FT. HOOD, TEXAS — After eight grueling years of casualties overseas and suicides at home, this vast Army base took an unusual step recently to aid soldiers and their families facing overwhelming grief.
A former chapel with stained-glass windows was transformed into a Spiritual Fitness Center. It offers counseling, soothing music, a religious library and meditation space, among other services, to help survivors cope with psychological trauma.
"When you're hit, you don't break," explained Brig. Gen. William Grimsley, deputy commanding general at Ft. Hood, the nation's largest Army base. "You absorb the blow."
Now, the center offers solace to those who survived an unimaginable tragedy: the shooting rampage Thursday, allegedly by a fellow soldier, that left 13 people dead.
FBI agents and other investigators swarmed over the base and surrounding area Saturday to interview those who knew Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, to determine whether the 39-year-old Army psychiatrist accused of planning and carrying out the shooting acted alone. No evidence has emerged to suggest that he had outside encouragement or support.
But forensic investigators are examining Hasan's computer, Internet accounts, bank reports and other records to document his movements and communications.
By Saturday afternoon, they had interviewed 170 witnesses, victims, co-workers and others, and more interviews are planned, officials said.
"The FBI and U.S. Army criminal investigators are aggressively investigating any and all information related to Maj. Hasan," said Erik Vasys, a special agent in the FBI's San Antonio field office.
Several FBI officials said that they had not found any clear warning signs that might have tipped off authorities before the killing spree began.
Hasan, who was shot four times, was taken off a respirator Saturday and is breathing on his own under armed guard in an intensive care unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, officials said.
Life at the base remained far from normal. Operating under conditions described as "slightly enhanced security," armed soldiers were deployed at housing areas, day-care centers and other base facilities that usually are not guarded.
Yellow crime-scene tape cordoned off the shooting site, the base's Soldier Readiness Processing Center. A pair of soldiers stood guard over the cluster of mostly single-story brown buildings with red roofs.
