Posted on Jul 18, 2015
"'ACTIVE SHOOTER': Last words to girlfriend by Marine murdered by Tenn. gunman"
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From: Fox News
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"ACTIVE SHOOTER"
So read the final text message sent by Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" Wells to his girlfriend, Caroline Dove, before he was gunned down by an Islamic radical Thursday morning in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Dove had been anxiously waiting for an upcoming trip to Tennessee to visit Wells.
She thought he was kidding, replying, “You are so weird.”
Then hours of silence.
“I love you,” she sent, trying to elicit a response from Wells. Hours more passed, the news out of Chattanooga becoming clearer. “Hon, I need you to answer me please,” she wrote.
It would not be until Friday that she learned his fate.
Wells, along with three other Marines, were gunned down Thursday by 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who opened fire on two military facilities before being shot dead by police.
Wells and Dove met at Georgia Southern University, but Wells soon enlisted in the armed forces.
Through tears, Dove remembered her boyfriend’s love of flag football and Nerf guns, his passion for U.S. history, his ability to handle her when she was grouchy and how good he was at listening.
He dreamed of being a drill sergeant, and when they last saw each other around Valentine’s Day, he gave her a gold-and-silver ring. When the time came to propose, she said, he knew to ask her parents first.
Wells’ mother Cathy was watching television coverage of the shooting when Marines appeared at her door. She knew what the visit meant.
“Every service parent, especially moms, dreads opening the front door and seeing people in uniform,” said Andy Kingery, a friend who is acting as a family spokesman.
"My son died doing what he loved for the love of his country and his family," Cathy Wells told Fox News.
Wells’ youth pastor at First Baptist Church of Woodstock, told The New York Times the Marine had long sought to serve the nation.
“He had been preparing for military life for a while and looked forward to it,” Matt Lawson told the newspaper. “He looked at his time with the Marines as not just an option he had as opposed to some other job. He really felt like it was a calling.”
One of Wells' friends from high school, Lindsey Pittman, said the two were "marching band nerds" at Sprayberry High School. Wells played the clarinet, she said.
“He was just a protector,” she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He looked at everyone with love. And he would go anywhere to protect anybody.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” she said. “It always happens to the good ones.”
The three other Marines killed were identified Friday as Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, from Hampden, Mass., Sgt. Carson Holmquist, of Polk, Wisc., and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, of Burke, N.C.
Sullivan served in India Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines and fought in the 2005 Battle of Abu Ghraib, where he earned a Combat Action medal and Purple Heart.
The Facebook page of a Springfield bar and restaurant owned by one of Sullivan's two siblings posted a message paying tribute to Sullivan.
"He was our hero and he will never be forgotten," it read. "Please keep his family & friends in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you Tommy for protecting us."
Sullivan's friend, Josh Parnell, of Chicago, told Oak Lawn Patch, "There's no Marine you would want that was better in combat than him."
On Friday, friends posted tributes to Holmquist on his Facebook page, which was plastered with photos of the American flag.
"You will be missed bud," wrote one friend.
Holmquist, 27, was originally from the western Wisconsin community of Grantsburg but had recently moved to Jacksonville, N.C., with his wife Jasmine and their new born son Wyatt. Holmquist’s mother told KARE11, a news station based in Minneapolis, that military personnel showed up at her door Thursday evening and she and her husband were overwhelmed by the news.
"[We are] just trying to make it through the day," she said.
Abdulazeez attacked a military recruitment center in Chattanooga, spraying the strip mall facility with gunfire from his silver Mustang before driving, with police in pursuit, to a Naval training facility seven miles away, where he killed the unarmed Marines.
Three other people — a Navy sailor, a Marine Corps recruiter and a police officer — were wounded in Thursday's attack. Sources told Fox News early Friday that the sailor, who is in serious condition, underwent surgery and made it through the night much to the relief of doctors. The police officer was shot in the ankle. The recruiter was wounded in the leg and has been released from the hospital.
The remains of the Marines are en route to Dover, Delaware, a Marine Corps spokesman said Friday afternoon.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/18/first-4-marines-killed-in-tennessee-terror-attack-idd/
--
"ACTIVE SHOOTER"
So read the final text message sent by Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" Wells to his girlfriend, Caroline Dove, before he was gunned down by an Islamic radical Thursday morning in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Dove had been anxiously waiting for an upcoming trip to Tennessee to visit Wells.
She thought he was kidding, replying, “You are so weird.”
Then hours of silence.
“I love you,” she sent, trying to elicit a response from Wells. Hours more passed, the news out of Chattanooga becoming clearer. “Hon, I need you to answer me please,” she wrote.
It would not be until Friday that she learned his fate.
Wells, along with three other Marines, were gunned down Thursday by 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who opened fire on two military facilities before being shot dead by police.
Wells and Dove met at Georgia Southern University, but Wells soon enlisted in the armed forces.
Through tears, Dove remembered her boyfriend’s love of flag football and Nerf guns, his passion for U.S. history, his ability to handle her when she was grouchy and how good he was at listening.
He dreamed of being a drill sergeant, and when they last saw each other around Valentine’s Day, he gave her a gold-and-silver ring. When the time came to propose, she said, he knew to ask her parents first.
Wells’ mother Cathy was watching television coverage of the shooting when Marines appeared at her door. She knew what the visit meant.
“Every service parent, especially moms, dreads opening the front door and seeing people in uniform,” said Andy Kingery, a friend who is acting as a family spokesman.
"My son died doing what he loved for the love of his country and his family," Cathy Wells told Fox News.
Wells’ youth pastor at First Baptist Church of Woodstock, told The New York Times the Marine had long sought to serve the nation.
