The 13 people killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, came from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Spc. Jason Dean Hunt

Sgt. Amy Krueger

Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka

Pfc. Michael Pearson

Francheska Velez

Kham Xiong

Michael Grant Cahill

Capt. John Gaffaney

Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow

Juanita Warman

Major L. Eduardo Caraveo

Capt. Russell Seager

Spc. Frederick Greene

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Spc. Jason Dean Hunt

The 22-year-old soldier from Frederick, Okla., went into the military after graduating from Tipton High School in 2005. His mother, Gale Hunt says he'd gotten married just two months ago. He served 3 1/2 years in the Army, including a stint in Iraq.

Gale Hunt says two uniformed soldiers came to her door late Thursday night to notify her of her son's death.

Kathy Gray is an administrative assistant at the Tipton Schools. She says the soldier was known as J.D. and was "just kind of a quiet boy and a good kid, very kind."

Hunt's mother said he was family oriented. In her words, "He didn't go in for hunting or sports. He was a very quiet boy who enjoyed video games."

He'd re-enlisted for six years after serving his initial two-year assignment, she said. Jason Hunt was previously stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia.

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Sgt. Amy Krueger

The 29-year-old soldier from Kiel, Wis., joined the Army after the 2001 terrorist attacks and had vowed to take on Osama bin Laden.

Her mother, Jeri Krueger, says Amy Krueger had arrived at Fort Hood on Tuesday. She tells the Herald Times Reporter of Manitowoc, Wis., that her daughter was scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan in December.

Jeri Krueger recalls telling her daughter that she could not take on bin Laden by herself. The mother recalls her daughter's response: "Watch me."

Kiel High School Principal Dario Talerico told The Associated Press that Krueger graduated from the school in 1998 and had spoken at least once to local elementary school students about her career.

Talerico says he remembers Amy Krueger as "a very good kid, who like most kids in a small town are just looking for what their next step in life was going to be and she chose the military. Once she got into the military, she really connected with that kind of lifestyle and was really proud to serve her country."

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Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka

The 19-year-old soldier from the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan, Utah, chose to join the Army instead of going on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That's according to his uncle, Christopher Nemelka.

The uncle says that, "As a person, Aaron was as soft and kind and as gentle as they come, a sweetheart." He says that what he "loved about the kid was his independence of thought."

Aaron Nemelka was the youngest of four children. His family says he was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan in January. Utah National Guard Lt. Col. Lisa Olsen says Nemelka had enlisted in the Army in October 2008.

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Pfc. Michael Pearson

The 21-year-old soldier from the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, Ill., quit what he figured was a dead-end furniture company job to join the military about a year ago.

His mother, Sheryll Pearson, tells the Chicago Tribune that her son "felt he was in a rut. He wanted to travel, see the world. He also wanted an opportunity to serve the country."

At Pearson's family home Friday, a yellow ribbon was tied to a porch light and a sticker stamped with American flags on the front door read, "United we stand."

Neighbor Jessica Koerber was with Pearson's parents when they received word Thursday their son had died. She described him as a man who clearly loved his family -- someone who enjoyed horsing around with his nieces and nephews, and other times playing his guitar.

In Koerber's words, "That family lost their gem. He was a great kid, a great guy. ... Mikey was one of a kind."

Sheryll Pearson said she hadn't seen her son for a year because he had been training. She told the Tribune that when she last talked to him on the phone two days ago, they had discussed how he would come home for Christmas.

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Francheska Velez

The 21-year-old Chicago woman was pregnant and preparing to return home. A friend of Velez's, Sasha Ramos, describes her as a fun-loving person who wrote poetry and loved dancing.

The 21-year-old Ramos says Velez was like her sister. "She was the most fun and happy person you could know. She never did anything wrong to anybody."

Family members say Velez had recently returned from deployment in Iraq and had sought a lifelong career in the Army.

Her father, Juan Guillermo Velez, says "She was a very happy girl and sweet. She had the spirit of a child."

Ramos, who also served briefly in the military, couldn't reconcile that her friend was killed in this country -- just after leaving a war zone. In her words, "It makes it a lot harder. This is not something a soldier expects -- to have someone in our uniform go start shooting at us."

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Kham Xiong

Army Specialist Kham Xiong was shot and killed before he ever had a chance to go to war.  He was at Fort Hood, preparing for a deployment in Iraq around New Year’s.

Xiong’s wife and three children had been with him in Texas for five months as he got ready for his assignment. 

The rest of his family is grieving in St. Paul.  Xiongs’ father, Chor, says he will always be proud of his son.  Family members say Xiong was in line for a physical when the shooting broke out.

His wife sent him a text message, telling him to come home for lunch and go back for the physical later.  But Xiong texted back, saying-quote-“No, I’ll stay.  It’s almost my turn.”

Xiong’s father is upset none of the soldiers, including his son, was armed.  Only police on the base are allowed to carry weapons.

Xiong has ten siblings, including a 17-year-old brother, who’s a Marine in Afghanistan.

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Michael Grant Cahill

Cahill, a 62-year-old physician assistant, suffered a heart attack two weeks ago and returned to work at the base as a civilian employee after taking just one week off for recovery, said his daughter Keely Vanacker.

"He survived that. He was getting back on track, and he gets killed by a gunman," Vanacker said, her words bare with shock and disbelief.

Cahill, of Cameron Texas, helped treat soldiers returning from tours of duty or preparing for deployment. Often, Vanacker said, Cahill would walk young soldiers where they needed to go, just to make sure they got the right treatment.

