Fort Hood Resident: Incident "Disturbing"

Fort Hood is the largest U.S. military base - home to more than 53,000 active duty soldiers, many of whom have served multiple times in Iraq and Afghanistan. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a major concern there as at any base.

CBS News Anchor Katie Couric spoke via Skype with Carissa Picard, an advocate for soldiers suffering from PTSD. Her husband is a soldier based at Fort Hood.

Katie Couric: Can you tell me what was going on when all of this was unfolding?

Carissa Picard: It was a little bit disturbing, for those of us here in the military housing community. We had these tornado sirens, and those started going off and telling us that we needed to seek shelter immediately, close and lock our doors and windows.

It also said that we needed to turn off our ventilation system.

So that last part had us wondering what is going on? At that point we didn't know that there had been this mass shooting.

Couric: And we understood from a spokesman at Ft. Hood, General Cone, it took place in the building where soldiers are processed before they go off on their deployments?

Picard:In fact, it's also the building where when you come back from a deployment, you actually go through you're first PTSD screening, or your screening to see if you're at risk for that.

It's the first place that when a unit returns in mass, they would have to go individually into this building, and this is their first contact with a social worker or a counselor.

Couric:Your husband and your children were off base when this happened. Are they ok now? Have you talked with them.

Picard:The kids are really scared. My husband's scared. There were a lot of rumors going around. Plus, where the shooting occurred is really close to our housing development.

It's been tense. It's also changed our perspective regarding living on post. Because we always associated living on post with safety.

There has been a marked rise in violence, in suicides, in shootings this past summer, it was rampant. It just seems as though things are continuing to escalate.

More coverage of the tragedy at Fort Hood:

Ft. Hood Suspect ID'd as Army Psychiatrist
Soldier Opens Fire at Ft. Hood; 12 Dead
What was Shooter's Motive?
U.S. Army Base Violence Has Bloody History
Obama: Fort Hood Shooting "Horrific"
Fast Facts: Fort Hood
Tragedy at Fort Hood