Fort Lee shooter, another crazed vet
The other day, we reported on the shooting incident which locked down Fort Lee, VA for about a half hour. We also told you that the shooter was a sergeant first class who shot herself. It turns out that, according to Reuters, her name was Paula Walker, assigned to the 266TH Quartermaster Battalion. For some reason, it’s a big deal that she spent 15 months in Iraq;
Walker, from Yonkers, New York, was a human resources specialist, the base said in a statement. She enlisted in September 2000 and had served at Fort Lee since December 2011.
She served a 15-month combat tour in Iraq in 2007 and 2008. Her awards included three Army Commendation Medals, the statement said.
The shooting at the base’s Combined Arms Support Command Headquarters is under investigation and no motive has been given. The incident led to a brief lockdown of the base, the Army’s third-largest training site.
She was in the AG Corps, so I’m not sure how much of a “combat tour” it was. She has been at Fort Lee for nearly three years, so I’m really not sure how much a 15-month tour as an AG NCO six years ago has to do with this particular incident, but the Army needs to get in front of this and straighten this out. Quick. The last paragraph of that article;
The shooting came about four months after a soldier with mental health problems killed three people and wounded 16 at Fort Hood in Texas. The Fort Hood incident was the third shooting rampage at a U.S. military base in six months.
I’d remind Reuters and my readers that two of those “shooting rampages” were committed by civilians, not by military personnel. One of those “rampages” result in the death of one person who was in the military and he saved the life of another servicemember by sacrificing himself. Ivan Lopez, the shooter at Fort Hood, had been trying to convince doctors that he had head problems, but he wasn’t diagnosed as having “mental health problems” and he never experienced direct combat. So that’s pure speculation.
I’m thinking that SFC Walker never experienced direct combat either, as a AG troop. They tried to push the PTS in the opening hours of the Hasan murders at Hood, too, despite the fact that Hasan had never deployed. Maybe they should be looking at what makes these POGs (People Other than Grunts) snap instead of trying to scare the country with the old crazy vet meme. It seems to me that folks who actually experience combat are the only ones not going on these “rampages”.
Category: Military issues
One too many 4187s?
Yeah, I wonder if it will eventually come out that she was being denied re-enlistment after 14 years and that that drove her around the bend. But, of course, that is not helpful to the narrative, and so the left and the media (but I repeat myself) will not give any such explanation any credence.
I wondered myself if she was being forced out or denied reenlistment. What is sad to see is the “with us or against us” trend this blog is occasionally filled with. Always on the attack against perceived left bias. Who cares if she was a pogue and didn’t do 10 tours with an ODA. One of our sisters is dead. Another one of us let fall through the cracks. There is no need to attack her until there is more details of what made her take her own life. This is a tragedy not a witch hunt for someone wearing one extra AAM that isn’t on their dd214.
Um, I think you missed the entire point of Jonn’s article above.
Jonn’s point is that her service in Iraq likely had nothing to do with her suicide – and is thus irrelevant. However, the media makes that irrelevant point a lead item in their coverage. This tars all vets by perpetuating the “crazy vet myth” – which has always been the gross exception vice the rule.
I don’t think anyone here has accused the deceased of a damn thing.
Thank you Hondo. You answered that idiotic post with decorum, facts and much less sarcasm than it deserved.
Glad you got there first. I would have used a lot of profanity and suggested that the author of the post try to do some anatomically strenuous exercises.
It behooves us as veterans to work together to try and present our point of view without rancor but sometimes you got to let the F bombs fly.
You just had to go use the word behoove, didn’t you Master Guns? You sir, are definitely a Marine, through and through.
The bias is real enough and I know who has my best interests at heart and who does not.
Yeah, it’s too bad that veterans won’t just shut up and take the media’s bias in silence, isn’t it?
I do not think I have ever seen you comment this much in one day.
My email wouldn’t work this morning and I needed to be expressive.
She didn’t have to worry about being kicked out for reenlistment she was in a indefinite status DUMB A$$
Why does anyone commit suicide? Could be any of a large number of reasons. If she’d had a career reversal it would have been a pretty significant one; having made E-7 at 14 years suggests a successful career.