"He loved his patients, and his patients loved him," said Vanacker, 33, the oldest of Cahill's three adult children. "He just felt his job was important."

Cahill, who was born in Spokane, Wash., had worked as a civilian contractor at Fort Hood for about four years, after jobs in rural health clinics and at Veterans Affairs hospitals. He and his wife, Joleen, had been married 37 years.

Vanacker described her father as a gregarious man and a voracious reader who could talk for hours about any subject.

The family's typical Thanksgiving dinners ended with board games and long conversations over the table, said Vanacker, whose voice often cracked with emotion as she remembered her father. "Now, who I am going to talk to?"

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Capt. John Gaffaney

Gaffaney, 56, was a psychiatric nurse who worked for San Diego County, Calif., for more than 20 years and had arrived at Fort Hood the day before the shooting to prepare for a deployment to Iraq.

Gaffaney, who was born in Williston, N.D., had served in the Navy and later the California National Guard as a younger man, his family said. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he tried to sign up again for military service. Although the Army Reserves at first declined, he got the call about two years ago asking him to rejoin, said his close friend and co-worker Stephanie Powell.

"He wanted to help the boys in Iraq and Afghanistan deal with the trauma of what they were seeing," Powell said. "He was an honorable man. He just wanted to serve in any way he can."

His family described him as an avid baseball card collector and fan of the San Diego Padres who liked to read military novels and ride his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Gaffaney supervised a team of six social workers, including Powell, at the county's Adult Protective Services department. Ellen Schmeding, assistant deputy director for the county's Health and Human Services Agency, said Gaffaney was a strong leader.

He is survived by a wife and a son.

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Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow

DeCrow, 32, was helping train soldiers on how to help new veterans with paperwork and had felt safe on the Army post.

"He was on a base," his wife, Marikay DeCrow, said in a telephone interview from the couple's home at Fort Gordon, Ga., where she hoped to be reunited with her husband once he finished his work at Fort Hood. "They should be safe there. They should be safe."

His wife said she wanted everyone to know what a loving man he was. The couple have a 13-year-old daughter, Kylah.

"He was well loved by everyone," she said through sobs. "He was a loving father and husband and he will be missed by all."

DeCrow's father, Daniel DeCrow, of Fulton, Ind., said his son graduated high school in Plymouth, Ind., and married his high school sweetheart that summer before joining the Army. The couple moved near Fort Gordon about five years ago, he said.

About a year ago, his son was stationed in Korea for a year. When he returned to the U.S., the Army moved him to Fort Hood while he waited for a position to open up in Fort Gordon so he could move back with his wife and daughter, Daniel DeCrow said.

DeCrow said he talked to his son last week to ask him how things were going at Fort Hood.

"As usual, the last words out of my mouth to him were that I was proud of him," he said. "That's what I said to him every time -- that I loved him and I was proud of what he was doing. I can carry that around in my heart."

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Juanita Warman

Warman, 55, was a military physician assistant with two daughters and six grandchildren.

Her sister, Margaret Yaggie of Roaring Branch in north-central Pennsylvania, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that her sister attended Pittsburgh Langley High School and put herself through school at the University of Pittsburgh. She said her sister spent most of her career in the military.

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Major L. Eduardo Caraveo

Caraveo, 52, arrived in the United States in his teens from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, knowing very little English said his son, also named Eduardo Caraveo.

He earned his doctorate in psychology from the University of Arizona and worked with bilingual special-needs students at Tucson-area schools before entering private practice.

His son told the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson that Caraveo had arrived at Fort Hood on Wednesday and was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. Eduardo Caraveo spoke to the newspaper from his mother's Tucson home.

His father's Web site says he offered marriage seminars with a company based in Woodbridge, Va.

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Capt. Russell Seager

Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis., was a psychiatrist who joined the Army a few years ago because he wanted to help veterans returning to civilian life, said his uncle, Larry Seager of Mauston.

Russell Seager's brother-in-law, Dennis Prudhomme, said Seager had worked with soldiers at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Milwaukee who were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He also taught classes at Bryant & Stratton College in Milwaukee, said Prudhomme, who is married to Seager's sister.

Larry Seager said his nephew's death left the family stunned, especially because the psychiatrist only wanted to help soldiers improve their mental health.

"It's unbelievable. He goes down there to help out soldiers and then he ... ," Seager said, his voice trailing off. "I still can't believe it."

Russell Seager is survived by a wife and 20-year-old son.

Prudhomme said Seager was scheduled to go to Afghanistan in December and had gone to Fort Hood for training.

"Our family has suffered a great loss and we are all devastated," Seager's sister, Barbara Prudhomme, said in a statement read by her husband. "We are very proud of the way Russell lived his life, both personally and professionally, and our hearts go out to all the victims and their families."

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Spc. Frederick Greene

Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tenn., went by "Freddie" and was active at Baker's Gap Baptist Church while he was growing up, said Glenn Arney, the church's former superintendent and a former co-worker of Greene's.

I went to church with him, knew him all of his life. He was one of the finest boys you ever saw," Arney said.

Arney worked with Greene for several years at A.C. Lumber and Truss in Mountain City. The company designs and builds trusses, which are structures that support the roofs and floors of houses and other buildings.

"He was a hard worker. He was a computer whiz. He could design a truss. He could do about anything," Arney said.

His family released a statement Sunday calling him a loving son, husband and father, who often acted as the family's protector.

"Even before joining the Army, he exemplified the Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage," the family said.

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