Seventeen years have passed since an Army psychiatrist opened fire at Fort Hood killing 13 people in 2009. Since then, families of three of the fallen have learned to navigate life without their loved ones, finding strength in the values and lessons their father, daughter and spouse left behind.
“It builds character, kid,” is a phrase Keely Cahill Vanacker remembers her father Michael Cahill saying, always with a playful punch to the arm, throughout her teenage years whenever she was upset.
Cahill served in the Army National Guard for 23 years as an infantryman before earning a bachelors degree in psychology and training to become a physician assistant, providing medical care to soldiers.
“My dad really valued people, and he touched a lot of lives,” Vanacker said.
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Growing up in a military family, living all across the country, Vanacker saw Cahill demonstrate the value of treating others with humanity and fairness as he practiced medicine.
“If you were somebody living in a rural Texas post and struggling to even pay for your asthma medication, my dad would find places for you to get your medication,” she said.
For Cahill, serving people was a calling; and it did not end when he hung up his helmet. After retiring from the military he continued to serve as a civilian PA at Fort Hood.
As for Amy Krueger, her call to serve came in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
“Im going in.”
Those are the words Amy told her mother Jeri Krueger on the afternoon of Sept. 11.
At the time, Amy was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Sheboygan Campus.
“Going in?” Krueger recalled asking her daughter.
“I’m joining the Army, mom.”
Krueger was skeptical that her daughter could make a difference in the .
“Oh, Amy, you can’t take on bin Laden all by yourself,” Krueger told her daughter.
“Watch me,” Amy replied.
The next day, Amy sat in a recruiter’s office and would go on to become Staff Sgt. Amy Krueger.
“When Amy said she was going to do something, she did it,” Krueger said.
After Amy’s first deployment to Afghanistan in 2003 at Bagram Airfield, she returned home and continued her education as a mental health specialist in the Army and completed Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) programs while continuing her education in psychology.
“She wanted to help people get through things,” Krueger said. “Psychology was definitely something she would’ve been great at.”
In 2008, Amy volunteered for another tour in Afghanistan. Between deployments, she was welcomed home by friends and family members.
Even while at home her was still on the forefront of her mind.
Krueger had been at work when Amy texted her a picture of a new tattoo she had gotten, which took hours to complete.
“I said, I don’t like it,” Krueger recalled.
Amy asked what her mother meant, thinking she was receiving the typical parental disapproval of new ink.
Krueger explained it wasn’t necessarily the tattoo itself she disliked, but what it said.
“I feel like it’s a bad omen,” Krueger had told her daughter.
Amy brushed her mother’s worries off with a chuckle.
The tattoo depicted the American flag, draped across her back, alongside a firearm and soldiers hat. It read: “A