Could be, but bear in mind that it was pretty easy to make rank during the height of the war (or at least easier than otherwise). I can personally attest to that.
Being AG in a QM unit she was probably getting hazed for being a bigger POG than the QM folks
Is that possible?
Not likely.
Finance company supply sergeant?
Hey, lay off finance. My daughter is in finance and is in the sandbox right now.
I suspect something else is going on with this woman. The press instantly jumping to the default PTSD shows that they are not interested in actually doing any reporting.
Umm, the pogue-ness of the supply personnel depends on the unit to which the QM is assigned.
But who gets the ammo first?
THAT is a tough one, though in the POGUE olympics both would be on the podium. On another note, thanks AJSHannon for calling out the silly rumors of a perceived left leaning bias by the press. Everyone knows our current CINC has received the exact same treatment from the press as the last CINC. God, I can’t even complete this exercise in sarcasm without washing my own mouth out with soap. AJShannon, just go back to the blogs at Salon. I think you’ll find them more in tune with your mindset.
Damn it, TankBoy! Tell um how ya really feel! As for this AJShannon critter…Just in case nobody told you today, I will: GFY! In the ear, with a frozen trout! Sideways!
Wow……I am a Unit Supply Sergeant in a Heavy Weapons company…..I would like to remind everyone here that POGs are the guys behind the scenes making the door kickers job happen. From boots to bullets, without the POGs nothing happens.
I’ve on more than one occasion, busted chops for guys on the CET lanes giving my boys a hard time. I don’t know about the AG guys…..but I am proud of the work I do to take care of all my soldiers and their equipment. Supply shop ran 24/7 during deployment, as the guys going outside the wire ran missions at all times.
And a shout out to the wrench turners in the maintenance section that ran three shifts the entire time we were in country. 1SG Thompson (God bless him) never took a single day off our entire deployment and worked himself into a mild heart attack. And he was 11B that couldn’t let our BN go out the door without him. So he signed on as our motor sergeant.
Supply or Die!!!!!
I damn AJShannon- what a passive aggressive swing in here. Have much of an axe to grind? But dude SERIOUSLY- have you ever spent time at FT Lee?
I dread going to that place, even now. I hated in 2000 and hate it even now. I’d lose my mind too- working at AIT land with all those IED’s (oops, I meant IET- the career killers for all permanent party)
Be humble with your approach- speak true and with out fear- But be mindful in whose home you do it in.
My axe to grind was the attacks on a soldier that is dead. We do not know why yet. We don`t know if she was facing disciplinary action, forced separation under honorable conditions, or family crisis. The bottom line is one of our own is dead. Calling her a pogue and diminishing her service and the respect due her as a soldier and a SFC in the US Army is disgraceful.
Whether she was cook or a delta operator is irrelevant. Leave the liberal media PTS bullshit out of it. What I am saying is separate the media speculation and hype from the soldier and her grieving family and do not let your anger at the knee jerk media PTS talk tarnish the life lost.
I will get to see Ft Lee soon enough, I am awaiting orders there presently.
Where did I demean her service?
You didn’t, Jonn. The individual above is simply looking for a reason to be offended – whether a legitimate one exists or not.
your spot on brother- eloquent as ever Hondo
The first story I read about her had her as a SSG not a SFC. I thought to myself “14yr SSG? She must be being forced out”
So, you’re saying basically the same thing Jonn wrote, except your attack is on Jonn’s truthful statements while his attack was directed at the inaccuracies (again, some more) of the media?
Y’all are reminding me of a time when some of my 11B friends made fun of me for being a POG and carrying a “musket” instead of an M4 during my deployment. I thin y’all are giving me PTSD! 😛
Yea but, you carried that supa dupa .50 cal Musket. THAT is why you caught hell. Grunts were jealous is all. hehehe
Like others have said, I really doubt her deployment to Iraq had anything to do with this. At worst, she might have endured rocket attacks inside the wire. Besides that, processing casualty packets is probably the closest she got to combat. Like other speculated, she probably got QSP’d and will fall short of the 15 years for TERA.
http://www.thewire.com/national/2014/08/fort-lee-releases-name-of-33-year-old-female-shooter/379234/
Read the comments.
