It could have been much worse, but for the heroics of Smith and others—like the 19-year-old private who ignored her own wounds, and the diminutive civilian police officer who single-handedly took down Hasan.
"Unfortunately over the past eight years, our Army has been no stranger to tragedy," said a somber Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff. "But we are an Army that draws strength from adversity. And hearing the stories of courage and heroism that I heard today makes me proud to be the leader of this great Army."...
A loud, popping noise. Moans. The sudden, urgent shout of "Gun!"
Smith poked his head over the cubicle's partition and saw an extraordinary sight: An Army officer with two guns, firing into the crowded room. The 21-year-old Fort Worth native quickly grabbed the civilian worker who'd been helping with his paperwork and forced her under the desk. He lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun... After the shooter stopped to reload, Smith made a run for it. Pushing two other soldiers in front of him, he made it out of the Soldier Readiness Processing center—only to plunge into the building twice more to help the wounded...
Packed into cubicles with 5-foot-high dividers, the 300 unarmed soldiers were sitting ducks. Those who weren't hit by direct fire were struck by rounds ricocheting off the desks and tile floor. When he decided that Hasan wasn't close to being out of ammo, Smith made a dash for the door. He'd made it outside when he heard cries from within... Smith rushed back inside and found two wounded. He grabbed them by their collars and dragged them outside...
Just over 5 feet tall, Munley is an advanced firearms instructor and civilian member of Fort Hood's special reaction team. She had trained on "active shooter" scenarios after the April 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech University. She didn't wait for backup. As she approached the squat, rectangular building, a soldier emerged from a door with a gunman in pursuit. The officer fired, and the uniformed shooter wheeled and charged. Munley was hit at least three times in the exchange—twice through the left leg and once in her right wrist. Hasan was hit four times...
Pfc. Jeffrey Pearsall, 21, from Houston, was waiting outside in the parking lot for Smith. He was talking to his brother on a cell phone when a group of soldiers ran out the door and a window shattered. It was only then that he heard the gunshots. He pulled his pickup truck forward, then hopped out and helped the wounded into the bed. He loaded as many as he could and sped off to the base hospital...
Crouching as he continued to roll tape, Valdez could see windows broken by fleeing victims. A soldier in his Class A dress uniform lay on the grass, a gunshot wound in his back. Soldiers in flowing black graduation robes and purple sashes rushed to help.
Pfc. Amber Bahr, 19, of Random Lake, Wis., tore up her blouse and used it as a tourniquet on a wounded comrade. It was only later that she realized she'd been shot in the back, the bullet exiting her abdomen.
Sgt. Andrew Hagerman, a military police officer, was patrolling a housing area when word of shootings crackled over his radio. As he arrived at the processing center, bloodied soldiers, some shirtless, were already treating each other on the grass outside, ripping pant legs off and tying off wounds. Munley—with whom Hagerman had exchanged small talk on patrols—was being loaded into an ambulance...
Sgt. Howard Appleby, 31, was at the hospital for his regular meeting with a psychiatrist. Appleby, who was born in Jamaica and grew up in New York City, sustained a traumatic brain injury and has post-traumatic stress disorder from a roadside bomb blast during a tour in Iraq. His appointment canceled, Appleby found himself pulling the dead and wounded from ambulances...
Lt. Col. Larry Masullo, an emergency room physician from Farmingdale, N.Y., was heading into a monthly meeting to review new doctors' credentials when he heard of the shootings. "Yeah, OK," he said. "Multiple gunshot wounds. Is this a drill?" In the next hour and a half, he would treat nearly two dozen soldiers.