“He had been preparing for military life for a while and looked forward to it,” Matt Lawson told the newspaper. “He looked at his time with the Marines as not just an option he had as opposed to some other job. He really felt like it was a calling.”
One of Wells' friends from high school, Lindsey Pittman, said the two were "marching band nerds" at Sprayberry High School. Wells played the clarinet, she said.
“He was just a protector,” she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He looked at everyone with love. And he would go anywhere to protect anybody.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” she said. “It always happens to the good ones.”
The three other Marines killed were identified Friday as Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, from Hampden, Mass., Sgt. Carson Holmquist, of Polk, Wisc., and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, of Burke, N.C.
Sullivan served in India Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines and fought in the 2005 Battle of Abu Ghraib, where he earned a Combat Action medal and Purple Heart.
The Facebook page of a Springfield bar and restaurant owned by one of Sullivan's two siblings posted a message paying tribute to Sullivan.
"He was our hero and he will never be forgotten," it read. "Please keep his family & friends in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you Tommy for protecting us."
Sullivan's friend, Josh Parnell, of Chicago, told Oak Lawn Patch, "There's no Marine you would want that was better in combat than him."
On Friday, friends posted tributes to Holmquist on his Facebook page, which was plastered with photos of the American flag.
"You will be missed bud," wrote one friend.
Holmquist, 27, was originally from the western Wisconsin community of Grantsburg but had recently moved to Jacksonville, N.C., with his wife Jasmine and their new born son Wyatt. Holmquist’s mother told KARE11, a news station based in Minneapolis, that military personnel showed up at her door Thursday evening and she and her husband were overwhelmed by the news.
"[We are] just trying to make it through the day," she said.
Abdulazeez attacked a military recruitment center in Chattanooga, spraying the strip mall facility with gunfire from his silver Mustang before driving, with police in pursuit, to a Naval training facility seven miles away, where he killed the unarmed Marines.
Three other people — a Navy sailor, a Marine Corps recruiter and a police officer — were wounded in Thursday's attack. Sources told Fox News early Friday that the sailor, who is in serious condition, underwent surgery and made it through the night much to the relief of doctors. The police officer was shot in the ankle. The recruiter was wounded in the leg and has been released from the hospital.
The remains of the Marines are en route to Dover, Delaware, a Marine Corps spokesman said Friday afternoon.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/18/first-4-marines-killed-in-tennessee-terror-attack-idd/
Marine Corps
Chattanooga
Active Shooter
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
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He clearly had time to return fire if he had been armed with something other than a cell phone.
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Capt Lance Gallardo
Yeah the fact that the Marines with the 1/8 BLT were not supposed to have magazines in their weapons while on gaurd, before they got hit in Beirut was absolutely criminal! Another good reason to go to war with Iran.
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LCpl Dan McTiernan
Capt Lance Gallardo - When I first reported to Lejeune (1970) my night assignment was to guard the motor pool. Issued an m14 without magazines and communications. As we walked our post some clown began firing rounds. We took a position under a vehicle and hoped. Previous guard duty was with ECHO company armory at Pendleton. ECHO company was where a boot on guard duty a month before had shot and killed a fellow Marine who inadvertently came too close to the armory.
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Capt Lance Gallardo
Its all about the training and the supervision of Marines and Soldiers. Yes, I think those kind of incidents are on General's Minds when they almost universally shoot down the idea of having large numbers of Soldiers and Marines armed with loaded weapons and walking arming Post/Base. Arming up large numbers of soldiers or Marines or allowing them to have CCWs will be a leadership challenge and will cost some money, but I think it is worth it in the era that we live in and with the threats uniformed military are living under today. And their families that also live on post/base. They are vulnerable as well. My REAL nightmare scenario is a mass killing at an on base school or pre-school where almost all of the children would be the children of US Military.
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Capt Seid Waddell
Capt Lance Gallardo, if soldiers and Marines are capable of carrying loaded weapons in the sand box they are capable of carrying them here. Perhaps some new regulations and training will be required, but it is not as if we are starting from scratch.
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He may have heard shots and didn't associate them with an act of terror.
He might have thought that it was a drive by/gang initiation sort of thing.
He might have been texting when he first heard the shots and probably wanted to get two quick words out to let her know why he wasn't going to respond right away so she wouldn't be left hanging while he checked it out.
If it were me, self preservation would be my first instinct -- if I thought someone was shooting at me.
None of us were there and we don't know exactly what his situation was, so really all we can do is speculate.
He might have thought that it was a drive by/gang initiation sort of thing.
He might have been texting when he first heard the shots and probably wanted to get two quick words out to let her know why he wasn't going to respond right away so she wouldn't be left hanging while he checked it out.
If it were me, self preservation would be my first instinct -- if I thought someone was shooting at me.
None of us were there and we don't know exactly what his situation was, so really all we can do is speculate.
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LCpl Dan McTiernan
GySgt Austin Belanger - I am on a Board of Education where we are in process to secure the schools from attackers. Schools have more protection than our service members, shouldn't be! Especially with the capabilities of todays weapons. In my opinion. What good is a facility without security and what good is a guard that is unarmed?
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Capt Jeff S.
@GySgt Austin B.: Generally even if they have a windowed office front, there are usually rooms in the back [such as a bathroom, conference room, or testing room where they give the ASVAB to prospective candidates] that they can retreat to so that they aren't visible from the street. Granted drywall and metal studs (used to create wall partitions in commercial buildings) aren't going to stop a bullet, but the shooter isn't going to have an easy of a time hitting them if he can't see them.
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