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Fort victims had different reasons for enlisting

Family and friends console one another outside the home of Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka in West Jordan, Utah Friday Nov. 6, 2009. Nemelka died in the Fort Hood shootings on Thursday. (AP Photo/The Deseret News, Laura Seitz) SALT LAKE TRIBUNE OUT; PROVO DAILY HERALD OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES

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In this combo, victims killed during a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas on Nov. 5, 2009 are shown. From top left, Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Okla., Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis., Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah, Michael Grant Cahill, 62, of Cameron, Texas, Pfc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn., Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow, 32, of Evans, Ga. From bottom left, Pfc. Michael Pearson, 21, of Bolingbrook, Ill., Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis., Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago, Capt. John Gaffaney, 56, of Williston, N.D., and Major L. Eduardo Caraveo, 52, of Juarez, Mexico. (AP Photo)

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In this undated family photo, Jason Dean Hunt, 22, is shown. Hunt was one of 13 soldiers killed when a gunman opened fire at a soldier readiness center on the post Thursday. Hunt was a 2005 graduate of Tipton High School. (AP Photo/Family via The Oklahoman)

In this undated family photo, Amy Krueger is shown. Amy Krueger was one of 13 people killed in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Family Photo via Sheboygan Press)

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By AMY FORLITI, The Associated Press Updated 3:41 AM Sunday, November 8, 2009

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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?"

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Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo

Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, Va., 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.

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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 in Evans, Ga. "They should be safe there. They should be safe."

In a statement Saturday, she said her husband's "infectious charm and wit always put others at ease."

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."

The couple were high school sweethearts who married in 1996. Marikay DeCrow said her husband was first stationed at Fort Gordon in 2000, and she had hoped they would reunite at their home in nearby Evans when another post there opened up.

DeCrow was stationed in Korea from September 2008 to August. He left in September to go to Fort Hood.

His father, Daniel DeCrow, of Fulton, Ind., 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."

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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.

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Spc. Frederick Greene

Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tenn., went by "Freddie" and was active at Baker's Gap Baptist Church while he was growing up, said Glenn Arney, the church's former superintendent and a former co-worker of Greene's.

"I went to church with him, knew him all of his life. He was one of the finest boys you ever saw," Arney said.

Arney worked with Greene for several years at A.C. Lumber and Truss in Mountain City. The company designs and builds trusses, which are structures that support the roofs and floors of houses and other buildings.

"He was a hard worker. He was a computer whiz. He could design a truss. He could do about anything," Arney said.

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