Honoring a true hero: Greg Ebert, Killeen, Texas

If you are familiar with this blog you know that I devote several blogs a year to American, and even International, Heroes.  Some of the heroes I choose to honor are fallen Texas police officers.  At other times, I have honored firefighters and others who have made the ultimate sacrifice while performing their duties.  But one of the unique things I have chosen to do is to honor heroes who risked their lives performing some courageous deed and they survived while doing so.   

Today I would like to honor a man who did his duty and survived, yet he his actions saved untold numbers of soldiers and civilians.  I am speaking of Greg Ebert, one of the employees of Guns Galore, a gun shop in Killeen.  On July 27th, Mr. Ebert noticed a customer seemed to be acting "suspiciously" while purchasing several items, none of which, in themselves, were illegal.  Mr. Ebert reported his suspicions to the police.  A few hours later, police and federal officials caught up with the person at a hotel just off Fort Hood property.  Upon investigation, the police learned that the man, Private First Class Naser Abdo, was actually AWOL from Fort Campbell in Kentucky.  Mr. Abdo (a Muslim in the American Military...hmmmmm) was arrested.  A subsequent search of Mr. Abdo's motel room turned up more material used in making (yell it out when you know, Class) ...yes, in making bombs.  The police surmised that Abdo was only days away, if not hours, from wreaking some act of terror either on the military base or on civilian targets in that area known as the Texas Golden Triangle.

Greg Ebert was caring and vigilant, and was not afraid to get involved, to call the police.  He saw something that looked wrong to him, and he acted on his suspicions.  His actions no doubt saved lives.  And something more, his actions demonstrate to us that 1) our "Government" cannot save us from everything, and 2) the common person is smart enough to take action to protect himself or others by recognizing suspicious activity and then reporting the suspicious activity to the authorities.  In this case, the authorities acted quickly, apparently by attributing some credibility to Mr. Ebert's report.

I am proud to honor Greg Ebert as a true American hero.  Fortunately, we will never know how many lives were saved by this man's courageous action.  And to Mr. Ebert, I hope that now you can have some peace of mind, even though what happened two years ago was not your fault in any way.  For you see, Mr. Ebert, the vigilant store clerk, works in the same gun shop where, in 2009, one Major Nidal Hasan bought a pistol.  Major Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, used the pistol when he murdered several soldiers at Fort Hood that year.  Mr. Ebert did what any of us could, and should do, if called upon.  He was vigilant, as we should be.  He observed suspicious activity and reported it right away.  He did not try to minimize it or explain it away.  And his actions thwarted another act of terror against this nation.