Lodi soldier one of 30 injured in deadly Fort Hood rampage Thursday

Associated Press

WAUSAU (AP) — Twenty-three-year-old Army Reserve Spc. Grant Moxon of Lodi was one of the 30 people wounded in the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday.

Thirteen people, including one solider from eastern Wisconsin, also were killed when Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on a group of soldiers at the base.

Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel was killed in the shooting spree. Krueger arrived at Fort Hood on Tuesday and was scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan in December, her mother Jeri Krueger, told the Herald Times Reporter of Manitowoc.

"Why this way?" Jeri Krueger asked in an interview with the Manitowoc newspaper. She did not immediately return a telephone message left Friday by The Associated Press at her home in Kiel.

Amber Bahr, 19, of Random Lake was the other Wisconsin soldier injured in the incident.

The 39-year-old Hasan was wounded during the rampage and remained hospitalized Friday in a coma, attached to a ventilator.

Jeri Krueger said she last spoke to her daughter, who was with the Madison-based 467th Medical Detachment, on Tuesday.

"She called to tell me she made it safe," she said.

Amy Krueger joined the Army shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, her mother said. Jeri Krueger told her daughter she could not take on terrorist leader Osama bin Laden by herself.

"Watch me," Amy Krueger replied.

"You got straight talk from Amy," Jeri Krueger said.

Amy Krueger graduated from Kiel High School in 1998 and was proud to serve her country, principal Dario Talerico told The Associated Press. The school, about 65 miles north of Milwaukee, has about 500 students.

Talerico said Krueger spoke at least once to Kiel elementary school students about her career.

"I just remember that Amy was a very good kid, who like most kids in a small town are just looking for what their next step in life was going to be, and she chose the military," Talerico said. "Once she got into the military, she really connected with that kind of lifestyle and was really proud to serve her country."

The principal said it's easier to understand when a soldier is killed in war.

"Those things happen," he said. "But when it happens this way, it is even sadder."

Moxon, a mental health specialist who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in May 2008 with a degree in psychology, was shot above the knee and pretended to be dead until the shooter moved away, said his father, Dave Moxon.

Moxon was sitting at a processing center "when all of the sudden he heard some yelling and noise and he said, 'I'm looking this guy right in the eye and he pulls his gun and shoots,'" his father said. "The bullet went right through his cargo pocket into his leg."

Bahr was shot in the back. She joined the Army Reserves when she was 17 and was saving money for college, said her mother, Lisa Pfund.

Lt. Gen. Bob Cone told NBC's "Today" show Friday that Bahr helped apply a tourniquet to one injured soldier and then attended to other soldiers before realizing she'd been shot.

Gov. Jim Doyle said the Wisconsin soldiers who were shot were apparently with about 40 members of the 467th Medical Co. sent to Fort Hood for training before being shipped to Afghanistan. The unit was to help soldiers coming in and out of combat zones and those with combat fatigue, he said.

Flags will be flown at half-staff through Veterans Day on Wednesday in honor of the dead, Doyle said.