Who are the fallen Fort Hood victims?

So many people want to know more about the fallen heroes who died getting ready to go to war for their country. Below are vignettes from the Associated Press about some of the victims who died during the rampage. They are truly warriors who gave all, for us.

WATCH THIS: http://www.the33tv.com/news/sns-ap-us-fort-hood-victim-vignettes,0,2575890.story

 

Francheska Velez

Velez, 21, of Chicago, was pregnant and preparing to return

home. A friend of Velez's, 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."

Family members said Velez had recently returned from deployment

in Iraq and had sought a lifelong career in the Army.

"She was a very happy girl and sweet," said her father, Juan

Guillermo Velez, his eyes red from crying. "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.

"It makes it a lot harder," she said. "This is not something

a soldier expects - to have someone in our uniform go start

shooting at us."

---

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.

---

Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka

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.

"As a person, Aaron was as soft and kind and as gentle as they

come, a sweetheart," his uncle said. "What I loved about the kid

was his independence of thought."

Aaron Nemelka, the youngest of four children, was scheduled to

be deployed to Afghanistan in January, his family said in a

statement. Nemelka had enlisted in the Army in October 2008, Utah

National Guard Lt. Col. Lisa Olsen said.

---

Pfc. Michael Pearson

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.

Pearson's mother, Sheryll Pearson, said the 2006 Bolingbrook

High School graduate joined the military because he was eager to

serve his country and broaden his horizons.

"He was the best son in the whole world," she said. "He was

my best friend and I miss him."

His cousin, Mike Dostalek, showed reporters a poem Pearson

wrote. "I look only to the future for wisdom. To rock back and

forth in my wooden chair," the poem says.

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, who was with 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.

"That family lost their gem," she told the AP. "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.

---

Spc. Jason Dean Hunt

Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Okla., went into the military after

graduating from Tipton High School in 2005 and had gotten married

just two months ago, his mother, Gale Hunt, said. He had served 3

1/2 years in the Army, including a stint in Iraq.

Gale Hunt said two uniformed soldiers came to her door late

Thursday night to notify her of her son's death.

Hunt, known as J.D., was "just kind of a quiet boy and a good

kid, very kind," said Kathy Gray, an administrative assistant at

Tipton Schools.

His mother said he was family oriented.

"He didn't go in for hunting or sports," Gale Hunt said. "He

was a very quiet boy who enjoyed video games."

He had re-enlisted for six years after serving his initial

two-year assignment, she said. Jason Hunt was previously stationed

at Fort Stewart in Georgia.

---

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?"

---

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."

---

Sgt. Amy Krueger

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.

Amy Krueger arrived at Fort Hood on Tuesday and was scheduled to

be sent to Afghanistan in December, her mother told the Herald

Times Reporter of Manitowoc.

Jeri Krueger recalled telling her daughter that she could not

take on bin Laden by herself.

"Watch me," her daughter replied.

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.

"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.

"Once she got into the military, she really connected with that

kind of lifestyle and was really proud to serve her country."

---

Pfc. Kham Xiong

Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn., was a father of three whose

family had a history of military service.

Xiong's father, Chor Xiong, is a native of Laos who fought the

Viet Cong alongside the CIA in 1972; Chor's father, Kham's

grandfather, also fought with the CIA; and Kham's brother, Nelson,

is a Marine serving in Afghanistan.

"I very mad," Xiong's father said Friday. Through sniffles and

tears, he said his son died for "no reason" and he has a hard

time believing Kham is gone.

Kham Xiong was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, and his

sister Mee Xiong 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," Mee Xiong said.

Xiong was one of 11 siblings and came to the U.S. when he was

just a toddler. He grew up in California, then moved to Minnesota

with the family about 10 years ago, Chor Xiong said.

He was married and had three children ages 4, 2 and 10 months.

He and his wife had moved to Texas in July, Chor Xiong said.

Xiong attended Community of Peace Academy, graduating in 2004,

said high school principal Tim McGowan.

"His greatest attribute was his ability to make people smile

and make people laugh. Looking back, that's the fondest memory I

have - is that smile of his and that smile that he brought to my

face," McGowan said.

For his father, the death of the little boy who followed his dad

everywhere was hard to take. "I don't think he's dead," Chor

Xiong said, then whispered, "I don't think he's dead."

---

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.

---

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.