FORT HOOD, Texas — "Controlled chaos." That's the phrase being used to describe Thursday's shooting scene at Fort Hood.
Some soldiers actually raced toward the sound of gunfire because they intuitively understood that their help was urgently needed.
Many who were themselves wounded put those injuries aside and instead helped those who were hurt more seriously.
There are people who are trained to be first responders, like military police Sgt. Andrew Hagerman of Lewisville.
"I brought the first ambulance in from the outer side," he said.
And others like Sgt. Howard Appleby. He was at the hospital to see a psychiatrist when casualties began arriving.
"I started running around, pulling guys out of the ambulance," he said. "It was just crazy."
As Hagerman rushed in, he saw the alleged gunman — bleeding, with his guns still at his side.
"He was just being treated at the time by medical personnel," he said. "From what I understood, he was unconscious at the time."
Sgt. Rico Sanchez was also among the first responders. "According to the captain that I was treating, he [the gunman] was sitting down and he just stood up out of nowhere and started to unload the weapon."
When the crisis began, these military men and women all did what their hearts — and their training — told them to do.
"Our soldiers would drag people out of the line of fire, put them in their car and bring them to the emergency room," said Col. Kimberly Kesling, a doctor at Fort Hood.
As Col. Kesling supervised the hospital's triage operation, she got the news that one of the doctors under her command — Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan — was the prime suspect.
"I was absolutely shocked," she said. "In my personal experience with him, he was a very good member of my team."
They have all served in the Middle East, and for some, it was too much like being back there.
Appleby, who has been deployed twice to Iraq, is still suffering from the stress of war overseas. He is now unsure about the help he is receiving at home.
"I don't feel different about being in the military; I feel different about getting help from the military because psychiatrists don't listen," he said.
