Posted at: 11/06/2009 7:43 PM
By: Donny Rowles

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Family Frantic to Hear from Fort Hood Soldier

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- Steve Wernimont was working at his Rochester Culver's restaurant Thursday when he saw reports of the mass murder at fort hood on the restaurant's television.
 
"I have a nephew there, Andy, just been there a couple months, so we immediately started the chain, chain reaction of trying to communicate with him," says Steve Wernimont.
 
They called, texted, emailed him, they even tried Facebook.
 
"There was a period of about an hour, at least as far as I knew, nobody had heard from him, so we were a little anxious," Wernimont says.
 
Private Andy Wernimont first learned something was happening on his base when he got a text from a superior telling him to report to a secure location.
 
We talked to Private Wernimont over the phone.
 
"I got to the office and they're like we're on 100 percent lockdown right now and they completely shut the entire place down so I was kind of a little bit concerned," says Private Andy Wernimont. 
 
Wernimont's roommate is a military police officer and was at the scene of the shooting.
 
He gave Wernimont the first specifics on what was happening.
 
"Said something about an officer down so I kind of already knew that something was going down, and all you heard was sirens," says private Andy Wernimont.  
 
And finally, an hour after they started trying, Andy's family got through to him.  
 
"You worry about family members being shipped to Iraq or Afghanistan and here he's having to fear for his safety right at a military base in our country - that's what kind of struck me," says Steve Wernimont.