Yuma soldier minutes from Fort Hood shooting

As U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly showered fellow soldiers with gunfire Nov. 5 at Fort Hood Texas, U.S. Army Private First Class Andrew Pretty was just minutes away.

Pretty, who graduated from Kofa High School in 2008, will soon be deployed with his unit, the 36th Engineer Brigade, 20th Battalion, to Afghanistan, and was making his way to the Soldier Readiness Center at about 1:34 p.m. (local time) as 13 soldiers were killed and at least 30 wounded.

"I was getting ready to go where the shooting was happening to go get my immunizations in preparation for deployment," Pretty said.

"I was only a few minutes away from being there. I was driving and all the sirens started going off, so I pulled over. After that I got several phone calls from my team leaders and my platoon sergeant and they told me to get back to the battalion, which is where we live and work. They put us on lockdown and people who were on the job were locked into wherever they were at at the time."

Pretty may owe his life to a cell phone malfunction.

"I was running late that day, because my cell phone wasn’t working," Pretty said. "If my phone had been working, I would have been there. It was the luck of the draw. Personally I wanted to be there, because I feel I could have done what I was trained to do, but really I don’t know what would have happened."

Pretty said he served with some of the soldiers who were shot.

"In our whole battalion we had about seven wounded and four KIA (killed in action). I knew who they were, and one of the KIA went to basic with me so I knew him pretty well."

Pretty said he was good friends with two of the soldiers who were wounded.

"One was shot in the leg and the other in the stomach. One was air lifted and one was taken to the hospital, but they are in stable condition now."

In Yuma, 1141 miles away, Pretty's mom Bonney Martinez was anxious about her son.  

"I was very worried when I heard about the shooting on the news," Martinez said.

"I freaked out, and I was in shock. It took a half hour to get a hold of him because he was under lockdown. He sounded aggravated because his friends were shot, and nobody expected it. He was more concerned about his friends than about anything else."

Pretty said he was infuriated by the betrayal.

"I was pissed off. It was a surprise, but it made me mad because one of our own did this to us. I’m sad, but you have to push forward. Since we are on deployment, honestly, we aren't all going to make it back, but we are trained for it."
 
Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.