President Obama yesterday paid touching personal tributes to the 13 brave soldiers gunned down by a Muslim Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood as he consoled a nation torn by the homegrown attack.
The president delivered the emotional remarks to a crowd of roughly 15,000 at a memorial service on the Texas base. He and First Lady Michelle Obama also met privately with the relatives of the victims of the massacre and some of the 29 people injured.
“It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy,” the commander-in-chief said, without ever naming Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar” during his rampage and had known ties to Islamic extremists.
“But this much we do know — no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor.
“And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice — in this world, and the next.”
The Obamas, dressed in black, walked toward a stage adorned with an American flag before he spoke.
Below the stage were 13 pairs of beige combat boots, each with an inverted M-4 military rifle and helmet on top, and a photo of each of the slain just beneath the boots. The montage formed a traditional military tribute to the dead.
“Neither this country nor the values that we were founded upon could exist without men and women like these 13 Americans,” he said.
“And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories.”
A sea of soldiers dressed in camouflage listened to Obama and paid respects to the 12 soldiers and one civilian murdered last Thursday in a crime the nation is still struggling to understand.
The president vowed to the relatives of the slain that their work for their country would live on.
“We come together filled with sorrow for the 13 Americans that we have lost,” Obama said.
“With gratitude for the lives that they led, and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.
“This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle,” the president added.
“They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community. It is this fact that makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible.”
Speaking of the families, Obama said: “No words can fill the void that has been left. We knew these men and women as soldiers and caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.
“But here is what you must also know: Your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched.
“Their life’s work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted.
“Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that is their legacy.”
Obama honored each of the victims by name, and told personal stories about the lives of the men and women whose ages ranged from 19 to 62.
“These men and women came from all parts of the country,” Obama said.
“Some had long careers in the military. Some had signed up to serve in the shadow of 9/11. Some had known intense combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some cared for those did.
“Their lives speak to the strength, the dignity and the decency of those who serve, and that is how they will be remembered,” he said.
When the ceremony concluded, the president walked past the row of boots and helmets, and laid a commemorative military medallion known as a commander-in-chief’s coin alongside each photo of a victim.
The families of the victims and some of their comrades then followed suit, giving a final salute.
One woman came close to falling on the ground, consumed with pain.
The tribute featured the strains of Taps, the reading of Scripture, a roll call and a 21-gun salute.
Earlier, Obama paid tribute to those recuperating from wounds suffered during the onslaught of bullets.
“In those terrible minutes during the attack, soldiers made makeshift tourniquets out of their clothes,” he said.
“They braved gunfire to reach the wounded, and ferried them to safety in the backs of cars and a pickup truck.”
Obama noted the ongoing military struggles in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and how many of America’s men and women are still on the front lines facing threats every day.
“As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon,” he said.
“Theirs are tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call — the call to serve their comrades, their communities and their country.”
He noted that today is Veterans Day, and said the current group of soldiers serving the nation shows that greatness “is before our very eyes.”With Post
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