Fort Hood will conduct two days of planning for an active shooter
Emergency responders at Fort Hood and surrounding cities this week will conduct two days of training for active shooter scenarios on and off the massive Army post.
The trainings, part of Fort Hood’s annual Force Protection Exercise, will take place Wednesday and Thursday at several locations that will not be disclosed “in an effort to maintain realistic responses,” Fort Hood officials said.
Officials don’t expect major traffic delays, but residents may come across emergency response vehicles and personnel, and observe “visual or audio effects in the incident areas.”
The post’s emergency warning loudspeakers will precede and follow instructions with the message: “Exercise, exercise, exercise.”
Fort Hood has had tragic experience with active shooters in recent years: In 2014, a disgruntled soldier being treated for depression and anxiety killed three fellow soldiers and wounded 16 others before killing himself. That incident sprawled across multiple buildings and blocks of the post before Spc. Ivan López killed himself when confronted by military police.
Army investigators determined officials could have done little to predict or prevent the shooting, but made a number of recommendations to enhance security on the installation.
Since then, Fort Hood officials have strengthened gun rules on post, requiring higher-ranking soldiers to also get a commander’s signature when registering a firearm. And all soldiers buying a firearm on post must register the weapon immediately.
Fort Hood has also strengthened rules for vetting visitors to the installation, and boasts three mass warning systems.
“Fort Hood commanders have the authority to raise or lower force protection measures at their own discretion, given the circumstances of their local environment,” said Tom Rheinlander, director of Fort Hood Public Affairs. “As a prudent measure, Fort Hood adjusts its security measures for various reasons for the protection of the soldiers, civilians and their families.”
In 2009, Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire on unarmed Fort Hood soldiers preparing to deploy to war inside a processing center, killing 13 and wounding 32, an act that likewise spurred calls for stricter security measures. In 2013, Hasan was sentenced to death after a years-long military trial in which Hasan told jurors he was he was motivated by religious extremism and sought to protect the Taliban.
In March, a 28-year-old Dripping Springs man was indicted on charges he threatened mass murder at Fort Hood. Thomas Anthony Chestnut faces five years in prison after being charged with a count of interstate communications with threat to injure.
Chestnut is accused of calling Fort Hood officials and telling a sergeant that he would go to the post, kill the sergeant, take hostages and commit a killing spree before taking his own life, a release from the U.S. attorney’s office said. Chestnut then spoke to a major and said that he was a former soldier wrongly convicted of a crime who was released from prison last year. He told the officer the Army owed him back pay, and that if he did not receive the money, he would shoot soldiers at Fort Hood.
Fort Hood officials said the purpose of the annual exercise is to “test the installation’s ability to effectively respond to multiple sites.”
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