Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) - As investigators at Fort Hood meticulously probed Thursday's grisly massacre, a Texas surgeon said more of the wounded victims of the shootings were slowly but surely on the mend.
Flanked by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and two state representatives, W. Roy Smythe, chief of surgery at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, said "a lot of progress has been made" in treating patients wounded in the rampage and that "some of them are out of the woods."
But Smythe told reporters in a Saturday news conference there is a possibility some patients will be "physically impaired" for life. And, he said, there's "no doubt many" will be "psychologically impaired the rest of their lives."
Thursday's mass shooting left 12 soldiers and one civilian dead and 38 others wounded at the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas. Thirty-four of the injured had gunshot wounds, military officials said. The suspect in the shooting, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a licensed Army psychiatrist, was among the two dozen who remained hospitalized Friday night.
Hasan was transported by air Friday afternoon to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, and had been listed in critical but stable condition.
The incident has sparked national outrage. In his Saturday address, President Obama said it was "an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America." But the president said, "it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims."
The White House said President Obama and the first lady will be attending a memorial service on Tuesday and the president ordered flags flying over the White House and other federal buildings to be lowered to half-staff until Veterans Day on Wednesday.
From CNN Politics
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I love this president Please stay as far away from all the evil republicans as you can. We do not want another JFK. Texas is not the place to go to right now. Heck I had to move out of the state just because I am a democrat.
Henry are you just ignorant or you just don't care. I am a Vet and I would like for you to show some respect to the men and women who lost there life for no reason.
Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh are foaming at the mouth because they want our President in Berlin instead of being at a memorial service for our military and their families. I grieve for our military and their families and support the President and his wife who grieve with them in my behalf.
We will all have our day. This goes to Henry Miller. I watch your posts on different sites, I could never let my hatred for one man be my reason for going to hell when the Good Lord decides to take me home. You, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'rielly and these two other in breeds I work with are gonna let President Obama be your reason for entering the gates of hell. While he and the first lady will be enjoying the angels in heaven, you'll be crying out, but there will be no hiding place. Just like these people who died at Fort Hood did not expect to die, it is tine for them to meet their maker. So for all those ones who had hatred in their hearts this moring, or did not let go of something, they have been taken home, and not they stand before God. It's their time to be judged. And yours is coming too.
President Obama should honor these fallen soldiers and civilians by sacking the Fort Hood Commander and instructing his military commanders that any Dereliction of duty which allows someone to fall thru the cracks like the Fort Hood Commander did will not be tolerated.
In my opinion, the Fort Hood Base Commander is guilty of Dereliction of Duty and should be immediately replaced.
In the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), dereliction of duty is addressed within the regulations governing the failure to obey an order or regulation. It means that one through negligence or culpable inefficiency, fails to perform one's expected duties.
The maximum penalty in the U.S. is a bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of pay and six months confinement. Acts which are derelict may be charged under more specific offenses such as noncompliance with procedural rules.
It appears that the Fort Hood Base Commander through negligence or culpable inefficiency, failed to perform his expected duties in dealing with the concerns and problems of Major Hasan MD.
A. Smith
Oregon
The President is going where he should be going. How many times
did GWB go to Berlin? Here's the deal, if he'd gone, you naysayers would have criticized him for being away from his country. If he doesn't go you criticize him for not being there. You must stay awake
nights trying to figure out two diametrically opposed ways to criticize
Barack Obama so that your negativity lives on no matter what he does.
Here's the deal. Just think what we could accomplish in this country if
we replaced even half the negative energy with efforts to improve this
nation. Guess it won't happen . . . people are just too busy tearing it down.
What is important to American President right now? Is it to serve the past history in Berlin or serve the present in Ft Hood and healthcare? AGAIN OBAMA IS RIGHT AND GOP IS WRONG !
Obama jumps to conclusions in the officer vs. the professor in Cambridge case, now he tells us with this killer not to jump to conclusions like we do not know what this guy's motivation is. It seems that Obama still makes highest priority not to be Bush, and not telling the true about some islamists hate of America is in this category for him. The American people is not that stupid!
Janice November 7th, 2009 4:41 pm ET
Oh Henry! The ceremony for the falling of the Berlin Wall is this Monday. It's better for the Pres Obama to attend the ceremony at Ft Hood to honor the AMERICAN SOLDIERS who were murdered on AMERICAN soil.
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Oh Janice! The White House announced Obama wouldn't be going to the Berlin Wall before any of this tragedy happened.
President Obama will attend a memorial service on Tuesday for the soldiers at Fort Hood. Is he just going to a service or is he going to Fort Hood? George and Laura Bush have already gone to Fort Hood, but George Bush really cared about us soldiers.
Criticize the President for not going to Berlin. Criticize the President for going to Fort Hood.
You Republican and conservative bastards just do not know when to quit.
I don't blame Obama for skipping on Berlin. With the missle shield for Europe cancelled, I'd also worry about going to Berlin and getting caught there as the Russian tanks roll in. Let's just hope there's no national emergency around Dec 10, because Obama will HAVE to go to Osolo to pick up his ego trippin' Peace Prize regardless of what happeneing in the US.
When will GIngricn, Limbaugh, etc, etc apologize to the men who fought and died in their place becasue they lacked the manhood to fight Communism themselves?
When will we ever get an apology for Reagan paying tribute to the SS?
HOW LOW CAN REPUBLICAN SUPPORTERS AND TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY GO?
Bet you a crisp $1 dollar bill that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michelle Bachman, Secessionist Republican Governor Perry and the fringe Tea Party & Birther idiots turn Obama's visit to Fort Hood into an anti-Obama socialist-indoctrination protest.
Henry Miller @ 3:45 – You are comparing apples to oranges. The Fort Hood memorial does not compare to Berlin.
He probably figured he had to go since George W Bush and Laura visited Ft. Hood today without and press or fanfare. Wonder if Obama will say something about the healthcare vote first. He certainly didn't give priority to the tragedy at Ft. Hood the other evening.
Nobody here wants them in Texas.
So the rethugs think he shouldn't attend, how dumb they behave.
The President will be where he should be- and you yokels who lambast him at every move need to grow a brain- No wonder your party was defeated so soundly last November!
Can I get a shout out.
It is absolutely correct for the President to go to Ft. Hood. If it hadn't have happened, he still shouldn't go to Berlin. He has important work to do here.
i'm sure the Hasan family will be grateful.
Uh, did anybody see the full press conference that took place the day of the shootings? He gave a shout out to a Medal of Honor winner, only the man (very respectable man I may add) had never won the Medal of Honor (he did win the bronze star), he had be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal. I could understand the mix up, but Obama was the one who awarded it to him. Are we sure this guy is doing what everybody sent him to do? I thought rappers gave shout outs, not presidents....btw the man mentioned is Joe Medicine Crow, awesome story, you should look him up.
No, Mr. Miller, he couldn't make time to go to Berlin. Perhaps his time is being used here taking care of the matters of this country. Perhaps he has listened to all the right wing rants about the trips he has made that didn't go along with their agenda. Perhaps he was considering all the whining he has heard about tax dollars being spent to do the Presidential things that all other President did. Perhaps going to Berlin means more to right wing/conservative/Obama haters than it does to anyone else.
Be careful President Obama coming to this part of Texas.