It’s pogue, not POG.
That POG nonsense was started by the same types that refuse to learn the difference between a clip and a magazine, and tend to refer to IFVs as “tank looking things”.
Yeah….no.
There is a difference between POG and Poguey bait.
One is an acronym. One is how you attract the acronym.
I’m acquiring those, from both of you.
Best as I can tell, the “POG/pogue” nonsense started sometime in the 1980s due to PC, at least in the Army. The former term “REMF” became too politically incorrect, and was too widely known to redefine. It thus became verboten by leadership as “too demeaning”.
In short: the adoption of POG/pogue was simply the result of an older and more descriptive, accurate, and thus better term being banned.
I was branched AG and branched MP (not Law Enforcement, served in Iraq. Did not serve as either in the war, made sure everyone there received their mail via truck, convoy, and chopper. Did experience rockets inside the wire. In addition, delivered 52 Red Cross emergency notifications to Soldiers in the war zone. All those before I received the notice that my 22 year old daughter was dead, two months before I came home. This was after I’d medivaced out for two months to let a fractured hip heal and fight my way back to the war to finish “the mission” while on the plain I laid next to three awesome Soldiers who were on life support going home. I shared with their families the pride and the loss in order to comfort. This was the second loss of a child, the first was our 23 year old right after 9/11. I think of those Soldiers, their families, and mine often. Mainly though I remember the families I had to deliver those messages to and the ones delivered to me. In fact, I think about them every night when I wake up at 2:30am, which I still do after 7 years. PTSD takes many forms and affects people in many ways, doesn’t necessarily happen just because you experience a round to the chest. This Soldier had just transferred to her new assignment of two weeks, what do you think happened in that office that would make her react so violently that she felt the need to come to the office (a particular office) with a loaded fire arm. Pause for thought gentlemen! I’m stationed at Fort Lee.
Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, and that would be my fault. The whole post is about media bias and nothing else. Having been an infantryman in combat, I appreciate the work that folks in other branches and services do to support the tip of the spear. I think that’s been clear in every post I’ve written on the subject.
What I don’t appreciate is the media shitting all over themselves every time they find a link between a shooter and any deployments they may have had. Like I said, they even made up a few deployments in Hasan’s case, when it was clear he hadn’t deployed, they linked the fact that he treated deployed people as a practice, so he caught the PTSD from them.
In fact, the exact opposite is true – people who actually experienced combat aren’t the people committing these shootings. So that is harder to understand than the BS that the media has cultivated as an excuse since the Vietnam War.
If you are butthurt because I pointed that out, you’re in the wrong career field, and you’re not feeling good about that. Never once did I say that folks who aren’t grunts can’t get PTS. Not. Once. what I said was that, no matter how much the media wants it to be so, this probably wasn’t related to her service in Iraq. And that the Army needs to clarify that before all of that BS splashes on the rest of us.
I’m a former grunt and since I left the military, I haven’t so much as pointed a weapon at another person, nor at myself, and I’m tired of people worrying about whether I will or not because of this “crazy vet” shit.
And, oh, yeah, being stationed at Fort Lee has fuck-all to do with this discussion. I was stationed at Fort Hood, but I know nothing unique about the Hasan shooting.
