A gunman killed seven and wounded fifteen at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas today. Killeen is half way between Austin and Waco and is named for Confederate general John Bell Hood who commanded Hood's Texas Brigade. It is base to the 53,168 members of the 1st Cavalry and 4th Infantry divisions and refers to itself as the Home of America's Armored Corps.
It opened during World War II as Camp Hood because of a need for wide open spaces to test tank destroyers to be used against the German Blitzkrieg. It became permanent during the Korean War and the name was changed to Fort Hood.
Mass killings have come to Killeen before. In 1991, a killer drove a pickup truck into a Luby's Restaurant and opened fire, killing 23 and wounding 20 before killing himself. This remained the worst mass killing in US history until Virginia Tech.
In the last two years, three servicemen at Fort Hood were killed in separate incidents.
Sad News.
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
