Last night I was able to listen to a repeat broadcast of yesterday’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane (mp3). She spent an hour interviewing three guests about Nidal Hasan, the Ft. Hood killer. Unfortunately, I only got to hear the first half, but it was riveting. The first half hour was a discussion with Daniel Zwerdling, who has been interviewing Hasan’s co-workers to find out what the missed signs were.
It was clear to me that Hasan was a guy with a personality disorder. The look that Zwerdling gives us into the military medical system is very insightful. It’s similarity to almost every place I have ever worked is striking. The picture that is painted is that Hasan was a slacker with a bad attitude, quick to anger, incompetent and an overall pain in the ass to work with. I have worked with a dozen people that have been just like Hasan. Just like those places, there are all sorts of ways that Hasan avoided firing. He would improve “just enough” after a reprimand, he was protected by a bureaucracy that also protected his peers.
One of the most amazing parts is about 19 minutes in when they discussed why he was sent to Ft. Hood (from Walter Reed). He was sent there because it was a place where he would do the least amount of damage. If he was a slacker, there was enough of a team at Ft. Hood that he wouldn’t be jammed up and there was a hope that he would be exposed to a good team that would improve his behavior.
Listen to the interview, it is truly eye-opening.