The Ft. Hood Fallen

10/17/2026

I needed to see this today and I hope some of you do too 💝

October is Depression Awareness Month.

Depression does not look like crying. For a lot of Veterans it looks like a person who shows up to work, answers emails, mows the lawn, and feels absolutely nothing while doing it.

And underneath that, there are days where the ordinary things cost everything.

Getting out of bed. Taking a shower. Answering a text from someone you actually like. Eating a real meal instead of whatever is closest. Driving to an appointment you have rescheduled twice. Opening the mail.

Those are not small. On a bad stretch they are the whole day.

Nobody hands out credit for the hard things that look easy from the outside. Veterans in particular measure themselves against what they used to be able to do, and by that standard a day spent dragging yourself through basic tasks feels like failure.

It is not failure. It is effort nobody can see.

If the ordinary things have been costing this much for a while, that is worth telling somebody about. Not because you are in crisis. Because you do not have to be.

10/16/2026

After he was unable to reach her, Celia Loya’s husband rushed to their home along Lake Champlain Street to check on her. He found Loya’s body on the bathroom floor, severely beaten.

🔗 https://www.kwtx.com/2026/10/16/texas-dps-offers-6k-reward-tips-unsolved-1995-cold-case-murder-el-paso-woman/

10/16/2026

If your service-connected disabilities keep you from holding a steady job, VA may pay you at the 100% disability rate, even if your rating is lower.

It's called Individual Unemployability. Here's who qualifies and how to apply.

Have you been through the IU process? Share what helped.

Read more in the comments. ⬇️

10/16/2026

ason Leisey served nine years as an infantryman and received a Purple Heart after he was severely injured by a car bomb in Iraq. John Beasley served as an intelligence soldier in Afghanistan and had to leave after 17 years when he developed sarcoidosis. Austin Chapman was hit by an improvised explosive device while serving as a combat medic in Afghanistan, leaving him with nerve damage and a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis after six years of service.

All three were medically retired and had their military careers cut short by life-changing injuries and illnesses. They are a handful of more than 50,000 disabled veterans who are receiving a smaller check each month because of a policy that reduces the amount of disability compensation and military retirement pay they receive.

But a bill named after an Army combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan aims to fix that.

Called the Major Richard Star Act, the bill would change a rule that essentially caps how much money veterans can receive from retirement and Department of Veterans Affairs disability compensation benefits.

Veterans who were wounded and medically retired, also known as Chapter 61 retirees, have their military retirement pay reduced “dollar-for-dollar” by the amount they receive in VA disability compensation. If the bill passes, it would eliminate that reduction, often called an offset, and give veterans their full retirement and disability payments. The offset is due to federal rules against double benefits, or double-dipping — though advocates and veterans argue that because the benefits come from two different sources for two different reasons, it shouldn’t count as a double benefit.

10/16/2026

Deep inside a hillside at Fort Hood are two tunnels built to hold atomic bombs, and for years even the soldiers guarding them were not allowed inside.

Right after World War II, the government chose a spot near Killeen for one of only seven atomic storage sites in the country. Crews dug the tunnels nearly 1,000 feet into the hill, behind concrete walls two feet thick, and the work was completed in 1949. The place was called Killeen Base, and the project went by the name Project 76.

The secrecy was so tight that the soldiers posted there lived with rules nobody else on the post had. Fort Hood's historian, Richard Powell, put it this way: "If you were a soldier assigned to work there, you couldn't wear your unit patch on your uniform." And the post's range manager, Gene Bauer, said, "It was so secretive even the guards weren't allowed inside it."

The weapons were removed and the site was shut down in 1969, and that October it became part of the post as West Fort Hood. The tunnels are still there in the hillside today, empty and quiet.

Fort Hood itself took the name Fort Cavazos in 2023, then went back to Fort Hood in 2025, this time honoring Colonel Robert B. Hood, who earned the Distinguished Service Cross in France in 1918.

A lot of Texans served at Fort Hood. Very few ever knew what was inside that hill.

10/16/2026

Aggravated with the reversal because I wanted to watch, but I have seen the growing number of survivors and the loved ones from victims that don't want this public and I think if anything we should defer to them.

The planned ex*****on of Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas, will not be livestreamed, President Donald Trump announced Thursday.

“I think streaming the ex*****on for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device. He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The president’s decision was a reversal of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s initial announcement that Hasan’s ex*****on would be livestreamed. Trump confirmed that Hasan’s ex*****on will still be carried out by firing squad. Families of the victims will still be able to attend the ex*****on in person, Trump said. It is still scheduled for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood.

Hegseth initially announced the planned livestream last week, saying “we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it,” adding that the decision to broadcast the ex*****on was a “no-brainer.” The Pentagon later confirmed the plans to broadcast the ex*****on publicly.

10/16/2026

Years before his arrest, Jeffrey Dahmer served in the Army as a medic. He was discharged in 1981 because of his drinking.

How has the military's approach to drinking changed since you served? Read more in the comments.

10/16/2026

The former Florida sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed an Air Force special operations flyer in 2024 was acquitted of manslaughter charges in the airman’s death by a Florida jury earlier this month.

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, served as a crewmember on AC-130J gunships with the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Florida. He was shot and killed at his apartment in 2024 by Former Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputy Eddie Duran after answering his door to Duran while holding a pistol.

Duran had knocked on Fortson’s door in response to a noise complaint. The deputy immediately shot Fortson five times. Footage from a body camera worn by Duran showed that Fortson was holding a pistol as he answered the door but did not point the gun at Duran

The Okaloosa County Sheriff fired Duran less than a month later after an internal investigation determined Duran’s decision to shoot Fortson was “not objectively reasonable.”

The Florida State Attorney’s Office later charged Duran with manslaughter. Duran faced up to 30 years in prison if found guilty.

A lawyer for Fortson’s family called the verdict a “painful moment.”

“Roger was a 23-year-old Senior Airman who chose to serve this country, and he was shot and killed at the door of his own home,” said attorney Ben Crump in a statement. “His family has lived with that loss every day for more than two years, and this verdict is incredibly hard for them. Roger’s life and his service will always matter. His family will keep fighting for him, and we will stand with them as they pursue their civil rights case in federal court and seek accountability for the tragic loss of his life.”

10/16/2026

https://kdhnews.com/news/local/25-years-later-memories-of-lubys-shooting-fade-but-dont-die/article_c9b9b2b0-9357-11e6-ad69-abfb3fb48883.html?utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwdGRjcAU_ChZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBXNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHsN4pbq44eWoHapY_eMWiXmB_7kG4FjbbR4HBuwehHEOFxOzxSkqNCeihLey_aem_T73PyeV9ghdVuECPE03jiw

Totaling about 700 double-sided pages in its permanent home in the record room at the Killeen Police Department is Case No. 91-030945 — the department’s only print testament of the