Following a ribbon cutting, the solar panel field located east of Liberty Village and south of Johnson Drive at Fort Hood, Texas, was turned on March 27, 2012. The field consists of 3,000 photovoltaic panels mounted to a steel frame that span across a four-acre site that will generate one million kilowatt-hours annually. US Army photo by Christine Luciano

U.S. Army
By Christine Luciano
Fort Hood DPW Environmental Outreach

After a year of planning and construction, Fort Hood and Universal Services Fort Hood Inc. activated a solar field of nearly 3,000 photovoltaic panels.

The four-acre solar field, near Liberty Village community, will generate one million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy annually for 300 single-family homes.
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Cheyenne, Wyo., native Spc. Eric Brubaker, a tanker with the 2nd Battalion 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division saved the life of a civilian driver involved in an accident on Fort Hood, Texas, Sept. 20.

Twenty-year-old Army Spc. Eric Brubaker doesn’t want to hear the word hero used in conjunction with his name, he doesn’t want to feel a pat on his back or a hand shake followed by the words “good job;” truth be told Brubaker probably doesn’t want to see his name in print either.

However, when the tanker from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division saved the life of a civilian driver Sept. 20 on Fort Hood, Texas all these accolades would become synonymous with the mere mention of his name.

“I just found out today that everyone knew, I wanted it to stay quiet,” said the former ranch-hand and Cheyenne, Wyo. native.

“I don’t like being in the spotlight, this isn’t something I felt should have been talked about and traveled all over post, something like this is part of our duty, we are trained to react,” Brubaker added.

The morning of the 20th started out just as many days do for Brubaker, as he was attending his sixth Combat Life Saver Course (Brubaker’s second refresher course this year) to brush up on his critical soldiering skills readying himself for another deployment sometime within the next year.

“I was pulling out of the parking lot leaving CLS and witnessed a vehicle that appeared out of control cross the median and strike another car,” said Brubaker. “Being on Fort Hood with these crazy drivers you see accidents every day, but when her SUV came across the median and hit the driver in front of me, I saw the expression on her face, I knew she was [having a seizure].”

Approaching the door Brubaker finds the female occupant of the SUV non-responsive with visible bleeding, and a noticeable wheezing and gurgling in her breathing, which Brubaker’s CLS certification told him was an obstructed airway.

“I knew from all my training and deployments that I had to help her get air, I had to open her airway back up. I ran to the trunk of my car and grabbed my IFAK (Improved First Aid Kit) and inserted my NPA (Nasopharyngeal Airway) into her.”

The NPA is a tube that is designed to be inserted into the nasal passageway to secure an open airway, and without it Brubaker knew the driver could have died.

“There were individuals checking under the car for leaking fluids keeping me informed of my surroundings, because the last thing I wanted to do was move her not knowing the extent of her injuries,” Brubaker said.

Keeping the driver stabilized for what seemed like a few seconds to Brubaker, until emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene and relieved him. The soldier now doted as a hero gives all praise to his Army training.

“This soldiers action is a testament to all of the soldiers in this battalion, I am very proud of not just this Soldier, but all of them,” said 2-5 Cav. Command Sgt. Maj. Ricky Linton, who hails from Apalachicola, Fla. “We train hard here, and this just proves how much they are buying into what the command is all about and that is an expectation of excellence.”

Lots of talk has circulated about what the commendation will be for Brubaker. Many have thrown around the words “Soldier’s Medal” since the incident, which is the highest peace time award a soldier can receive for their actions.

All of this is dismissed with a respectable smile and a shake of the head from a young man who enjoys blending in a formation rather than standing out in front of one.

Brubaker is always where he needs to be, doing what he needs to do, he is someone that the younger guys look to, and he is always putting everyone at ease when training goes a little long, or if his unit reports early for a 4 a.m. road march. He is the embodiment of a team player, said Brubaker’s first line supervisor, Spc. Randy Meeks, who is from Blooming Grove, Texas.

The unit and his peers are not surprised by the heroics Brubaker displayed that afternoon or that it was coincidence that he was there at the scene.

“Perfect example! Spc. Brubaker has horrible knees, just terrible and they will get him down from time to time, but rather than take a knee and go on profile he would just gut it out every day,” said Meeks. “Four miles, six miles, no matter still there in formation keeping pace, it finally got to the point that we had to escort him to the doc, make him take a profile, and if that wasn’t enough we had to guard him and our formation every morning just to keep him from sneaking in there for PT (physical training). He doesn’t quit, Spc. Brubaker doesn’t know how, that’s why we are not surprised in the least about any of this,” said Meeks.

