Family, friends mourn Fort Hood victims

The 13 people killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday included a pregnant woman who was preparing to return home, a man who quit a furniture company job to join the military about a year ago, a newlywed who had served in Iraq and a woman who had vowed to take on Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Here is a look at some of the victims.

Francheska Velez

Ms. Velez, 21, of Chicago, was pregnant and preparing to return home. A friend, Sasha Ramos, described her as a fun-loving person who wrote poetry and loved dancing.

“She was like my sister,” Miss Ramos, 21, said. “She was the most fun and happy person you could know. She never did anything wrong to anybody.”

Family members said Ms. 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.”

Miss 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.”

Michael Grant Cahill

Mr. 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,” Miss Vanacker said, her words bare with shock and disbelief.

Mr. Cahill, of Cameron Texas, helped treat soldiers returning from tours of duty or preparing for deployment. Often, Miss Vanacker said, Mr. Cahill would walk young soldiers to where they needed to go, just to make sure they got the right treatment.

“He loved his patients, and his patients loved him,” said Miss Vanacker, 33, the oldest of Mr. Cahill’s three adult children. “He just felt his job was important.”

Mr. 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.

Miss Vanacker described her father as a gregarious man and a voracious reader who could talk for hours about any subject.

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