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Franklin police chief spent time at Fort Hood

Franklin police Chief Gordon Ellis speaks during the Memorial Day ceremony May 25, 2009, at Woodside Cemetery in Middletown.

Contributed photo by Jessica Uttinger Franklin police Chief Gordon Ellis speaks during the Memorial Day ceremony May 25, 2009, at Woodside Cemetery in Middletown.

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By Ed Richter, Staff Writer Updated 2:28 AM Saturday, November 7, 2009

FRANKLIN — Gordon Ellis said Thursday, Nov. 5, “was a profoundly sad day” for him after he heard about the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, is believed to have opened fire at the base, killing 13 and wounding 30, before being wounded himself.

Ellis, Franklin’s police chief, also is a colonel in the Ohio Army National Guard and the deputy brigade commander for the Guard’s 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. He spent most of last December in Building 4200 at the sprawling Army base in Texas where troops about to be deployed or are returning home are processed.

Ellis said when he heard the building number, he knew it was a bad situation.

“Never in my most imaginative thought processes would I ever think something like that could ever happen there,” Ellis said. “It was a profoundly sad day for me. It’s the last place a soldier should worry about something like that happening on a military base.”

He said it takes about three days for troops to clear the large administrative complex and head to Iraq or home. When the 37th Infantry Brigade was being processed out for demobilization, Ellis said about 250 soldiers a day went to about 15 stations for final medical and dental checks as well as administrative reviews of their paperwork. It also was a place where there were no weapons, he said.

“There are endless lines of soldiers waiting in line from when you walk in the door until you walk out,” Ellis said. “They do all of the processing in that one space and do a lot of tasks. It was pretty amazing.

“I felt a profound sadness to my core,” Ellis said when he heard the news. “You never expect that coming back. The soldiers were always smiling there because they knew they were almost home.”

Ellis said he also feels a loss when any soldier is lost for any reason. “You feel like you’ve lost a family member. It was a somber and sad day around the Ellis house,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or erichter@coxohio.com.

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