Baylor pays tribute to Fort Hood soldiers

While the tragic shootings at nearby Fort Hood have dropped from the national headlines, the victims and those around them have not been forgotten in Central Texas. Baylor honored Fort Hood soldiers and their families by providing 1,000 tickets for last Saturday’s Baylor-Texas football game; a Fort Hood representative also ran onto the field with the Bears and participated in the pregame coin toss. Additionally, the Baylor football team will wear a helmet decal (pictured) in honor of Fort Hood for the rest of the season.

We wrote last week about First Baptist Killeen pastor Dr. Randall Wallace, a Baylor grad ministering to a congregation with strong ties to Fort Hood. Since then, we’ve heard of many other Bears serving in the area. One name you probably read during the first couple of days following the incident was Dr. Roy Smythe, BS ’84, chairman of surgery at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, where many of the injured were taken. Smythe lettered in football for head coach Grant Teaff’s 1980 Southwest Conference championship squad and today serves on the Board of Directors for the Baylor “B” Association.

Seven other Baylor graduates (and four interns) from the Army-Baylor Physical Therapy program have been helping with the wounded at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, providing direct patient care to those wounded on Nov. 5.

Last but not least, Lt. Col. Les Maloney, “a proud Baylor alumnus,” wrote in to let us know that after earning his doctorate in philosophy in 2005, he now works at Fort Hood as an Army chaplain. He specifically asks the Baylor family to “keep us in all your prayers.”

Sic ’em, Bears in service!