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The day after arriving at Fort Hood,
Army reservists dedicated to counseling troubled soldiers in war
zones were overcome with their own grief.


      Nearly a fourth of the Wisconsin-based 467th Medical
Detachment's soldiers died or were injured in the shooting rampage
last month at the sprawling Texas post. The accused gunman, Army
psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, was supposed to deploy with the
unit.


      Yet the soldiers said they never wavered in their determination
to serve. They spent the last month training together, and several
soldiers from across the country volunteered to fill the void left
by the three soldiers slain and six others seriously wounded.


      The 43 members of the Army Reserve combat stress unit were
deploying to Afghanistan on Friday. They arrived at a post chapel
before dawn. Minutes later, led by a soldier carrying the unit's
flag, they boarded a bus for transport to the airport.


      Department of Defense officials decided only recently that the
unit would deploy as originally scheduled.


      "I think they decided that same day (of the shooting) that they
were more dedicated than ever in honor of the soldiers that we lost
and have stood firm in that commitment," Maj. Laura Suttinger of
Fort Atkinson, Wis., said late Thursday.


      "They were all very dedicated, caring soldiers and they will
not be forgotten, and we're carrying on in their honor."


      She and another leader in the unit declined to talk about Hasan,
who remains in a San Antonio military hospital and is paralyzed
from wounds he suffered in the Nov. 5 shootings. Army officials
have not said whether Hasan knew anyone in the unit or if he was
targeting them. The shootings occurred in a building full of
several hundred soldiers.


      Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and
32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Army officials have not
said if they will seek the death penalty, but they plan an
evaluation in the next 45 days to determine his mental state that
day and whether he is competent to stand trial.


      To help in the healing process, the 467th made black bracelets
etched with the names of its three slain members - Maj. Libardo
Caraveo, Capt. Russell Seager and Sgt. Amy Krueger - as well as the
names of two soldiers killed that day from another stress combat
unit. Everyone in the unit will wear them to symbolize that "we
are carrying our fallen comrades into combat with us," said 1st
Sgt. James McLeod, one of the unit's leaders.


      He said he feels that after going through the tragedy, the unit
actually is better equipped to help soldiers struggling with what
they've seen in combat or worried about their families or finances
back home. The unit includes psychiatrists, psychologists, social
workers, psychiatric nurses and occupational therapists.


      "They have an opportunity to be part of history, to do
something that hasn't been done before," McLeod said. "Even
though we lost our fallen comrades ... `no one is going to stop us
from completing our mission' is really what their goal is."


      And with President Obama's announcement that he will send 30,000
more U.S. troops to Afghanistan by next fall, "we're needed there
more than ever," Suttinger said.


      Meanwhile, one of two civilian officers credited with shooting
Hasan to end the rampage said her wounds from the attack will cut
short her career as a street police officer.


      Sgt. Kimberly Munley said doctors have told her she needs a
total knee replacement, a surgery set for January, but that her new
knee is likely to wear out sooner if she runs or carries the 15- to
25-pound gear pack required by her job.


      "I do want to stay in law enforcement. I'm not going to be able
to do what I did before, which is basically work the street," she
told Wilmington, N.C., television station WECT on Wednesday. "It's
going to give me another avenue to look in as far as possibly
teaching and instructing."


      Fort Hood officials said Thursday that Munley, 34, who was shot
in the leg and hand, has not started the process to determine if
she's physically able to do her former job.


      Sgt. Mark Todd, 42, the other civilian officer in Fort Hood's
police force who shot Hasan, was not injured and is already back at
work.

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The day after arriving at Fort Hood,
Army reservists dedicated to counseling troubled soldiers in war
zones were overcome with their own grief.


Wisconsin-based Army Reserve unit deploys from Fort Hood

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