Obama to attend memorial for Fort Hood victims
President Barack Obama will attend a memorial service Tuesday honoring victims of the Ford Hood shootings, an attack he described as "all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable" because it occurred on the nation's largest Army post.
He praised those who ended the shootings, which killed 13 and wounded 30 others, and lauded the armed services' diversity - a move designed to calm tensions about the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
"They are Americans of every race, faith and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers," Obama said in his radio and Internet address Saturday, airing the weekend before Veterans Day.
"They are descendants of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other."
After the address aired, Obama talked about the Fort Hood shootings with Democratic House members. On Capitol Hill for a private meeting on health care, Obama opened his remarks by speaking about Fort Hood, participants said.
He told lawmakers that the hardships members of the military make for the country "is what sacrifice really is," according to Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., as opposed to "casting a vote that might lose an election for you."
The president asked for patience while officials piece together what happened Thursday in Texas.
"We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing," Obama said in his address. "But what we do know is that our thoughts are with every one of the men and women who were injured at Fort Hood. Our thoughts are with all the families who've lost a loved one in this national tragedy."
But Obama said while "we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America."
"We saw soldiers and civilians alike rushing to aid fallen comrades, tearing off bullet-riddled clothes to treat the injured, using blouses as tourniquets, taking down the shooter even as they bore wounds themselves," Obama said.
"We saw soldiers bringing to bear on our own soil the skills they had been trained to use abroad - skills that been honed through years of determined effort for one purpose and one purpose only: to protect and defend the United States of America."
The dead were identified Saturday as Michael Grant Cahill, 62, of Cameron, Texas; Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, Va.; Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, 32, of Evans, Ga.; Capt. John Gaffaney, 56, of San Diego; Spc. Frederick Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tenn.; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt 22, of Frederick, Okla.; Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis.; Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah; Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolingbrook, Ill.; Capt. Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis.; Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago; Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, 55, of Havre De Grace, Md., and Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn.
The White House had said Obama would attend a service, but awaited the families' decision about the schedule. White House officials insisted they would not dictate a date.
Obama was scheduled to arrive in Asia on Thursday, but a source familiar with Obama's planning said Saturday that Obama would arrive in Tokyo - his first stop on the schedule - a day later than expected. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the White House plans to release a revised schedule in the coming days to reflect Obama's plans to travel to Texas.
Obama on Friday ordered the flags at the White House and other federal buildings to be at half-staff until Veterans Day, on Wednesday.
"It is an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America. It is a crime that would have horrified us had its victims been Americans of any background," Obama said during his address, recorded Friday and released early Saturday.
"But it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims."
Hasan was taken off a ventilator Saturday but still remains in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, officials said. Hasan was shot during an exchange of gunfire during Thursday's attack.
As a student, some who knew Hasan said they saw clear signs the young Army psychiatrist had no place in the military. After arriving at Fort Hood, he was conflicted about what to tell fellow Muslim soldiers about the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, alarming an Islamic community leader from whom he sought counsel.
"I told him, "There's something wrong with you,' " Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, Texas, told the Associated Press on Saturday. "I didn't get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn't seem right."
Danquah assumed the military's chain of command knew about Hasan's doubts, which had been known for more than a year to classmates in a graduate military medical program. His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan's "anti-American propaganda," but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint.
"The system is not doing what it's supposed to do," said Dr. Val Finnell, who studied with Hasan from 2007-2008 in the master's program in public health at the military's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. "He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out."
But family members defended him.
"I've known my brother Nidal to be a peaceful, loving and compassionate person who has shown great interest in the medical field and in helping others," said his brother, Eyad Hasan, of Sterling, Va.
Others recalled a pleasant neighbor who forgave a fellow soldier charged with tearing up his "Allah is Love" bumper sticker. A superior officer at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Col. Kimberly Kesling, has said Hasan was a quiet man with a strong work ethic who provided excellent care for his patients.
A neighbor told the Los Angeles Times she would occasionally sit with him and discuss religion outside his apartment complex.
She said some nights as he came home, neighbors would be gathered around a picnic table in the courtyard drinking beer. As he climbed the steps to his apartment, they would snicker at him, said the woman, who lived several doors down. She agreed to describe her relationship with Hasan only on the condition of anonymity because she did not want to face retribution. Portions of her account were confirmed by other residents.
"Everyone else just sat down there and drunk their beer and looked at him and giggled at him," the woman said, starting to cry. "They just would laugh at him when he walked down with his Muslim clothes ... He was mistreated. He didn't have nobody. He was all alone. He went to his apartment there and was all alone."
Associated Press Writer Alan Fram contributed to this report.
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