I Was at the 2009 Fort Hood Shooting. Here’s What I Saw

By Scott Gerber

Foreword from the AllSides Editors:

Exactly 17 years ago today, on November 5, 2009, tragedy struck Texas when US Army Major Nidal Hasan opened fire on his fellow service members, leaving 13 dead and 32 wounded.

The event has been widely covered by mainstream media lately, as the Pentagon, led by Pete Hegseth, had announced it would execute Hasan on December 3 at Fort Hood and publicly livestream the killing. President Trump has since walked back the livestream, but the execution will go ahead as planned.

Scott Gerber (Center bias), a retired Colonel and current AllSides Director of Strategic Initiatives and a member of our Research Council, was serving at Fort Hood on the day of the shooting and was tasked with responding to the threat. Shared for the first time publicly, here is his personal account from the ground.

The commander told me to prepare for action – not quite what you expect to hear in Central Texas…

The day of the attack was cold…bone cold. I was commanding the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas, known as “Thunder Squadron.” For some reason, of the fifty thousand soldiers stationed on post, we were the only ones out in the field, freezing, preparing for another deployment to Iraq.

In the early afternoon, our command sergeant major, Guitaud Leandre, walked into our command post and said there had been an attack on post. He and I went to get accountability of the people who were not in the field. 

By the time we arrived, the shooting had stopped, but the chaos was just beginning. Fort Hood looked like a ghost town now. A repeating message over the loudspeakers directing everyone to stay in place echoed down the empty streets. It was like a post-apocalyptic movie scene.

Unbeknownst to us, as people fled the shooting, two of our medic NCOs were at a ceremony in the next building and ran into the shooting. They were the first medical personnel on scene and began treating dozens of wounded. 

We hadn’t known yet, but Ford Hood Police Sergeants Mark Tood and Kimberly Munley had shot the attacker, Nidal Hasan. Others had given their lives to protect victims at the scene.

Our sister squadron, 2nd Squadron, was moving to secure the shooting site. Their commander arrived on scene, secured it, and began casualty evacuation. A mass casualty event is bedlam – it’s a race to stabilize the wounded and get them into surgery as fast as possible.

The post hospital was instantly overwhelmed. Military and civilian MEDEVAC helicopters descended on the scene and shot off to Level I Trauma Centers from San Antonio to Temple.

In that madness, they lost track of Hasan. He was placed on a MEDEVAC helicopter and life-flighted to Scott and White Medical Center. As the helicopter lifted off, an Army Criminal Investigator was suspicious and jumped on board. 

An hour later, leadership realized Hasan was not among the dead, and the alarm went out. As the corps headquarters stressed, the investigator called in unprompted. “I think I am with the shooter…”

“Do you have a cell phone?”

“Yes.”

“Send a picture…yep, that’s him.” The agent handcuffed himself to Hasan.

Back at Fort Hood, where we were, everything was locked down. No one could get on or off post. Tens of thousands of people were sheltering in place. Children were locked in their schools. Parents who worked on post could not go home. The landline and cellular phone networks were overwhelmed and collapsed as people tried to confirm their loved ones were okay.

A Potential Second Shooter

In our headquarters, our Regimental commander called me. They thought a second shooter had escaped. We had our tactical communication up and were the only people who could talk across Fort Hood.

He directed us to place armed guards on all gates at Fort Hood and be prepared to respond to a second attack.

CSM Leandre and I conferred with our operations officer. While he generated the required forces to cover the 15 or so gates at Fort Hood, CSM Leandre and I would take soldiers to the two main gates, which were both closest to the shooting.

Minutes later, I was in a Humvee, leading a truckload of soldiers towards the “PX Gate.” There are certain events you remember with clarity forever: meeting your spouse, where you were when the 9/11 attacks occurred… preparing for combat in my “home” was surreal and another one of them. The feel and sound of pushing rounds into assault rifle magazines as we sped towards the gate will follow me forever.

When we arrived at the gate, it was quiet, dark, and eerie. I went to the guard house - the civilian guards were hiding. The gates and barriers were shut. A mass of media was outside filming us. We deployed and began clearing the area.

About 30 minutes later, tracked vehicles blew into the area and troopers spilled out. Not quite the look I wanted on international TV. The commander, Alex, had been born in Leningrad and was truly a Russian-American. If you told Alex to do something, it happened…and our operations officer had told Alex to get to the gate immediately.

