Fort Hood unit deploys despite losing soldiers

FORT HOOD, Texas — 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.