I was stationed out of Fort Hood from 2007-09. 4th ID. I remember coming back from a pretty rough tour in Baghdad in 2009. I wasn't on post during the shooting. I had just moved to Fort Benning. But the memories are still fresh. I remember being pissed off. Maybe pissed off isn't the right term, idk. Doesn't really capture it. But what went through my head was "Why are we fighting them over there when they're in the same uniform as me killing people...here?". During 9/11, the hijackers took off from Logan Airport in Boston less than 1200 meters away from where my family was living at the time. So the Fort Hood killings were the second time in my life where terrorists were trying to hurt my people at home. Same with the Boston Marathon bombing in 2012. My family was right down the street. This all tugged at me during GWOT. Why the hell was I never home when my family and friends were at risk from the very people I was sent to fight? Why was I facing outward when the enemy was literally.... at home? This is a question I still struggle with. Islamists have tried to kill those I care about for too long. And while this is some form of delayed justice, it doesn't account for the larger problem at hand: what's next? How do we stop the next one? And the next one? And the next one? There is no point to this post really. I'm just beyond infuriated having to live next to people who want me and mine, dead. That's not how civilization is supposed to work. It's supposed to be civil.