Victims of 2009 Fort Hood shooting to receive Purple Heart award

Army Secretary John McHugh has approved the awarding of the Purple Heart to the military victims of the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead, the Army announced Friday. The civilian counterpart of the Purple Heart award - the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom - will be conferred on the civilian victims of the shooting.

McHugh was freed to extend the awards after Congress recently broadened the guidelines specifying who is eligible to receive them. The Purple Heart can be awarded to military members who suffer combat injuries, including injuries suffered at the hands of a foreign terrorist organization. As part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, Congress redefined an attack by a "foreign terrorist organization" to include any attack in which the perpetrator was in communication with or inspired by foreign terrorist elements before the attack. The previous criteria required evidence that the perpetrator was acting at the direction of a foreign terrorist organization.

The army concluded that there was sufficient evidence indicating Major Nidal Hassan, who was responsible for the shooting at Fort Hood, was in communication with foreign terrorists before the attack, and that their ideology inspired him to carry out his murderous spree. As a result, the victims of Hassan's attack were deemed eligible to receive a Purple Heart.

"The Purple Heart's strict eligibility criteria had prevented us from awarding it to victims of the horrific attack at Fort Hood," McHugh explained in a press release. "Now that Congress has changed the criteria, we believe there is sufficient reason to allow these men and women to be awarded and recognized with either the Purple Heart or, in the case of civilians, the Defense of Freedom medal. It's an appropriate recognition of their service and sacrifice."

Recipients of the Purple Heart qualify for combat-related special compensation upon their retirement, the Army notes, and they are also allowed to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

An Army spokesman declined to tell CBS News on Friday whether the award would be conferred on the surviving victims of the Fort Hood shooting, given posthumously to the relatives of deceased victims, or both, saying only that further details would be made public in a later announcement.

Hasan was convicted in August 2013 of of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder, and he was sentenced to death by a court-martial. He is currently being held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas pending the completion of an appeal, which could take years.

Last April, tragedy again struck Fort Hood when a soldier being treated for mental health issues opened fire at the base, killing three people before turning the gun on himself.