On the first anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech, I thought it would be appropriate to re-publish the note I wrote at midnight that night in my dorm room on campus:
“It was just like any other Monday, minus the fact that it was in the 30’s, snowing, and windy in the middle of April. The Corps went out as usual for formation at about 0720, the flag went up, and we were inside by 0730. I sat around in the room for a while, played some video games or something, and then went off to Cinnabon (attached to Owens on the campus map) with two of my buds for some breakfast before our 0905 AFROTC class in the Military Building. We hadn’t heard anything about the first shooting that happened at 0715 in West Ambler Johnston, and we had no idea about the second shooting in Norris until after class ended and both the Air Force and Army staff were closing off the hallways.
My roommate and I decided to book it back to our room in Brodie, which actually overlooks the grassy area in front of Norris, Holden, and McBryde, where we watched crowds of people run out of Norris and McBryde into Torgerson, guided by a couple of our fellow cadets enlisted by the police officers on sight to help guide evacuated students in the right direction (and to light a fire under their asses too). We went back inside Brodie, and tried calling people to let them know we were ok, but phone lines were already jamming up. We tried for a while before we were able to contact everybody we felt necessary to talk to, and went down the hall to our friend’s room to look down on the situation.
There were cops everywhere. Not only campus police, but Montgomery County, Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford, Botetourt County, Virginia State Police, and the FBI all parked in between Torgerson and McBryde. We watched a few cars speed off as fast as they could, we were later told that they had done a “grab and go” where wounded people had simply been picked up and put in the car to go to the hospital, which was faster than waiting for an ambulance. The national guard and S.W.A.T. teams showed up, and a K-9 unit to top it off. They had an announcement playing every five minutes telling people to get inside and stay there. We had the perfect vantage point, one of my friends was snapping pictures of all the activity, and actually got on the phone with CNN.
Preliminary reports told us that there had been between one and five casualties, and only one of them was fatal. But the news just kept getting worse, next we heard there were seven or eight fatalities. Then 22. There had to be some mistake, maybe the police chief said 22 casualties and the news had spun it to mean deaths. But much to the dismay of everybody in the room, there had been no error, and we were suddenly very quiet. One young lady walked out of the room with her head in her hands, when not five minutes earlier had been joking with us about how she was so disappointed that her test was cancelled. The mood changed drastically after that first press conference.
We all went to Shultz for lunch/dinner, where we were greeted with between 15 and 20 state troopers armed with M4’s and a K-9 unit on the scene as well. They were there for security, so nobody felt unsafe, but it certainly added to the gravity of an already stressful situation.
Everybody in the Corps was trying to get accountability, trying to figure out who was where, and if they had checked in with their chain of command. It took about 30 minutes, but eventually all companies and ROTC’s had either checked in, or knew the whereabouts of their people.
Except for one.
Cadet Matt LaPorte was killed in Norris Hall. He lived one floor below me in Brodie, and although I didn’t know him very well, he was one of our brothers following in the same footsteps as many of us. He was in the Air Force ROTC, and was progressing through the ranks of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets just like so many of us already have done. We’re all really shaken by the news, I mean some of us were bracing ourselves for the worst, but there’s nothing you can do to prepare yourself for when it’s actually confirmed. All our hearts and minds are with him and his family, as well as the families of the rest of the victims in this senseless tragedy.
People keep asking me if I have any news that’s not on TV, and honestly I can’t say that I do except for the stories from my friends that were there. One of them is currently in stable condition in the hospital after taking three bullets, one in his shoulder, one that broke his femur and lodged in his knee, and one that struck him in the hip and lodged in his pelvis. He’s going in for surgery soon, but he’s awake and in good spirits considering what he’s been through. We’re visiting him tomorrow. One of my other friends was in the room directly above the shooting, heard the noise and thought it was construction workers until he smelled the gunsmoke. After being held back from going down there himself, he and some other classmates locked themselves in an office and waited until the police busted the door down. I’ve heard other stories that shouldn’t be put on a public website, but basically the guy knew what he was doing, and had planned this out. He chained the doors to the building shut from the inside to keep people in, and the police out.
Other than that, what you see is what you get on TV, but don’t start buying into the media pointing fingers at people. They’re such assholes, attacking the police chief and President Steger when they’re just trying to get out any pertinent and appropriate information that wouldn’t interfere with investigations. I’ll go off on that tirade if you ask me personally, but really, think about it. If you had the information they had at the time (forget about what we know now) what would you have done differently? Do you really think it would have worked any better than what was done? Are you the one with years on a police force or are you just an uppity little shit that needs the ratings so you don’t have to go look for a new job with your useless English degree? I didn’t think so. Shut up.
Anyways. Thanks to everybody, I just wanted to put this out there so everybody knows I’m doing fine but things are still developing. Any specific questions I’m always glad to answer. You’re all awesome.
-Mike”
One year later, the media are still assholes, by the way. And I still hate that nobody can say, “Virginia Tech,” without mentioning the shootings. And one year later doesn’t help much with everyone missing their friends and family taken from us too soon. Rest in piece, fellow Hokies, we all live for the memory of 32.
We are Virginia Tech.
