Fort Hood , Texas ( CNN ) -- Pvt . Joseph Foster was filling out routine paperwork for his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan on Thursday when he heard a shout quickly followed by a burst of gunfire from just a few feet away . `` I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar ' in Arabic and he opened fire , '' Foster said Monday on CNN 's `` American Morning . '' Foster , 21 , did not forget his basic training , which may have saved his life and the lives of others . `` [ I ] got down on the floor , moved to cover . One soldier had peeked his head around the cubicle I was hiding in ... and I pulled him in , '' Foster said . Foster realized he had been shot in the hip but was too consumed by adrenaline to think about his injury . `` Another soldier had come in as soon as the assailant had moved away from us , '' he said . `` Those two got up and got out , and I got out shortly behind him . '' Once outside , Foster said , he hid behind a military shipping container `` and started doing what I was trained to do . '' `` [ I ] started helping get people into the next building and get them under cover , '' he said . Despite his injury , Foster , who has a wife and two young children , said he still plans to deploy to Afghanistan in January . `` I 'm still a soldier day in and day out , '' he said . `` I 'll do my job . '' Authorities are trying to figure out what prompted the gunman to begin shooting at Fort Hood Army Post , killing 13 people and wounding 42 . Fifteen soldiers are still hospitalized , including eight patients in intensive care , Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said Monday . Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan , a 39-year-old licensed Army psychiatrist who worked at a hospital on the post , is the suspected shooter . He was shot several times , ending the attack , and is now conscious and talking , a spokesman at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio said Monday . It is unclear if Army investigators have spoken to Hasan . The intense investigation into the mass shooting remains largely shrouded in silence . Army officials have voiced concern about jumping to any conclusions about the motive , warning about a possible backlash against Muslim soldiers . Several bystanders , like Foster , reported Hasan shouted `` Allahu akbar , '' Arabic for `` God is great , '' which terrorists have used as a battle cry . The Army leadership at Fort Hood will `` take a very hard look at ourselves and look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this , '' Cone said Monday . `` Hasan was a soldier , and we have other soldiers ... that might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has , '' Cone said . `` We have to look across our entire formation , not just in a medical community , but really look hard to our right and left . That 's the responsibility for everybody , from the top to the bottom , to make sure we 're taking care of our own . '' Cone said Monday that he has instructed commanders at Fort Hood to `` immediately take a hard look and make sure if there 's anybody out there struggling [ that ] we 're going to address their issues . '' Sen. Joe Lieberman said he plans a Senate committee hearing into whether the shootings were a terrorist act and whether the Army should responded to reported signs of Islamic extremism by the suspected gunman . If Hasan was showing signs of being an Islamic extremist , the Army should have acted on that earlier , and `` he should have been gone , '' said Lieberman , a Connecticut independent and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee . He spoke on `` Fox News Sunday . '' The shooting , on the nation 's largest military base , sparked outrage . In his Saturday radio address , President Obama said it was `` an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred any place in America . '' But , he said , `` it 's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims . '' All but one of those who were killed were soldiers . Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will attend a Tuesday memorial service for the victims . Defense Secretary Robert Gates will also participate in the memorial service , but he will not speak , Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said . Gates on Monday night will go to Fort Hood , where he will meet with the victims ' families as well as Fort Hood Police Sgt . Kimberly Munley , the civilian officer who confronted and disabled Hasan as they shot at each other . Gates will also meet with military officials at the Army base , including Fort Hood 's commanding general , Lt. Gen. Robert Cone , and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen , according to Morrell . CNN 's David Mattingly and Victor Hernandez contributed to this report .
Pvt . Joseph Foster was doing paperwork when he heard a shout , then gunfire . Shooter `` stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar ' in Arabic and he opened fire , '' he says . He says he was too consumed by adrenaline to think about being shot in the hip . The shooter fled into an alley behind his home where he fired at least 10 shots before fleeing, according to police reports.