MARBLEHEAD — Thursday's horror at Fort Hood, Texas, hit home for Selectman Harry Christensen, whose son Matthew is serving on the base.
"It was like a battle for them," reported Christensen, who waited hours to reach his son by cell phone. "His mother and I had some extremely stressful moments." Around 6 p.m. EST on Thursday, the Christensens made contact with Matthew only to discover he and some colleagues had barricaded themselves in a supply area. Chaos was evident even on the phone.
"I could hear a great deal of yelling in the background and confusion," his father said. "The rumor was that there were shooters all over."
Apparently, only Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected in the killing of 13 of his fellow soldiers and the wounding of 31, according to The Associated Press.
Due to a media blackout, Army Spc. Matthew Christensen is unable to speak to the press. His father, however, reported that his son is in the last year of a three-year deployment — although he will likely be ordered back to active duty for a fourth year as part of his Army Reserve commitment. He is stationed at Fort Hood with his expectant wife, Laura, and their son Donovan.
While Matthew saw none of the carnage himself, it literally struck close to home. His neighbor on the base was among those soldiers in the room where the shooter appeared, shouting "something in Arabic." When the gunfire began the neighbor did not comprehend what was happening.
Harry Christensen explains, "He thought — up until he saw someone in a pool of blood — that it was a training exercise." One man, nearby, was shot in the head. The neighbor escaped injury by lying on the floor and playing dead himself.
Matthew Christensen is distraught in the aftermath, according to his father. "He's troubled. I understand. Finding yourself in harm's way like that." Such violence might be expected in the "sandbox," Christensen said, meaning Iraq or Afghanistan. "But I never expected it to happen in Texas."
Father and son spoke twice on Thursday, the second time at 9:30 p.m.
A wounded Vietnam veteran himself, Christensen was at first concerned that neither his son nor any of the soldiers around him were armed. "My last five months I was always in-country. I had a weapon. I always had a weapon."
He realized later, however, it is a different matter on base, where soldiers live with their families. No one expects to have need of a weapon.
The experience of waiting to hear that his son had survived left Christensen wondering about the impact of his own battlefield experiences. "I don't know how my father was able to sleep at night during the five months I was in Vietnam."
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