've had a background check done on them until they are handed a security clearance.

We accept anyone into our military that is willing to fight and die for our country, people who have been arrested for drug possession and such can get waivers to join the US military as long as they don't test positive for it before, during, and after basic training.

Beyond that, it doesn't matter if he's a muslim really, there are muslim's in the military and they have deploy without problems. This guy was just different, something snapped in him to make him go and do what he did, to blame his religion is ignorant (and no I'm not saying that its you saying that Will).

 

[jmt225]

Yeah, for all we know, the guy could have just been incredibly harassed and that's what led him to doing this. Not saying that's a good excuse for killing people, but to me it seems like the most logical explanation, instead of jumping the terrorist bandwagon.

 

[NSL]

Will, as NSL stated he's a Major, though that doesn't mean he's been in a long time just about 7 years or so, depending on his job the promotion rate will vary.

He works in the medical field...Mental health doctor, but no one will say exactly what he did. Considering the Army generally promotes people slower, and he's 39/40, chances are he's been in for 10-12 years...At least.

 

[falconsault]

He works in the medical field...Mental health doctor, but no one will say exactly what he did. Considering the Army generally promotes people slower, and he's 39/40, chances are he's been in for 10-12 years...At least.

The Army actually promotes faster than at least my branch. Officer promotions are based differently than enlisted, but I do know that the career field can determine how quickly one ranks up.

If he's an actual doctor, which he may be, his age could be a factor of having to spend the years in college to become a PhD. Plus he could have been enlisted and moved to the officer ranks. But your estimate of the years he's been in service could very well be spot on.

I'm just saying that generally it would only take 7 to 8 years to pin on major depending on whether or not you get into trouble.

 

[NSL]

The Army actually promotes faster than at least my branch.

I know the USAF is generally the quickest, then the Marines...The Army and Navy are both pretty slow, when compared to the others. At least from what I've seen from friends and family.

 

[FromTheSouth]

But hey! We have the right to bear arms! Who cares if the Constitution says it should only be in a militia or something like that? WE CAN HAVE GUNS!

So, let's take the guns away from everyone so no one could organize a militia. It's not like if the government was doing something bad enough to force a militia to rise up we could just ask for the guns back.

And he was a soldier. Maybe we should take guns from soldiers?

 

[falconsault]

I know the USAF is generally the quickest, then the Marines...The Army and Navy are both pretty slow, when compared to the others. At least from what I've seen from friends and family.

From what I've seen being in the USAF we don't promote very quickly at all. Its easier to obtain rank in the Army than it is for us. I'm just speaking from experience man.

 

[NSL]

From what I've seen being in the USAF we don't promote very quickly at all. Its easier to obtain rank in the Army than it is for us. I'm just speaking from experience man.

It could be true...I just know from the groups we get in at my job all the time, the USAF ends up with 27 and 28 year olds as high up as Tech Sgt., and when we get the Army and Navy guys, they're 25/26 and no higher then E-6's most of the time.

 

[falconsault]

And he was a soldier. Maybe we should take guns from soldiers?

There are some soldiers (including all branches in that term) that I would take guns away from.

Mostly people soldiers from the Air Force but still I completely mean that, as I've stared down the barrell of a fully loaded M16A2 because the guy carrying it wanted to do what he called "Combat Photos" and I've seen airmen load magazines in with the bullets facing the ground... these people are not fit to fight.

 

[falconsault]

It could be true...I just know from the groups we get in at my job all the time, the USAF ends up with 27 and 28 year olds as high up as Tech Sgt., and when we get the Army and Navy guys, they're 25/26 and no higher then E-6's most of the time.

NSL TSgt is an E-6

 

[NSL]

NSL TSgt is an E-6

In the Air Force...In the Army it's a Staff Sergeant. A full rank lower technically...

I'm not saying they get pushed faster, just the ranks are all higher at an earlier stage...Hope that makes sense...Sounded funny.

 

[falconsault]

In the Air Force...In the Army it's a Staff Sergeant. A full rank lower technically...

I'm not saying they get pushed faster, just the ranks are all higher at an earlier stage...Hope that makes sense...Sounded funny.

No they are the same rank technically, its the pay grade that you have to look at. An E-6 is the same rank through all the branches even if the rank's actual title is different across the board. The only ranks that are different are the officer ranks in the Navy as a Captain is right at the top as opposed to a Captain in the Army or Air Force.

The ranks aren't higher, as the USAF doesn't have a straight-up Sergeant rank like the Army does. We go from Senior Airman to Staff Sergeant but it's still the same rank as an Army Sergeant because the pay grades are the same.

Plus, if I remember corrently the Army actually has more enlisted ranks than the Air Force does.

I know we're just discussing this and I welcome the discussion, but it all boils down to the titles of these pay grades, but in all techinicallity the ranks are the same.

 

[Kenny Powers]

If this Major shot his troops and other personnel because he was harassed it doesn't make much sense. I'm just speaking from experience because you see Airman or Privates harassed or Sergeants joking and harassing each other but not officers. Maybe it was other high ranking officers making fun of his race or religion. That seems really immature though if they did.

I don't think he did this because of his religion or descent sense most of the military population is a melting pot of different races and cultures. The man is a U.S citizen who was born in Washington. It sucks that he is of middle eastern descent since the media will twist it into he is a terrorist or some garbage like that.

The government doesn't let anyone enlist in the Armed Forces no matter what some people might think. There are also lots of mandatory training programs for all soldiers regarding stress, harassment, suicide, relationships, and drugs and alcohol. It's just weird someone that is a leader that has had no problems in the past can one day go berserk, killing and injuring his soldiers.

 

[Freddy4190]

Didn't it say he had like he knew who he wanted to kill? I could have swore I heard that. He didn't just get fed up and started shooting, he had planned it. I can see people discriminating against him because of his ethnicity or religion or whatever else.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

NSL, Falconsault is right. Its way harder in the USAF. The other services base promotion entirely on job preformance, while we not only have to preform well, but also have to score higher than our peers on two sets of tests. We have tests, they dont.


My second point would be, yeup I heard about this. I bet America is going crazy right now yea? Strange, since 19 of my boys went down in ONE DAY last week, I am pretty sure none of you heard about it. Just like the joker said "becuase thats part of the plan..." Becuase it all happens so far away, its easy to not worry about it, or think about it. Im not really suprised by it, at all. People flip the fuck out, it happens. We arent too far away from just being a big ass school campus. You have popular people, weird fuckers, and some people who just get fucked up from being out in the combat zone. Doesnt suprise me, really.