Tears and Tributes Flow for Fort Hood Victims, Heroes
Friend of Sgt. Kimberly Munley gets tattooed in honor of hero friend.
Nov. 9, 2009— -- The day after last week's shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, a friend and co-worker of civilian police officer Sgt. Kimberly Munley hit the tattoo parlor.
Sarah Clark's forearm now bears the ink "Protect and Serve" -- a tattoo matching that of her friend, who has been hailed as a hero for taking down the suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, during the Thursday attack, despite having been shot herself.
"I had this done Friday, the day after she was injured," Clark told "Good Morning America."
"[Munley] had a big grin, gave me a big hug and said, 'Thank you.'"
The suspect killed 13 people and wounded more than three dozen. Sixteen people are still in the hospital this morning, seven of them in intensive care.
"It was hard, until I saw her come through the ICU room door," Clark, who was there when Munley woke up, said. "That's when I guess I felt the relief come across."
Friends say Munley, 34, who was shot twice in the legs and once in the wrist, is now in high spirits and eager to get back on the job.
"If she could go out tomorrow she would be back out there working the road, doing what she normally does," Clark said.
Added fellow co-worker Mark Carlino, "To us, she looks great. She looks like the normal Kim that we know."
Munley's doctors have said they initially feared she wouldn't survive the attack.
"She was fading in and out of consciousness, she wasn't saying much," medic Francisco de la Serna, who began treating Munley when the shooting stopped, told ABC News.
Dr. Kelly Matlock, who treated Munley at the Metroplex Hospital, said her first words in recovery were concern about the victims.
"She opened her eyes and said, 'Did anybody die?' That's what she said, 'Did anybody die?'" Matlock said.
Sgt. Mark Todd, 42, a retired soldier who also works as a civilian police officer at Ford Hood, also engaged in a firefight with Hasan that lasted less than a minute, according to The Associated Press. Todd was not wounded.
Investigators are still trying to piece together a motive for the shootings, which seemed to have been precipitated by the suspect's stress over treating combat soldiers, along with his growing discomfort with the war and its conflict with his religious beliefs.
Hasan, who was reportedly paralyzed in the attack, was transferred to a military hospital in San Antonio Friday.
"When it happens at your home, it's a whole different thing," Chief Warrant Officer Ed Kime of the 15th Military Intelligence Battalion, said. "You are supposed to be safe within the gates."
The day after the shooting, Kime was among the officers who helped prepare the bodies of the victims for transfer to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't lose it a couple of times," he said, choking up. "I tried to spend five or six seconds with each one, say a small prayer and help them on their way. But, yeah, it was pretty bad."
A memorial service is planned for Tuesday at Fort Hood. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are expected to attend.
