An American Lion

This dog has a wilder lifestyle than Major Hasan

When you read this profile about Major Nidal Hasan, remember one thing—the man should never have been in the United States Army in the first place:

The residents of Casa del Norte [the Kileen, Texas apartment complex where Hasan lived] tend to be transient, and the place is a little worse for wear. The “d” on the sign out front is covered in duct tape and is nearly falling down. The gray gutters are rusted. A weathered banner greets tenants: “Welcome Home Ft. Hood Heroes — We’re Proud of You.” Across the street is another apartment complex, the Brigadier, its cream brick marred by graffiti.

Hasan found the apartment through an advertisement in the Killeen Daily Herald, said Jose Padilla, a retired Army man who owns the complex. Hasan signed a six-month lease, at $325 a month. Hasan paid it all upfront with a cashier’s check from Bank of America, Padilla said.

This is the part that escapes me. I know that people have their issues with money, but there’s a missing aspect of this story. Why was Hasan living like an E-2 instead of an O-4?

The cost of living around Fort Hood is, by necessity, very low. It’s low because of the high volume of low income families, consisting of young soldiers with new children and spouses that are either unable to find work, or are underemployed. Hasan could have lived anywhere around Fort Hood. I have located apartment complexes where, for just a few hundred dollars more per month, he could have lived much more comfortably. Instead, he choose to live in a tumbledown apartment complex where people drank beer in the courtyard. He chose to live around lower enlisted soldiers. That indicates to me either an inability to manage his money wisely or that he was giving most of his money away.

If you figure that Hasan’s eight years as an enlisted man, and six years as a commissioned officer add up to over 14 years of active duty service, then my previous estimate on his monthly income was way off, but I was trying to be conservative. According to the 2009 military pay chart, Hasan was making a base salary of 6534.30 per month, for a yearly salary of $78,411.60. With other stipends and pay, such as basic allowance for housing, you could easily see Hasan making much more than that. In fact, just for housing costs, Hasan, who had no dependents,was allotted $1,212 per month—and he was living in a fleabag apartment for $325 a month?

Something doesn’t add up. This was a man making (and I’m estimating here—I might be off if he had less than 14 years of active duty service) $93,000 per year, driving an old Honda, living in near poverty. As a medical officer, he would also have been entitled to other financial compensation to allow for his specialty—incentive pay and/or some sort of re-enlistment bonus to keep him in the service. I don’t know.

Was he living like a monk on purpose, supporting family members? Entirely possible. There are stories of men who serve 25 or 30 years on active duty and bank their military pay, amassing small fortunes and leaving the service with only a handful of personal possessions. I think that the rather impoverished way that he lived probably indicates an inability to “fit in” and live like a commissioned officer. I don’t mean to suggest that he should have driven a sports car and lived beyond his means, but I do mean to suggest that the rather spartan way in which he lived was probably an indication that he was beyond weird.