By this point, you've probably heard about the shooting at Ft. Hood.
When I heard about it, I realized that a friend of mine was stationed at Ft. Hood. A pit in my gut, though, came up when I heard the words "Soldier Readiness."
Thankfully, those fears turned out to be unfounded . . . but not by much.
My friend was someone I would never have guessed would join the army; he seemed like the absolute last person who would do it.
After falling out of touch for a while, I got back in touch with him through Facebook. This weekend, I heard that he was involved in Soldier Readiness Processing.
I went to Facebook to make sure that he was OK, expecting a message to that effect. I got it, but imagine my shock when the message on his wall began, "He missed me."
He didn't write very much, but what he did write was enough to convince me that it was, as he said, "not a fun thing to see."
I can't imagine what must be going through the minds of my friend and all of those soldiers, after witnessing one Army man (and, regardless of religion, he was part of the army) turn on fellow Army men and women, but I'm fairly sure that it can't possibly help them.
For me, today seems a little soon to be talking about prescriptions for dealing with mental health in the military (and, let's not forget, the rest of the U.S.). [Edited to add:] That's not to say we shouldn't be discussing it tonight, merely that I, personally, am not quite ready for that particular discussion.
I just hope that my friend, and others, don't have nightmares about this simply because they were about ready to do their duty for their country.