Major Nidal Malik Hasan, age 39, was born in Virginia to parents who immigrated from Jordan.[14][15] He served as an army psychiatrist, who had transferred to Fort Hood in July from Washington's Walter Reed Medical Center.[1][2][16][17][18] Prior to being transferred, he had received a poor performance evaluation.[19] He had special training in shooting.[14]
He joined the army immediately after high school, and in exchange the army paid for him to go to college and medical school.[20] Hasan graduated in 1997 from Virginia Tech, where he was a member of ROTC,[21] with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and in 2003 from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences with a medical degree (M.D.), and later finished his residency as a psychiatrist.[22][15] In 2009, he completed a fellowship in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry at the Center for Traumatic Stress.[17]
According to Hasan's aunt, he had sought for several years to receive a discharge, due to harassment relating to his religion. An Army Spokesman could not confirm the aunt's statement.[23] Hasan had come to the attention of Federal authorities at least six months before the attacks because of internet postings he may have made discussing suicide bombings [24] and other threats.[19] However, it has been unclear if he was truly the author of the posts and no official investigation was opened.[19]
Hasan was promoted from Captain to Major in May 2009.[17][25] Hasan was about to be deployed, whether to Iraq or Afghanistan is unclear,[26] on November 28. According to Jeff Sadoski, spokesperson of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, "Hasan was upset about his deployment".[15] Hasan's cousin, Nader Hasan, a lawyer in Virginia, said that Nidal Hasan turned against the wars after hearing the stories of those who came back from Afghanistan and Iraq.[27] Noel Hamad said, however, that the family did not know he was being sent to Iraq. "He didn't tell us he was going to deploy," she said.[28]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting
К слову о портрете стрелка.
Вырисовывается что товарищ пошел в армию в частности по финансовым причинам и выбрал небоевую должность.
Т.е. явно шел не воевать.
После этого проработал большую часть времени в больнице, хотел уже скоро уходить, и только недавно был перемещен в "настоящую" армию. А теперь еще вдобавок и должен был ехать в Ирак.