I thank you for writing this article. You say a lot here that needed to be said. I think perhaps some of your readers were distracted by the some of the wording and missed the points you were making, which is that the media is full of biased, and often irrelevant bullsh*t. I have the vantage point of being a former AG soldier, recently retired, who has been on a combat deployment to Afghanistan, and on a miserable little FOB that I call the “Left Nostril of Hell.” As one of those POGs/Pogues (however you spell it) that you speak of, I do not take offense. The point remains that many who work in the media are irresponsible journalists who don’t know crap, don’t ask crap, and don’t do research worth a crap. I also knew SFC Walker personally, though we weren’t very close. It’s been over a year since I last spoke to her. But for anyone wondering, making SFC in 14 years as a 42A is not the fast track that some would say it is, although it’s not bad. As a 42A (formerly 71L/75D/E), making SFC in under 10 is considered the fast track, but I digress. But with these SRP separations coming fast and furiously, I’m left to wonder if maybe she came up on the list, and if that might have been a contributing factor to her stress level. She had a young daughter and was a single parent, and I can imagine how distressing an unexpected separation might be on someone when you haven’t planned for the unexpected. That said, it could have been something totally different going on in her personal or work life, and it’s unfortunate that she felt like she didn’t have any options. I’m inclined to agree with you that her 2006 deployment is probably totally irrelevant to this incident, but somebody thought it made good news copy. And like the rest of you, I’m sick of it, too. We’re not all sitting on the verge, waiting to snap. It’s ridiculous and it’s insulting, and the media should do a… Read more »
Thank you, Regina.
Reuters trying to push the narrative that MOS really don’t exist and everyone deployed is there to locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver.
How cute.
http://cdn.motinetwork.net/politifake.org/image/political/1203/iraq-iraq-fobits-grunts-oif-politics-1332246349.jpg
Eh….I have done both the picture on the right and the picture on the left. I hated myself during my cush deployment to Kabul. I desperately wanted back in Garmsir or Sangin, but it was not to be. With wifi, a/c, a nice DFAC, PX, Green Bean, full gym, and civilian contractor eye-candy, we still had people complaining about quality of life. I hated that deployment so much, never have I actually prayed for an attack as hard as I did at that camp, just to wake those retards up.
I did my time at Camp Phoenix. It wasn’t the plushest place in A-stan, but compared to a lot of the remote FOBs, it was Shangri-la! Even there, I constantly heard REMFs and fobbits bawling about how shitty they had it there as well as the ones at Bagram whenever we took convoys to and from there, I know how you feel. My second Middle East tour was in Kuwait where boredom was sometimes an issue, but even there I still heard people bitching about how bad they had it there, SHIT, we had it all there, big PX, Taco Bell, BK,…
I really liked that definition. I have never heard of People Other than Grunts (POG). Even my wife laughed at that and said that it was a satire response from the Grunts to all the PC being forced upon us.
Our lower deck security watch on ship was called the pogue watch.
Essentially we were to be on the look out for idiots smoking in the non-smoking areas and sleeping in their cloths. I was from the mid-west, 18 and had never heard of homo sexuals. It was later that I was told to be looking for this type of activity, also. Ugh.
By the way, The Master at Arms discouraged this term.
Why no pictures of the shooter?
your guess as good as mine- but am just a dumb half breed.
But as Jonn has pointed OUT: am tired of the crazed vet thing. We hate the moniker, but it wont sell as good as “vet” –
Don’t know if the media does not want to post or its afraid of the direct truth.
(media slants are nothing new)
but fill in the blank:
-white female
-hispanic female
-asian female
-black female
who enlisted.
Could be a another one of those tailhook/ SHARP issues
someone else who tripped all the flags- but was allowed to move/progress due to EO/IG complaint issue
a love triangle gone sour
mental breakdown due to poor medical treatment
good old plain revenge
damage control still pending by our dear leader/ CASA/ DOD
take your pick.
if I paint a dark picture- its only because of the paints am given.
If she lived in Pburg, she didn’t need to deploy to suffer from PTSD…
True dat!
Hmm…Female Soldier, locks self in a particular office with a loaded hand gun and has a fit of rage before killing herself….
As MCPO says, let me “Net this Out for you”….
Senior NCO or Officer Love Affair Gone South…
RIP Soldier…wasn’t worth your life.
As far as Media bias and blaming a Combat tour and PTS as the reason…..HORSE PUCKEY.
Interesting you should say that, TC. I’ve heard exactly that rumor.
I have no idea if it’s true or not, so I won’t say anything more specific. I do agree with you that even if the rumor is true it wasn’t worth suicide.
Different subject: how’s the recovery coming?
