Blackfive posted a story last week that linked to a World Net Daily piece titled “Fort Hood soldiers told to list private weapons.” This piece is completely inaccurate.
The story quotes “a Soldier” who reported that he and other Soldiers were placed on a watchlist. I would offer that this Soldier’s testimony is most likely pure conjecture and speculation. I want to put out the truth of what is happening on Fort Hood and why, keeping in mind that this is MY personal opinion based on experience here at Fort Hood.
Two weekends ago, the Army as a whole lost five Soldiers to suicide, four of which were at Ft. Hood. This is a disturbing trend that brought the total number of Ft. Hood suicides to a record14 for the year (with an additional six unconfirmed). Naturally, leaders are concerned about these statistics and scrambling to figure out the hows and whys of what is happening.
Senior leaders visited the homes of our troops to gauge their living environment and identify any potential factors that add stress to normal military life. Is the Soldier having financial issues? Does he/she live in a high crime or loud neighborhood? Does the Soldier have adequate transportation? Enough food? Able to wash clothes? Etc. One Senior NCO discovered while visiting a Soldier’s home that he was washing his clothes in a bucket because he didn’t have a functional washing machine. That NCO then gave the Soldier a spare washing machine he wasn’t using. That is taking care of Soldiers.
In gauging stresses, one needs to also evaluate risks. If a Soldier is suffering from the normal Army stress of daily business, comes home to a bunch of bills he cannot pay and a neighborhood that has nothing better to do than party all night, it stands to reason that the Soldier may be a higher risk for depression, anger, and/or suicidal tendencies. If that Soldier also has weapons in the home, the ability to harm oneself is increases the risk. As leaders, we need to know those things.
The only requirement we had with respect to weapons was merely to find out if our Soldiers possessed them, whether on or off post. There was no requirement to ask how many, what type, location, or serial number. We only needed a simple yes or no answer to the question, “do you own guns?”
I would be an idiot if I said that this intent was uniformly interpreted at every level of command. No doubt, there are some lower level leaders that took this directive a few steps too far and did demand more specific information that I believe is outside the scope of their authority. I personally believe it is none of the Army’s business what kinds of guns I own, how many, or where they’re kept. Obviously, the Army wants its Soldiers to do things legally and stresses that we should at least follow local laws for possessing and storing weapons if living off post.
Suicide prevention is a driving factor in many decisions being made locally. We are doing everything we can to figure out the causes and try to stem any future such events. To those ends, some leaders get overzealous in their efforts and infringe on Soldiers’ individual rights guaranteed under the constitution they swore to serve. Contrary to some beliefs, we didn’t surrender those when we put on this uniform.
The Army is not infringing on anyone’s right to own weapons and any “watchlist” created is NOT a postwide directive. At least not that I have seen and I serve in a directly subordinate to III Corps, so I don’t have all those filters of intent.