“Hey Alex, maybe we can put the tracks behind the building so they are not on every TV in the world for the next three hours?” I asked.

Alex smiled and squared it away.

After briefing Alex – which was mostly pointing out the massive line of press on the other side of the gate – I started patrolling, looking for the second shooter and checking on our elements across Fort Hood.

Several people later told me that seeing our forces move adeptly through Fort Hood reassured concerned families. Fortunately, we had no casualties and established accountability of all of our people quickly. At about 9 p.m. I was able to relay the good news via our Squadron Facebook Page.

About 10 pm, those sheltering in place were released. Tens of thousands of people began flowing off post, under the watchful eyes of the Squadron’s troopers… making sure they were safe.

Stand Down Order

By about midnight, the post had emptied out, and Regiment told us we could stand down. From medics responding to the wounded to troopers securing and sweeping the site, the soldiers had been remarkable, cool professionals. 

The rest of Fort Hood had returned to their families to deal with the shock of the attack. We had an entire squadron in the field – tanks, fuel trucks, command posts, and several hundred soldiers. At about 1 a.m., I dropped a note on our Squadron Facebook page to tell our families what their troopers had done that day – they had been remarkable. Unfortunately, I continued, we had to go back to the field overnight. I promised to get them home the next day. That was a hard note to write…but the comments poured in about how proud they were of their troopers. The families were pretty remarkable too.

The “Angel Flight” to Dover and the Memorial Ceremony

A day or two later, I attended the Ramp Ceremony, where thirteen flag-draped caskets were loaded on a plane for Dover – what we called an Angel Flight. It was a jarring experience because you had Angel Flights in combat, not on your home station. For 45 minutes we stood at attention as one by one, our fallen comrades began the long trip home.

President Obama attended the Memorial Service. Our post's commanding general, whom I later worked closely with, told me two great stories about the president. First, the Obamas were incredibly gracious and caring towards the families. They talked, consoled, and cried with them well beyond the planned time. (They were about 90 minutes late for the ceremony.)

Second, he told me about his speech. The White House had called and said that Obama would make broad remarks and General Robert Cone would eulogize the fallen. General Cone had to send his speech to the White House about four days in advance. He did and heard nothing. The Army leadership kept checking and received no response.

The evening before the ceremony, the Chief of Staff of the Army called General Cone and said, “Bob, I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is the White House loves your speech.”

“Great…” Cone told me he knew what was coming.

“President Obama is going to use it.” Arguably the greatest compliment Bob Cone ever received. He went to bed, got up at 5 a.m. and wrote a second great speech.

Aftermath

The aftermath was not pleasant. Leaders in the Defense Department would designate the shooting as “workplace violence” and not an act of domestic terror. They decided this in spite of the fact that even the National Counter Terrorism Center would designate it a terrorist attack the day after it occurred. 

Because of that decision, wounded soldiers did not receive Purple Hearts or the associated priority for medical treatment, tax breaks, hostile fire pay, and the associated benefits. They faced difficulty getting care for PTSD and injuries. Some saw their pay fall by hundreds of dollars a month or more. Congress would rectify that with a law in 2015, but much of the damage had already been done.

Later we learned that Hasan’s chain of command in several previous duty stations had identified problematic behavior but failed to address it. While a few folks received letters of reprimand, an administrative process that damages careers, for those of us who endured that long, terrible day, it felt inadequate. 

Next month the Army will execute him. We have seen the debates rage about whether that is a good idea. Intellectually, I understand the arguments on both sides, and I’m not really a fan of capital punishment. But Hasan murdered my comrades on our home station. He terrorized our community in an ugly, ugly way and turned it into a combat zone. He is vile and emotionally, I think he deserves his sentence. 

But I know we cannot out-hate people like Hasan and his ilk. So I am going to ignore Hasan. I’ll remember those we lost and the police who stopped him, the medics who went in, the troopers who restored a community, and the families who stood behind them. 

That day taught me that if their superpower is suicidal, violent spectical, ours is a country of common people, with common decency, who come together in crisis with uncommon valor. I’m going to bet on love, not hate.

Reviewed and edited by Editor-in-chief Henry A. Brechter (Center bias) and Managing Editor Andy Gorel (Center).