Purple Hearts to be awarded for 2009 shooting survivors at Army post in Texas

[April 10, 2015]  By Jon Herskovitz
 
 AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - About 50 people who survived a 2009 shooting rampage at the Fort Hood U.S. Army base in central Texas are set to receive Purple Heart and Defense of Freedom medals on Friday after years of lobbying by politicians and lawyers.

In February, the U.S. Army cleared the way for the military and civilian distinctions after the shooting was declared an act of international terrorism..

The awards will be handed out at the base.

Then-Army Major Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim, opened fire on unarmed soldiers preparing for overseas deployment on Nov. 5, 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in what he later called retaliation for U.S. wars in the Muslim world.

The Army had previously designated the shooting to be "workplace violence" on the grounds that Hasan was a fellow soldier, and there was no evidence that the attack was directed by a foreign enemy.

But Congress inserted language into the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 which expanded the eligibility for the Purple Heart by stating it should cover an attack if the perpetrator was in communication with foreign terrorists or inspired by one.

"The men and women who put themselves in harm's way on that fateful day deserve nothing less than this high honor for their sacrifices," said U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas who lobbied for the group.

Hasan was convicted of murder in 2013 and has been sentenced to death.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

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