At Fort Hood, LI soldiers felt secure

The giant Texas military facility where authorities say an Army major shot dozens of people was home to about 600 soldiers of New York's famed 69th Infantry Regiment - many of them from Long Island - as they prepared for their 2004 deployment to Iraq.

"I'm stunned," Sgt. Tim Wiwczar, a member of the regiment's Bay Shore-based B-Company, said of the deaths of 12 and the wounding of 31 at Fort Hood. "I never had any worry of anything like that happening while we were there."

>>>PHOTOS: Fort Hood shooting spree

Members of the 69th, a regiment in the New York Army National Guard, spent about four months at Fort Hood between May and August of 2004. The unit then spent a year in Iraq, in which 19 were killed.

Fort Hood was chosen for the 69th's predeployment training because it is home to the U.S. Army's 1st Calvary Division, members of which served in Iraq with soldiers from the 69th.

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Located about 60 miles northeast of Austin, Fort Hood is about 340 square miles, or more than 10 percent larger than the land mass of New York City. It is home to 42,000 soldiers, plus hundreds of tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and aircraft.

Wiwczar said the facility's giant land mass, hot climate and remote firing ranges helped prepare his unit for what awaited them in Iraq.

"It was a good place to get trained up," Wiwczar said. "We were being taught by guys who had just gotten back from Iraq and they were bringing us up to speed on the tactics and the techniques being used by the enemy - roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades."

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Jonathan Rothwell, 30, of Babylon, said because of the constant threat of death or dismemberment on the battlefield, he is not surprised that a shooting like the one at Fort Hood might occur among the nearly 2 million military personnel who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001.

"Think of all the soldiers who have been over there in Iraq or Afghanistan - all of them trained in weapons," he said. "The pressure gets to people, so it really doesn't surprise me."

>>>PHOTOS: Fort Hood shooting spree