Retired U.S. Army Major Gen. Warren Edwards told an Oak Ridge National Laboratory Veterans Day audience Wednesday that military personnel acted heroically in response to the recent Fort Hood shooting.
"You see soldiers who have been put in unanticipated stressful situations in places they hadn't anticipated that they would see combat and then see them react as they did to run toward the shooting and not away from it," said Edwards, currently director of the Southeast Region Research Initiative at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "They took care of the wounded soldiers when there was no evidence the shooters were all gone. They put themselves in harm's way to take care of their fellows. It's just truly heroic and it's what soldiers do. It is the ultimate heroism."
Edwards said the U.S. military has been consistent in its mission in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past eight years.
"We don't know how exactly this is going to all work out," Edwards said. "My point is the nation's armed forces have remained steadfast through all of this and we should be proud of them for that."
During the ceremony, Oak Ridge High School junior Miles Mobley of Norris won an ORNL-sponsored Veterans Day essay contest. His winning essay related his experience of attending a Veterans Day event with his grandfather and learning first-hand the significance of veterans and their service to the United States.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.