By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Rick Defreitas of Sherwood said he felt heartbroken while attending a Veterans Day ceremony at the state Capitol today, less than a week after 12 soldiers and an Army retiree were fatally shot at Fort Hood, Texas.
“I was thinking a lot about what happened in Fort Hood. … I feel heartbreak for the 13 soldiers that got killed and the many others that got wounded,” said Defreitas, who served with the Army’s 119th Military Police Battalion in the first Gulf War.
Gov. Mike Beebe told reporters after the ceremony the Fort Hood shootings were on his mind as well.
“I think it brings home to us that danger exists everywhere, whether it’s overseas or whether it’s here, and that there are people who will hurt you merely because you are in uniform. We saw that right here in Arkansas, at a recruiting station,” Beebe said.
The governor was referring to the fatal shooting of Private Williams Long of Conway and the wounding of Private Quinton Ezeagwula of Jacksonville at a military recruitment center in Little Rock on June 1. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, has been charged with one count of capital murder and 16 counts of committing terrorist acts in that incident.
Authorities have identified Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as the suspect in last week’s shooting spree at Fort Hood. Hasan has been hospitalized since being shot by a Fort Hood police officer and has not yet been charged.
Speaking during today’s ceremony, Beebe said a day set aside to honor veterans seems unnecessary now because expressions of gratitude and respect for the men and women who serve in the military are common. That wasn’t always the case, however, he said.
Veterans returning home from the Vietnam War “were treated despicably … by people in my generation who spit on them and yelled names at them and treated them as though they were the enemy, when all they were doing was carrying out their orders and doing the same thing that our other veterans have done in defending our country,” Beebe said.
Americans should vow never to let that happen again, he said.
Also present for the event were U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both D-Ark., U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.
The 106th Arkansas Army National Guard band provided music and the Arkansas Army National Guard Color Guard posted colors.
Among the seats reserved for veterans were two empty chairs, one for the country’s last surviving World War I veteran, Frank Woodruff Buckles of West Virginia, and one for soldiers missing in action.
