Bee County soldier left Ft. Hood minutes before shooting spree
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A Skidmore-Tynan High School graduate serving in the U.S. Army walked out of the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood 15 minutes before an Army psychiatrist shot and killed 13 soldiers and wounded 30 on Nov. 5.
“If it hadn’t been for my mother getting lost and my (aide) being there to drive me to my room, I would have been right in the middle of it,” said Ruben Javier Elizalde, 24. “I spent all morning at the SRPC, from about 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and had just left the post with my mother when the shooting took place.”
Elizalde, a 2004 graduate of Skidmore-Tynan High School, said he and his mother, Martha, were on their way to a restaurant in Killeen when a cousin called him on his cell phone and told him of the tragic shooting.
“My cousin called me and said, ‘Where are you?’ and I said, ‘I’m in Killeen,’ and he said, ‘No, where are you at right now? I said, ‘I’m with my mom, why?’ and he said, ‘Are you on the base?’ and I said, ‘No, we just left, why?’ and told me that a shooting had just taken place on base,” Elizalde recalled.
Elizalde and his mother, Martha, drove to a Killeen restaurant to eat.
“We didn’t think anything of (the shooting),” Elizalde recalled. “At the time we didn’t know how big of a deal it really was.”
Martha agreed: “No one in the restaurant was talking about it so we just blew it off.”
After lunch they went to a local mall where they caught a television newscast of the shooting spree in a sporting goods store.
“They had a game on the television but the news came on and reported the shooting,” she recalled.
Elizalde, a corporal, was not allowed to return to base until 11 p.m.
“I had just returned from Afghanistan and was going home on leave once I processed out,” Elizalde explained. “I spent the morning at the processing center and couldn’t leave until I got clearance so I had to return to base.”
The readiness center processes soldiers entering and leaving the country by updating their vaccinations, offering psychological counseling, checking on their financial well-being, etc.
When Elizalde left the base that morning everything was peaceful, he said. When he returned, “everything was crazy.”
“It was like being in a war zone,” he recalled. “Everyone was carrying weapons; soldiers with rifles were everywhere and tanks were parked all over,” he said.
Soldiers stationed at Fort Hood do not carry weapons on them on a daily basis unless they are training.
The Department of Public Safety troopers were stationed at every road entering Fort Hood, the nation’s largest post, Martha said.
“It was unreal,” said Elizalde, an Army food inspector and veterinarian tech. “It’s still hard to believe: I was just in Afghanistan — a war zone — where I could have been killed, but nothing happened to me while I was over there. Then, I return home — to my country, to Fort Hood — where I should be safe, and a shooting takes place in the processing center where I had spent all morning.”
He said he stayed up until 3:30 a.m. or 4 a.m. the next morning calling friends and loved ones and assuring them he was all right.
He said he didn’t know any of the soldiers killed or injured in the shooting spree.
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan, a psychiatrist and devout Muslim, has been charged with 13 counts of murder in connection with the shooting.
One of the soldiers wounded in the attack said Hasan entered the processing center and yelled “Allahu Akbar!” – an Arabic phrase meaning God is great.
Elizalde was cleared to go on leave around 3 p.m. on Nov. 6.
“When we drove out the fort was empty; it was quiet,” he recalled. “It’s usually really busy but there was no one on the streets that day.”
Elizalde credits his good fortune to his mom’s poor sense of direction and to his aide’s dedication to duty.
“My mom drove up to Killeen to pick me up and take me back home,” he recalled. “But she got lost on base. She was texting me while I was at the processing center and she was telling me she was lost. At the time I was in counseling. They wanted to discuss with me what I had gone through while overseas and see if I needed any further counseling. But because my mother was lost I hurried (the physician assistant) through the process.”
After assuring the PA that he was both physically and emotionally all right, Elizalde was allowed to leave.
“Fortunately for me, my soldier was waiting to take me to my office where my mother was waiting,” Elizade said. “I didn’t have to wait for him. He was still waiting for me when I finished processing out so he drove me to my office right away.”
His mother was waiting for him when he arrived and they left the fort minutes before the shooting rampage began.
“If it hadn’t been for my mother, I might have been one of the ones shot,” he said.
Elizalde returns to Fort Hood on Sunday.
