President Obama offers solace to nation at Fort Hood

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FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — President Barack Obama reprised his role as chief comforter in a grief-stricken corner of America on Wednesday, mourning with families and uniformed comrades of those killed in a shooting spree last week at the Fort Hood military post in Texas.

It was yet another sad observance for a president who has had to deliver words of consolation across the nation during his more than five years in office.

Four soldiers, including the suspected gunman, died and 16 were wounded in the rampage at Fort Hood last Wednesday. That was just five years after another soldier killed 13 people at the same army post. Wednesday’s memorial took place at the same spot where Obama eulogized victims of the 2009 mass shooting.

“We somehow bear what seems unbearable,” he declared.

Even as he spoke, another horrific attack had unfolded halfway across the country. In Pennsylvania, a 16-year-old boy stabbed and slashed 19 students and a police officer in the crowded halls of his high school Wednesday before an assistant principal tackled him.

Since Obama took office, the names of several communities across the U.S. have become synonymous with tragedy, the deadliest being Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and 6 school staffers in 2012. Each has challenged the president to find ways to impart meaning to senseless death.

At Fort Hood, the ceremony was made more poignant as a remembrance for soldiers who didn’t die in wars abroad but in the safety of their own compound.

“They were members of a generation that has borne the burden of our security for more than a decade of war,” Obama said.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrived late Wednesday morning at Fort Hood, where the camouflage fatigues of troops standing to salute his passing motorcade almost blended in with the desert terrain. Flags were lowered to half-staff at the sprawling Army base in central Texas, where Obama met with victims’ relatives before offering his public condolences.

Three battle crosses, helmet-topped rifles above combat boots, stood in front of the speakers’ platform, representing the three soldiers shot and killed. Officials say they died following a shooting rampage by Army Spc. Ivan Lopez, who took his own life.

Conspicuously, Obama was the only speaker to mention that four soldiers were lost, including the shooter. As the president finished an address in which he repeated the phrase “love never ends,” one soldier in the audience brushed away tears. The president exited the stage with his head down.

Adding complexity to the president’s response were questions about whether the suspect’s wartime service precipitated his actions.

Although Lopez did a short stint in Iraq in 2011 and said he suffered a traumatic brain injury, Fort Hood officials have said his mental condition was not a “direct participating factor” in the shooting. Still, the 34-year-old was undergoing treatment for depression and anxiety while being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder, base officials said.

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Associated Press writer Emily Schmall contributed to this report.

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