Fort Hood's fallen heroes

Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of 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, his uncle Christopher Nemelka said.

Mike Cahill

Mike Cahill (pictured, left, with his grandson Brody), a 62-year-old physician assistant of Cameron, Texas, 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.

Major Major L. Eduardo Caraveo

Major Major L. Eduardo 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.

Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow

Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, 32, shown here with his wife, Marikay, 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 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," she noted.

Capt. John Gaffaney

Capt. John 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. Born in Williston, N.D., Gaffney had served in the Navy and later the California National Guard as a younger man, his family said.

Specialist Frederick Greene

Specialist Frederick 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.

Spc. Jason Dean Hunt

Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Okla., went into the military after graduating from Tipton High School in 2005 and had served 3 1/2 years in the Army, including a stint in Iraq. He had gotten married just two months ago, his mother, Gale Hunt, said.

Sgt. Amy Krueger

Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis., joined the Army after the 2001 terrorist attacks and had vowed to take on Osama bin Laden, her mother, Jeri Krueger, said. She arrived at Fort Hood on Tuesday and was scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan in December.

Kiel High School Principal Dario Talerico told The Associated Press that Sgt. Amy Krueger, pictured here, had spoken to local elementary school students about her career. "I just remember that Amy was 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," Talerico said.

"As a person, Aaron was as soft and kind and as gentle as they come, a sweetheart," Christopher Nemelka said of his slain nephew Aaron Thomas Nemelka, pictured here. "What I loved about the kid was his independence of thought." The youngest of four children, he was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan in January, his family said in a statement. He had enlisted in the Army in October 2008.

Pfc. Michael Pearson

Pfc. Michael Pearson, 21, of 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.

Neighbor Jessica Koerber, who was with Michael Pearson's parents when they received word Thursday their son had died, 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.

Captain Russell Seager

Captain Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis., died in the Fort Hood shootings, according to his uncle, Larry Seager. He was a nurse practitioner in the primary care area at the VA Medical Center. Seager joined the Army Reserve about four years ago - relatives say he joined because he wanted to help veterans readjust to civilian life - and was reportedly looking forward to his deployment to Iraq.

Pvt. Francheska Velez

Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago, had just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. She was three months pregnant and due home by December for the start of maternity leave.

A friend of Pvt. Francheska Velez, Sasha Ramos, described her as a fun-loving person who wrote poetry and loved dancing. "She was like my sister," Ramos, 21, said. "She was the most fun and happy person you could know. She never did anything wrong to anybody."

"She was a very happy girl and sweet," said Pvt. Francheska Velez's father, Juan Guillermo Velez, his eyes red from crying. "She had the spirit of a child." Here, Jose Rodriguez holds a photo of his granddaughter, Francheska Velez, in Chicago on Friday, Nov. 6, 2009.

Lt. Col. Juanita Warman

Lt. Col. Juanita 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.

Margaret Yaggie said her sister, Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, spent most of her career in the military. Warman, 55, was a military physician assistant.

Pfc. Kham Xiong

Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, a married father of three children ages 4, 2 and 10 months, had moved to Texas from St. Paul, Minn., in July. He was one of 11 siblings whose family came to the U.S. from Laos when he was just a toddler.

Pfc. Kham Xiong was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, and his sister Mee Xiong, pictured here holding a photo of her brother, said the family would be able to understand if he would have died in battle. "He didn't get to go overseas and do what he's supposed to do, and he's dead ... killed by our own people," she said.