November 6, 2009 Mass. soldier describes "eerie" feeling after Fort Hood attack Play video

(NECN: Josh Brogadir) - People on the base are still in shock after Thursday's shooting.

Sixty-five thousand soldiers and their families live in Fort Hood.

With a base that size, several soldiers there were bound to be from New England - among them is Sergeant Timothy Dunbar, of Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.

Reached by phone in Texas, the 28 year old described the scene as "eerie."

He lives at Fort Hood with his wife and four young kids.

None of them was injured when disaster struck Thursday afternoon.

Sergeant Dunbar was in Dallas at a ceremony honoring veterans with the base's deputy commanding general.

They quickly returned to a base on lockdown.

"When we pulled up to the gate, we had a high profile person in our vehicle, the deputy commanding general. It was being treated like a terrorist attack so we had to get him on post secure in an area where communication was open with him and the rest of command. When we came on it was just a very eerie feeling, you were driving by, there was rows of traffic waiting to get out. Everyone was just standing by their vehicle. We were the only vehicle moving on the road at that time," Sgt. Dunbar said by phone.

And then one day later, Sergeant Dunbar, drove military brass and congressional leaders around the base, as the bodies of the 13 victims were loaded on a plane.

"We load them up on a C-17 but everything is done memorial style and we just honor them with the right

I asked what it was that like for him, doing that stateside, doing that on our soil.

"It's definitely upsetting, I mean they are done stateside, but not from this end, not out going from a base. It's usually always incoming. And it's definitely a shock to a lot of people. And the one question people are asking is why," he said.

As for the man who is alleged to have led the rampage, army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, Sgt. Dunbar did not know him but said this.

"The biggest thing that was a shock to everyone was the rank that he held and his particular job in the army," Dunbar said.

Although Sergeant Dunbar was not hurt in this attack, he was seriously injured in Iraq in 2007.

After 13 surgeries, his left foot will be amputated next month.

He says now, Fort Hood is back to "normal" or as normal as it can be under the circumstances.

There are still random inspections of vehicles and people are on alert.

And he says though he does not know the alleged shooter, one soldier from his unit was among the wounded.

He was shot in the arm and is expected to be ok.