Outgoing Latham commander will have Fort Hood ties

LATHAM -- The Army National Guard Unit has a new commander but took time out to remember the deadly violence at Fort Hood, Texas this past week.

"Great tragedy," Stryker said. "My condolences for the families of those killed and injured."

While flags fly at half staff across the country, the group took a moment of silence in honor of the fallen. In all, 13 people were killed at Fort Hood, the nation's largest military post. Major Nidal Hasan, an Army Psychologist, is supsected to be the gunman.

"To have those soldiers civilians lose their lives back home is certainly gives everybody pause to think about how special life is," said Col. Michael Bobeck, the outgoing commander.

He is headed to Washington on a new assignment that will have a small detachment from Fort Hood under his command.

"Last couple of days I've talked to the detachment commander to see how he is, how soldiers are that are in his command," Bobeck said. "Make sure they're all OK and they are. Glad to hear that."

Bobeck says there's still a lot of unanswered questions about exactly what happened and too early to talk about security at military bases and how to prevent another tragedy.

"I hope they can figure out what happened with the individual that's involved in this," Bobeck said. "Find out what happened -- hopefully not have something like that happen again."