Del. Lingamfelter calls Fort Hood shooting ‘despicable’

Military justice in the case of Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, suspected in Thursday's shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, will be swift, efficient and open to public scrutiny, a local lawmaker and Army veteran said Friday.

"This will not hang around," Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter said of the investigation into the slayings of 13 and wounding of 30 more. "The military does not drag this stuff out."

The Woodbridge Republican spent 28 years in the Army before beginning his political career. He retired as a colo-nel and, as a battalion commander, could convene military legal proceedings.

Lingamfelter said an Article 32 investigation, the military's criminal indictment process, would be the first step in the legal process in this situation.

Next, the matter would be referred to a general court-martial. Because the incident happened at Fort Hood, Lingam-felter said he figures the court-martial would be moved to Fort Leavenworth or Fort Riley, both in Kansas.

Because Hasan was severely wounded, Lingamfelter said it was likely he would be sent to the prison hospital at Leavenworth before being tried.

Once the suspect is court-martialed, the delegate said he would expect that Hasan would be sentenced to death. The military's death row is at Leavenworth.

The entire process could be over before next Thanksgiving, Lingamfelter said.

The legislator said he lost some soldiers in combat, and he recalled domestic problems with troops. But he said he experienced nothing like the horror at Fort Hood.

"You'd never see this kind of massacre thing," he said.

Hasan "violated the sanctity of brotherhood," Lingamfelter said.

"This is a despicable and treacherous act of cowardly behavior," he said.

As a commanding officer, he became familiar with "soldier care," especially monitoring anyone sus-pected of contemplating suicide.

"We learned a lot about warning signs in the military," he said.

But he noted that not all mental health issues are easily identified. So it's possible that Hasan hid some of the very problems for which he counseled others.

It was unclear Friday whether Hasan had any connections to the Prince William area, but he did have several ties to Virginia. He was born in Arlington County, lived in the Roanoke area and graduated from Virginia Tech.

If local people want to know what they can do in light of the situation, Lingamfelter said they should pray for the families involved, trust the military justice system and contribute to victims' funds once they're set up.

A scenario like this is much more difficult for a victim's family than a combat death, he said.

That's because a service member goes into the military to defend the country against foreign aggressors.

"They didn't go into the military so that the people who are their colleagues would murder them," Lingamfelter said.

In terms of military members locally, the Quantico Marine Corps base was put under "threat condition al-pha" after the massacre.

The Army, on the other hand, does not publicly discuss threat levels at its installations, but base spokesman Don Dees said Fort Belvoir on Friday was "operating under normal vigilance."

He said there were no reports that soldiers from Fort Belvoir were at Fort Hood during the shooting rampage.

"But," Dees said, "the military is very mobile."

Though the Fort Hood massacre happened about 1,500 miles away, the mood at Belvoir on Friday was somber.

"The Army's a family," Dees said. "When part of a family hurts, the whole family feels it."

Rep. Gerald E. "Gerry" Connolly said Friday that the tumult at Fort Hood also underscores the serious-ness of mental health issues in the military.

The Democrat, who represents much of Prince William County, noted that troops can suffer not just from post-traumatic stress disorder but from the effects of stress during and before combat duty.

Hasan probably should have received additional treatment instead of being promoted to major and treating other soldiers, Connolly said.

The military has to develop better systems of addressing mental health problems, the congressman said, and has to create an environment where "there's no shame for anybody in trying to get help."

Connolly cosponsored a provision in this year's defense appropriations legislation that provides $500 million for mental health care for veterans and service members.

"We have a sacred trust with the brave men and women who defend our nation in war," he said when the bill, since signed into law by President Barack Obama, was being discussed. "We cannot turn our backs on them."

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738. Communities Editor Kari Pugh contributed to this story.