@Hondo~
I don’t know if its true either, but the little I have been able to read and as a female my gut is telling me that is all this is, an affair gone by way of the Glittering Gargoyles…But I could be wrong and it may be something completely different, but I’d bet a 7lb block of cheese that it was a sad ending to an affair. Woman generally only killed themselves when they been rejected or spurned by a lover/married lover. It would be unusual if it was a career issue. Broken hearts trump most problems.
Just my thoughts of course and we may never know the true reason for her to have ended her life. Its just unfortunate that the media once again has to tag it ” A Crazed Vet with PTS” to cause hysteria for click bait on their articles.
The recovery has been slow and a few unpleasant turns have occurred, but all will be well eventually. Thank you for asking 🙂
You’re welcome. Glad to have you back.
Hang in there.
Glad to see you back, Toasty, I hope you’re getting better!!
I’ve hated newsmutts ever since my deployment to A-stan. I’m thoroughly convinced that the vast majority of them are blithering IDIOTS!!
PTSD is getting to be the illness dujour in civvie life too. At my place of work a couple of months back, we lost an employee due to an incident. No gore and no direct witnesses, but we know what happened. So far we’ve had 3 comp claims for PTSD, and two of the folks didn’t even work with the guy. I guess it’s possible, but….
Spot on TC-and the particular office the SFC locked herslef in…interstingly, it was the Regimental CSM Gray’s office who is about to PCS, and who also was physically escorted out of the building.
IN Reference to the Fort Lee Active Shooter incident. This a copy of the many comments going around the web about the real facts about the command covering up for wrongdoings and injustices on Fort Lee against soldiers telling the truth. And I quote “I just want to highlight the dirty in this tragedy. Mostly because the first thing that a lot of soldiers were told in a mandatory same say meeting was about keeping quiet to the media and not speculating or spreading rumors on Facebook. I totally get rumor control. I totally DO but this was the only thing stressed, NOT look after your battle buddy nor a suicide prevention course. That is what is really sad here , that big army cares more about image than actual soldiers lives. I say this also because the focus to me seems to be covering up the dirty that underlies this travesty. This SFC’s affair with Regimental CSM Gray. I say this not to blacken her image in death but to highlight the blatant abuse of power (even if the affair was consensual) I believe he was escorted home after she first tried to go to his office before being stopped by his secretary and then the events that transpired resulting in a sad suicide. Was he not? He is slated to PCS and I guess he was just trying to tidy up a few skeletons in his closet before he left Fort Lee. I cannot imagine the despair she felt that day that lead her to think she would no longer be needed as a mother and that suicide was her only way , but I cannot stay silent while a senior noncommissioned officer goes unaccountable for his part. Let’s hope the facts of this unfortunate incident come to light.” I want to applaud these individuals for speaking out because so many others (including myself) have tried to speak out about corruption, reprisal and bullying only to be punished for doing so. I served with this soldier and it saddens me to see another cover up especially resulting in… Read more »
I concur, and I wonder if they’ll investigate this properly or will they let him “Good ‘ol Boy” his way out of it?
She could have been a victim of sexual harassment or assault and nothing done about it like what I am experiencing right now. Because my aggressor is a general officer I am being reprimand and forced out because I had the courage to speak up and report. It can take a person to a low point in life one would never think of facing.
IN Reference to the Fort Lee Active Shooter incident. This a copy of the many comments going around the web about the real facts about the command covering up for wrongdoings and injustices on Fort Lee against soldiers telling the truth. And I quote “I just want to highlight the dirty in this tragedy. Mostly because the first thing that a lot of soldiers were told in a mandatory same say meeting was about keeping quiet to the media and not speculating or spreading rumors on Facebook. I totally get rumor control. I totally DO but this was the only thing stressed, NOT look after your battle buddy nor a suicide prevention course. That is what is really sad here , that big army cares more about image than actual soldiers lives. I say this also because the focus to me seems to be covering up the dirty that underlies this travesty. This SFC’s affair with Regimental CSM Gray. I say this not to blacken her image in death but to highlight the blatant abuse of power (even if the affair was consensual) I believe he was escorted home after she first tried to go to his office before being stopped by his secretary and then the events that transpired resulting in a sad suicide. Was he not? He is slated to PCS and I guess he was just trying to tidy up a few skeletons in his closet before he left Fort Lee. I cannot imagine the despair she felt that day that lead her to think she would no longer be needed as a mother and that suicide was her only way , but I cannot stay silent while a senior noncommissioned officer goes unaccountable for his part. Let’s hope the facts of this unfortunate incident come to light.” I want to applaud these individuals for speaking out because so many others (including myself) have tried to speak out about corruption, reprisal and bullying only to be punished for doing so. I served with this soldier and it saddens me to see another cover up especially resulting in… Read more »
Would love to see how the CASCOM command deal with the main issue…down zipper syndrome amongst senior leadership!
