FORT HOOD, Texas -- After years of lobbying, victims of the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood were awarded Purple Heart medals during a somber ceremony at the central Texas military post Friday morning.
The delay had rankled the dozens of the wounded and relatives of the 13 killed when Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, yelling "God is great" in Arabic, opened fire at a processing center for military personnel preparing to deploy overseas.
Hasan, 44, a military psychiatrist, was later court-martialed, convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He remains on military death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
At the start of Friday's ceremony, soldiers fired cannons 13 times to honor the medal recipients killed in the attack. Those in uniform and veterans' caps saluted. Women clutched babies and dabbed at their eyes.
In addition to those killed in the 2009 attack, 24 other soldiers or veterans were awarded Purple Hearts on Friday.
Two civilian victims of the Fort Hood attack received Defense of Freedom medals: one of the dead, physician assistant Michael Cahill, and one of the living, Fort Hood police officer Kimberly Munley, who was shot and wounded in the attack.
The audience of about 1,000 included survivors, some of whom were returning to the Army post for the first time since the shooting.
Also on hand were colleagues, relatives and public figures including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state's two U.S. senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
They faced enlarged photographs of the 13 killed in the shooting, set on stands in the grass by fellow soldiers earlier that morning. The fallen were old and young, men and women. One of the women was pregnant, which led some to list a death toll of 14.
Under gray clouds threatening rain, a procession of survivors, then relatives of the dead, filed past the photographs to take their place in line before the crowd.
As Army Secretary John McHugh pinned medals to chests, the crowd fell so silent the only sound was flags flapping in the chill wind. Relatives of those killed -- widows, widowers and parents -- were a reminder of how young some of the victims had been. The youngest, whose parents' received his medals Friday, was Pvt. Aaron Nemelka, 19.
Survivors of the attack and families of the dead had long fought to be eligible for the medal. Under previous law, the military categorized the attack as workplace violence, but a federal law that took effect this year changed the criteria for awarding the medal to those wounded or killed, and McHugh announced in February that the medals would be awarded.
Among Friday's crowd was retired Army Col. Kathy Platoni, a clinical psychologist who treated victims of the attack that day and then advocated for survivors to receive full benefits -- a fight she says is ongoing. Because of that, she called the ceremony "bittersweet."
Members of Texas' congressional delegation said they collectively spoke with McHugh on Thursday and that he vowed to expedite survivor's benefits, such as medical expenses and back pay.
"It should be weeks or even days, and it should not require any additional legislation," Cruz said. "It's incumbent on the Pentagon now to recognize this and follow through."
Among the wounded recipients was retired Army Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford of Lillington, N.C., shot seven times in the attack. Lunsford delivered emotional testimony against Hasan during the court-martial but at the same time joined others in suing the government for withholding honors and benefits.
Appearing in uniform after the ceremony, he called it an emotional moment. The day before, he had been similarly moved upon his return to the scene of the shooting, he said.
He said the country now needs to focus on supporting soldiers, reducing the rate of military suicides and awarding survivors of the Fort Hood attack full benefits.
Turning to lawmakers present, Lunsford said, "You went into the fight with us, and the fight continues."
"Today in this overcast weather, the 14 we have lost, they are here.
"They are here," he said.
A Section on 04/11/2015