“If it hadn’t been for my mother getting lost and my (aide) being there to drive me to my room, I would have been right in the middle of it,” said Ruben Javier Elizalde, 24. “I spent all morning at the SRPC, from about 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and had just left the post with my mother when the shooting took place.”
Elizalde, a 2004 graduate of Skidmore-Tynan High School, said he and his mother, Martha, were on their way to a restaurant in Killeen when a cousin called him on his cell phone and told him of the tragic shooting.
“My cousin called me and said, ‘Where are you?’ and I said, ‘I’m in Killeen,’ and he said, ‘No, where are you at right now? I said, ‘I’m with my mom, why?’ and he said, ‘Are you on the base?’ and I said, ‘No, we just left, why?’ and told me that a shooting had just taken place on base,” Elizalde recalled.
Elizalde and his mother, Martha, drove to a Killeen restaurant to eat.
“We didn’t think anything of (the shooting),” Elizalde recalled. “At the time we didn’t know how big of a deal it really was.”
Martha agreed: “No one in the restaurant was talking about it so we just blew it off.”
After lunch they went to a local mall where they caught a television newscast of the shooting spree in a sporting goods store.
“They had a game on the television but the news came on and reported the shooting,” she recalled.
Elizalde, a corporal, was not allowed to return to base until 11 p.m.
“I had just returned from Afghanistan and was going home on leave once I processed out,” Elizalde explained. “I spent the morning at the processing center and couldn’t leave until I got clearance so I had to return to base.”
The readiness center processes soldiers entering and leaving the country by updating their vaccinations, offering psychological counseling, checking on their financial well-being, etc.
When Elizalde left the base that morning everything was peaceful, he said. When he returned, “everything was crazy.”
“It was like being in a war zone,” he recalled. “Everyone was carrying weapons; soldiers with rifles were everywhere and tanks were parked all over,” he said.
Soldiers stationed at Fort Hood do not carry weapons on them on a daily basis unless they are training.
The Department of Public Safety troopers were stationed at every road entering Fort Hood, the nation’s largest post, Martha said.
“It was unreal,” said Elizalde, an Army food inspector and veterinarian tech. “It’s still hard to believe: I was just in Afghanistan — a war zone — where I could have been killed, but nothing happened to me while I was over there. Then, I return home — to my country, to Fort Hood — where I should be safe, and a shooting takes place in the processing center where I had spent all morning.”
He said he stayed up until 3:30 a.m. or 4 a.m. the next morning calling friends and loved ones and assuring them he was all right.
He said he didn’t know any of the soldiers killed or injured in the shooting spree.
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan, a psychiatrist and devout Muslim, has been charged with 13 counts of murder in connection with the shooting.
One of the soldiers wounded in the attack said Hasan entered the processing center and yelled “Allahu Akbar!” – an Arabic phrase meaning God is great.
Elizalde was cleared to go on leave around 3 p.m. on Nov. 6.
“When we drove out the fort was empty; it was quiet,” he recalled. “It’s usually really busy but there was no one on the streets that day.”
Elizalde credits his good fortune to his mom’s poor sense of direction and to his aide’s dedication to duty.
“My mom drove up to Killeen to pick me up and take me back home,” he recalled. “But she got lost on base. She was texting me while I was at the processing center and she was telling me she was lost. At the time I was in counseling. They wanted to discuss with me what I had gone through while overseas and see if I needed any further counseling. But because my mother was lost I hurried (the physician assistant) through the process.”
After assuring the PA that he was both physically and emotionally all right, Elizalde was allowed to leave.
“Fortunately for me, my soldier was waiting to take me to my office where my mother was waiting,” Elizade said. “I didn’t have to wait for him. He was still waiting for me when I finished processing out so he drove me to my office right away.”
His mother was waiting for him when he arrived and they left the fort minutes before the shooting rampage began.
“If it hadn’t been for my mother, I might have been one of the ones shot,” he said.
Elizalde returns to Fort Hood on Sunday.
I was caught up in the moment of seeing my son for the first time in 6 or 7 months. He is my only child and he, was concerned that his mother was lost and anxious. I on the other hand was getting so confused and had managed to drive off post and didn't know where I was. So, if I seemed to not care at the moment it was my selfishness that made me oblivious to what was going on. I can tell you that after I let everything soak in did I realize how tragic the situation was. And t realized my son would have possibly still been there if I hadn't gotten lost. Mixed blessings.....