article_snippet.sent: Eric Jackson took a bullet in the forearm during the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. military base, and returned to Fort Hood five years later with other survivors on Friday to receive Purple Heart medals.
article_snippet.sent: An honor: Teena Nemelka, right, mother of Private First Class Aaron Nemelka who was killed during the attack by Major Nidal Hasan in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, looks down at her son's Purple Heart .
article_snippet.sent: Building bonds: Teena Nemelka, left, mother of Private Firtst Class Aaron Nemelka, left picture, and Sheryll Pearson, right, mother of Private First Class Michael Pearson, right picture, visit one another on Friday .
article_snippet.sent: Following years of tension, Army gave the Purple Hearts to survivors and relatives of the dead in a somber ceremony on the Texas military post, just two miles from where Nidal Hasan had opened fire in a room of unarmed soldiers.
article_snippet.sent: Rememberence: Joleen Cahill, foreground, wife of Michael Cahill who was killed during the attack by Major Nidal Hasan , carries her husband's Defense of Freedom Medal back to her chair .
article_snippet.sent: Kimberly Munley, a Fort Hood police officer at the time, helped end the attack by Major Nidal Hasan in a gunfight with Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan.
article_snippet.sent: Kimberly Munley, a Fort Hood police officer at the time was awarded the Defense of Freedom medal but after the ceremony expressed frustration over uncertainty about the level of benefits Fort Hood victims would receive. '
article_snippet.sent: The award: Dozens of Purple Hearts and two Defense of Freedom Medals were awarded at Fort Hood, Texas to victims and family of the attack by Major Nidal Hasan .
article_snippet.sent: The daughter of Michael Cahill, a physician's assistant who was the only civilian killed in the attack by Major Nidal Hasan, accepted the Defense of Freedom medal for her father and used the occasion to draw attention to veteran suicides.
article_snippet.sent: A moment of silence: Texas Governor Greg Abbott, seated, and Sen. John Cornyn, right, bow A moment of silence: Texas Governor Greg Abbott, seated, and Sen. John Cornyn heads during the invocation of a Purple Heart ceremony held at Fort Hood, Texas on Friday .