It would not surprise me at all about the corruption that is in the Army. I hate that an African American female took her life behind a man. I do not find it hard to believe that this scumbag of a CSM was involved. Its sad that her eight year daughter has to grow up without a mother all because of him. Ladies please do not involve yourself with these scumbag predators just to get ahead only to get hurt. If he is married and he probably is knew that he was not going to leave his wife/ girlfriend. Its a horrible game in which nine times of ten the female is the one to get hurt. I was in the U.S. Army and I saw how other African American females would sucker up to the Sergeant Majors just to get ahead. They are only hurting themselves. They will learn the hard way that females can not easily turn on and off their feelings as a male can. I am glad that I am out of the military and doing quite well for myself with God’s help. I sure hope CSM Gray is prosecuted for his part in this lady’s death. May God comfort his family in their time of bereavement.
Be very cautious on how you post your opinions. Do not just say African American females brown nose or sucker their way to the top. That was a suspect statement and I know you know that it was wrong. Be careful.
Negative. If someone is posting what they saw from their own personal experiences why should they have to be cautious? And she didn’t say ” African American females brown nose or sucker their way to the top”, she said she saw other African American females doing that. So I see no reason for anyone to be careful about posting what they actually saw. That’s a lot of the problem anymore is people are not allowed to speak freely without someone telling them to be cautious or be careful.
That is a negative. It is not a probelm that she posts what she saw, however she will post the truth, because anybody that has been in the military longer than two hours knows that some females, NOT ALL and of different races sucker up or however you want to call it to senior leaders. There is no probelm with freedom of speech or posts. Just the fiction behind the posts. Please do not ask how would I know either… It would be pointless. I am sure that you are smarter than the average Joe…..
I apologize NOT his family but her family (SFC Walker in their time of bereavement. My apologies again.
There is a whole lot of people in this thread speculating on stuff that is just completely wrong. But whatever.
I’m sorry that SFC Walker, who was apparently a friend to several here, took her own life. However, she committed several felonies before she did so, and there were many victims who were terrorfied. Whatever her beef with CSM Gray was, be it personal or professional or both, she could have taken it up with him, even shot him, without terrifying all those people.
I think we should remember that.
This is for Impartial Observer. What does committing several felonies have to do with an allege unhealthy affair with a CSM? What do you mean by “terrifying all those people”? Are you talking about the people in the building? According to the news SFC Walker was the only person that got shot? So what are you talking about?
What does SFC Walker being the only one shot,have to do with everybody else in the building not fearing for their life? I am trying to figure out what you mean exactly. For one the entire installation was locked down. Two their was a armed person in a Command HQ. Nobody really knew what was going on until the aftermath. Most people fear the unknown, so I think that’s what Impartial observer was trying to say. I feel bad for the SFC. So young, left her child and a host of other responsibilities she may have had. Rumor control is a must in our profession. Until somebody get up here and post facts, everything that we read is hear say.
Someone isn’t a “victim” if they are scared. They are a victim if there is a crime committed against them. There’s a difference.
I agree with you on that. I still wonder what Impartial Observer meant though.
If you ever have a loaded gun pointed at you, see if you feel like a victim or not.
Why are we a society that protects men who hurt women? The allegations against this CSM to include the emails and text messages she left behind were depicable. I feel nothing but sadness and symphony for this SFC who took her own life. There are too many men like this in the Army, playing with women, lying about being married, lying about being divorced, just lying to lie. Where is their accountability? Some of their wives are even in on it and don’t care what their husband’s are doing.