Feeling fortunate to survive at Fort Hood

By Elise Franco

An East Liverpool native and former Austintowner were in the vicinity of the tragedy.

FORT HOOD, Texas — Was it luck or something else that prevented Gary Coleman Jr. from being inside the building at the Fort Hood military base where gunfire broke out?

Coleman, a command sergeant major of the 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery, said he was on base very close to where the shooting took place Thursday afternoon.

The East Liverpool native said he was supposed to be in the building where Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire but was delayed in a meeting.

“We got the word of the shooting, so I was trying to gather my soldiers and get them accounted for,” he said. “At that time things were kind of fuzzy because in hindsight, you’re not really expecting what happened.”

Coleman said his battalion had recently returned from a tour overseas, and throughout the day about 150 of the soldiers were going through the building where the shooting happened.

He said no one in his battalion was injured, but they were locked down for nearly six hours.

“It was tense for a time, until we could get eyes on and talk to our guys,” he said. “It was pretty quick — I can’t recall an actual time line — but I would say that happened within the hour.”

Hasan, one of Fort Hood’s own, is the suspect in the shooting spree that killed 12 soldiers and a civilian and wounded at least 30 others.

The 39-year-old psychiatrist, who worked at Darnell Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, was shot four times by a female police officer and taken into custody, ending the rampage.

Candy Mullen said her husband, Ed, mayor of Harker Heights, Texas, was inside Fort Hood when shooting broke out there.

She said her husband, formerly of Austintown and a retired Army colonel, was at the base for a military graduation ceremony inside Howze Theater.

“My husband was in the building right beside the place where the shooting occurred,” she said. “As he was going into the building, the shooting happened.”

Harker Heights is about five miles outside Fort Hood.

Mullen, a Hubbard native, said the first reports she heard were that guns were fired inside the theater.

“I was very concerned for [my husband’s] safety,” she said. “The communications to the base were difficult, so it took a while for me to get hold of him to make sure he was all right.”

Mullen said though she was relieved to discover her husband was unharmed, many other families weren’t as lucky.

“We’re very sad for the families and the soldiers who have been killed,” she said. “They have not released the names yet, so we don’t know who exactly was wounded or was killed.”

Coleman said most soldiers were given the day off and asked to spend time with their families. He said the incident has caused him to think of his own family back home.

“With the veteran holiday and Thanksgiving holiday coming up I want to thank everyone from my hometown for the concern,” he said. “I just ask that everyone think about the families and soldiers serving our country.”

Mullen said Harker Heights is collecting money for victims and their families through the Association of the United States Army and The Fisher House. She said hospitals have been having blood drives.

“We’ve organized and had several blood drives going on,” she said. “They had lines out the doors at all the hospitals about 30 minutes after the shooting.”

Most importantly, Mullen said, everyone who lives in and around Fort Hood are proud of their soldiers.

“We’re just very proud of our soldiers because many of them, in disregard to their own safety, immediately began treating the wounded even while shooting was still going on,” she said. “They’re all very strong-willed, dedicated, patriotic Americans.”

efranco@vindy.com