The family of a local soldier visiting their son who had just returned home from Iraq found themselves under lockdown in base housing as the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood unfolded Thursday.

Mark Ruic of Grafton Township was excited to be spending his birthday Thursday visiting his son, Spc. Jason Ruic, 26, who had just returned Monday from spending almost a year in Iraq. As his wife and daughter-in-law were in the kitchen making a turkey dinner to celebrate, and Jason had just returned from his daily work shift on the base, Ruic was watching TV and hanging out with his 2-year-old granddaughter, Beth.

Suddenly, everything went crazy.

“My wife heard what sounded like rapid gunfire, she called it machine-gun fire,” Mark Ruic said. He said Jason’s home was about a half-mile from where the shooting was.

Shortly after the gunfire began, Mark Ruic said the U.S. Army base’s lockdown sirens began to sound and their cell phones cut out. Ruic said loudspeakers announced to everyone to stay inside, and keep their windows and vents closed. He said his son called his sergeant to see if he needed to come in but was told to stay put and he would be called if he was needed.

“It was unclear what was going on, who was doing it, how many there were,” Mark Ruic said. “Things were very confusing.”

Meanwhile, patrol vehicles were out and Cobra helicopters were circling overhead.

Afterwards, Ruic said, things were a “nightmare mess” on the base. Traffic was backed up everywhere as schools canceled buses for the afternoon and parents had to go to the schools to pick up their children. Cars were being inspected before leaving Fort Hood, and no cars were allowed to enter.

Mark Ruic said his son knew the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center — the site of some of the shootings — well. It’s where soldier go to fill out paperwork before overseas deployments, he said.

The shootings also took place at the neighboring Howze Theater on the west side of the sprawling base.

Mark Ruic has spent a lot of time on military bases, between visiting Jason over his five-year Army career as well as his other son, Joseph, 23, a Marine sergeant currently serving in Afghanistan.

“This is definitely the strangest thing I’ve ever seen (on a base),” Ruic said.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com and Melissa Hebert at 329-7129 or mhebert@chroniclet.com.