FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Purple Hearts will be awarded to victims of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead and more than two dozen wounded in 2009, the Army said Friday in a decision that many said was long overdue.
The honor is bestowed on troops wounded in battle, but it also means that combat-related services and increased retirement benefits will be available to victims. Many people wounded in the attack at the sprawling Texas military base have lingering injuries and have struggled to find work after leaving the military.
The Department of Defense had previously denied the award to Fort Hood shooting victims, calling the November 2009 attack an act of workplace violence, not terrorism. But in a letter addressed to Congress, the Army said the circumstances of the mass shooting meet new criteria for the award.
The initial denial angered victims who noted that the convicted gunman, then-Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, said he was inspired by al-Qaida and an anti-American cleric. Hasan has said he attacked unarmed soldiers preparing for deployment to protect Muslim insurgents from American attacks abroad.
“For five years, the White House and the political echelon at the Department of Defense pushed the workplace violence line. And it’s a lie,” said Reed Rubinstein, an attorney for some of the victims. “To admit the truth – that it was a terrorist attack by a jihadist – is a small but important first step toward making the victims whole.”