Bill would label Fort Hood shootings a terrorist attack

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – On Nov. 5, 2009, as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan went about his murderous work of massacring 13 people and wounding 32 others,  families of fallen soldiers — many of whom lost their lives fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq — had planned a field trip at Fort Hood, Texas.

The plan was to take in a day at an on-base flight simulator. Things quickly changed when Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, began his rampage against unarmed soldiers at a Fort Hood medical deployment center.

“They were afraid for their lives with their children,” said Ami Neiberger-Miller, public affairs officer for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, a national bereavement group for loved ones of fallen military members. “Basically they were locked in an office and had to stay in there for several hours.”

Hasan last month was unanimously convicted on 13 charges of premeditated murder and 32 charges of attempted premeditated murder. He has since been sentenced to die.

Six soldiers from Wisconsin were among the killed and wounded. The dead included Sgt. Amy Krueger, of Kiel, who joined the service in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and served in Afghanistan, and Capt. Russell Seager of Mount Pleasant.

Also killed, Pvt. Francheska Velez, who was 21 and pregnant when Hasan shot her down. Her father, Juan Velez told the court through an interpreter, “That man (Hasan) did not just kill 13 people, he killed 15. He killed my grandson and he killed me, slowly,” CBS News reported.

It’s safe to say the families locked in that room for hours at Fort Hood in November 2009 were terrorized. The dead and wounded victims of Hasan’s assault, surely felt terror, even if many were trained to handle combat. And nearly four years later, it would seem Juan Valez remains terrorized.

Yet, the government classifies the Fort Hood attack as a “workplace violence” incident, precluding military awards and benefits to soldiers who were killed or wounded in the deadliest base shootings in U.S. military history.

More than 100 members of the House want to change that designation.