Fort Hood , Texas ( CNN ) -- The call came over the radio . `` Shots fired . '' And then , even worse : `` Officer down . '' Billy Rhoads , chief of the Fort Hood Fire Department , grabbed a radio and donned his flak jacket . He jumped into his SUV and tore down the road . A dozen or so blocks away , at the Soldier Readiness Center , a gunman had opened fire on soldiers . Rhoads stepped from his truck . His department 's motto is `` Protecting those who protect us . '' He hoped he was not too late for that . The scene was chaotic . Wounded and dead soldiers were everywhere . `` I was listening to people hollering for help , and I was trying to get in there to see what we had , '' Rhoads recalled three days after the November 5 attack . `` I assumed that we would have maybe several victims . I had no idea , I just could not fathom what we were going to encounter . '' Amid all the army uniforms , one dark blue uniform stuck out . It was Fort Hood police Sgt . Kimberly Munley , who , officials say , shot the alleged gunman , Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan , to end the rampage . She suffered three gunshot wounds . `` I broke and ran over to her , '' Rhoads said . `` I got over to her and began trying to talk to her . '' Rhoads and Munley had worked closely in the past . He considers her a friend . Army medics had fashioned a makeshift tourniquet on her leg . He bent down to comfort her . She was extremely weak and unable to speak loudly . `` I just kept reminding her of her daughter and that she needed to stay with us for the baby 's sake , '' he said . `` She 's a very tough cookie . '' Munley , 34 , had served in the Army herself before becoming a police officer at Fort Hood . Her husband is a staff sergeant in the Army , and their daughter is 3 years old . Munley 's neighbors have said she is so tough , she stopped burglars from entering her house last year . Said Rhoads of Munley : `` The old saying that dynamite comes in small packages is very true . '' Emergency personnel were flooding the scene , and helicopters were en route to evacuate the injured . Rhoads , who began as a volunteer firefighter 26 years ago when he was just a teen , took over the scene as incident commander . But first , he paused for a quick prayer . `` I just asked the Lord to be with me , to give me the strength and the courage I need to do my job wisely and keep my people safe . '' Even as the first responders worked on the dozens of wounded soldiers , they were n't certain whether there were other shooters on the post . `` The thought 's always there on your mind that there could be another suspect in the area , '' Rhoads said . As for Hasan , the fire chief says that discussing the shooting suspect is too emotional . `` I saw the suspect from a distance , but I never got a look at him . '' Rhoads ' prayers remain with the soldiers he tries to keep safe . `` It 's very emotional for everybody when we lose our soldiers . But when we lose them here at home like this , it takes it to a different level . '' He says the department has arranged for counselors to be available for the firefighters as they process all they have endured . They 've received phone and text messages from fire and police departments all across the country , offering support and prayer . But the main thing his firefighters have relied on , he says , is each other . `` Afterward , everyone started to console each other and talk to each other . It 's a brotherhood . ''
Fire chief came across officer , told her she `` needed to stay '' for her daughter . Chief says people were hollering all over the scene : `` I had no idea '' Billy Rhoads began firefighting when he was a teen .