“This soldier deserves the accolades, deserves the recognition, we are talking about a combat veteran that is used to reacting to tragedy, and that’s just what he did that day he saw something terrible and where most people would have set back and not known what to do, he knew how to react and did,” said Linton.

“He doesn’t realize what he has done, and that’s what you have got to love about this soldier,” he added. “Brubaker is what we should all want to be and that is a good soldier. He’s quiet, he does what he has to do, and he shines when he needs to shine.”

“This all comes down to training,” Brubaker says. “I found myself in a situation and directly applied what I have been taught during my career to save a life. It’s something we all can do; it is like riding a bike. When that switch flips and you see firsthand the benefits of your Army training, the rest is just muscle memory.”

DVIDS
Story by Spc. Phillip Adam Turner

Following in the footsteps of Sirhan Sirhan and the Washington Sniper, another American Muslim goes berserk over American policy in the Middle East.

U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is believed to be the lone shooter of some 43 people on Fort Hood, Texas, and he survived being shot by a civilian police officer, the base commander said.

Lt Gen. Robert Cone in a televised press briefing tonight corrected earlier reports that said Hasan and the officer, who shot him several times, were killed. Rather, he said, both are recovering at a nearby hospital.

All but two of the victims are soldiers, Cone said.

Cone confirmed the identity of Hasan, reportedly a psychiatrist on the base who was scheduled soon to deploy, but would not say more about the suspect last night. Hasan has been in the company of a Criminal Investigative Division officer since the midday shooting, he said.

In answer to a reporter’s question, Cone said of the suspect, “I would say his death is not imminent.” Hasan is not yet talking to investigators, he said.

Three other soldiers were initially detained for questioning, but later released. After interviewing more than 100 people at the scene, Cone said, investigators determined there was only one shooter.

While investigators haven’t ruled out terrorism in the case, Cone said, the evidence doesn’t suggest it.

The shooting began about 1:30 Central Time at Hood’s Soldier Family Readiness Center where Cone said soldiers from multiple units were crowded into the center for a scheduled weekly “make up time” for medical and dental appointments.

Casualties were high due to the enclosed location, but would have been much worse were it not for the training and quick reaction of the soldiers, said Cone, adding that he was on the scene quickly after the shooting began.

“Suffice it to say…the American soldier did a great job,” he said.

From the reports of eyewitnesses, he said, the soldiers – “many of them combat lifesavers” — reacted instantaneously, ripping off parts of their own clothing to treat the wounded.

“I credit the first responders,” he said. “God bless these soldiers and Department of Army civilians. As horrible as this was, it could have been much worse.”

Some 600 people attending a college graduation of 138 soldiers in an adjacent building were unharmed because first responders secured the building, he said.

The suspect is believed to have used two handguns in the shooting, one a semiautomatic, Cone said. And in responding to a question, “As a matter of practice, we do not carry weapons on Fort Hood,” he said. “This is our home.”

However, Cone said, “We will increase our security presence here in the coming days.”

The FBI is working the investigation, along with military and other law enforcement, he said. The base was on lockdown until 7 p.m., a base spokesman said.

For now, Cone said, Fort Hood officials are focused on caring for the wounded, securing the base, notifying victims’ families and providing grief counseling. A family hotline is available to obtain information at 254-288-7570.

Cone, who received a call from President Barack Obama soon after the shooting, said he was grateful for an outpouring of support. “It is truly overwhelming the offers of support we have had from around the nation,” the general said. “Tomorrow at Fort Hood, we return to normalcy, schools will be open.”

The Central Texas base is the military’s largest, covering some 340 square miles and is home to 40,000 soldiers. And, according to its Web site, is known as “The Great Place” for its quality of life for soldiers and their families.

DoD

The spin has started. For Hasan, it means that the stories he heard from soldiers at Walter Reed and the hatred he felt from others as a Muslim became too much to bear. For Fort Hood, it means describing the base as a center for soldier suicides and violence.

The truth is that this is another Muslim man who turned his face from his country and adopted an alien belief that led to violence. The FBI will not dare call this terrorism, but at some point the number of young, Muslim men killing random Americans will be too great for them to ignore.