Thirteen people were killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. Here is a look at some of the victims:

FRANCHESKA VELEZ

Velez, 21, of Chicago, was pregnant and preparing to return home. A friend of Velez's, Sasha Ramos, described her as a fun-loving person who wrote poetry and loved dancing.

"She was like my sister," Ramos, 21, said. "She was the most fun and happy person you could know. She never did anything wrong to anybody."

Family members said Velez had recently returned from deployment in Iraq and had sought a lifelong career in the Army.

"She was a very happy girl and sweet," said her father, Juan Guillermo Velez, his eyes red from crying. "She had the spirit of a child."

JOHN P. GAFFANEY

Gaffaney already had retired from the Army as a major and already had won his 20-year service award in the San Diego County government as a supervisor in a program that helps elderly people through abuse and mental health crises.

But at 56, trained as a psychiatric nurse, he longed to return to active duty in the Army National Guard. For three years, a board kept rejecting him over a hearing problem, according to Ellen Schmeding, an administrator in the county agency for which he worked. Finally, she said, "he wore them down."

He reported to Fort Hood on Nov. 1.

PFC. AARON THOMAS NEMELKA

Nemelka, 19, of the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan, Utah, chose to join the Army instead of going on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his uncle Christopher Nemelka said.

"As a person, Aaron was as soft and kind and as gentle as they come, a sweetheart," his uncle said. "What I loved about the kid was his independence of thought."

Aaron Nemelka, the youngest of four children, was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan in January, his family said in a statement.

PFC. MICHAEL PEARSON

Pearson, 21, of the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, Ill., quit what he figured was a dead-end furniture company job to join the military about a year ago.

Pearson's mother, Sheryll Pearson, said the 2006 Bolingbrook High School graduate joined the military because he was eager to serve his country and broaden his horizons.

"He was the best son in the whole world," she said. "He was my best friend and I miss him."

His cousin, Mike Dostalek, showed a poem Pearson wrote. "I look only to the future for wisdom. To rock back and forth in my wooden chair," the poem says.

Sheryll Pearson said that when she last talked to him on the phone two days ago, they had discussed how he would come home for Christmas.

SPC. JASON DEAN HUNT

Hunt, 22, of Frederick, Okla., went into the military after graduating from Tipton High School in 2005 and had gotten married just two months ago, his mother, Gale Hunt, said. He had served 3 1/2 years in the Army, including a stint in Iraq.

Hunt, known as J.D., was "just kind of a quiet boy and a good kid, very kind," said Kathy Gray, an administrative assistant at Tipton Schools.

Hunt had re-enlisted for six years after serving his initial two-year assignment, his mother said.

MICHAEL GRANT CAHILL

Cahill, a 62-year-old physician assistant, suffered a heart attack two weeks ago and returned to work at the base as a civilian employee after taking just one week off for recovery, said his daughter Keely Vanacker.

"He survived that. He was getting back on track, and he gets killed by a gunman," Vanacker said.

Cahill, of Cameron, Texas, helped treat soldiers returning from tours of duty or preparing for deployment.

"He loved his patients, and his patients loved him," said Vanacker, 33, the oldest of Cahill's three adult children. "He just felt his job was important."

The family's typical Thanksgiving dinners ended with board games and long conversations over the table, said Vanacker, whose voice often cracked with emotion as she remembered her father. "Now, who I am going to talk to?"

SGT. AMY KRUEGER

Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis., joined the Army after the 2001 terrorist attacks and had vowed to take on Osama bin Laden, her mother, Jeri Krueger said.

Amy Krueger arrived at Fort Hood on Tuesday and was scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan in December, the mother told the Herald Times Reporter of Manitowoc.

Jeri Krueger recalled telling her daughter that she could not take on bin Laden by herself.

"Watch me," her daughter replied.

STAFF SGT. JUSTIN M. DECROW

At 32, DeCrow had been in the Army for 13 years. With a wife, 13-year-old daughter and a bothersome case of sleep apnea, he had decided it was time to become a civilian.

His mother, Rhonda Thompson, said yesterday that DeCrow had returned over the summer from a year's deployment in South Korea to Evans, Ga., where he had built a house several years ago. He had lined up a job as an Army contractor at nearby Fort Gordon in his specialty, training younger soldiers in satellite communications.

Last month, Thompson said, DeCrow was told to report to work at Fort Hood until the paperwork for his medical discharge came through.

Thompson last heard from her son Saturday. "Happy Halloween. I love you," his final text message to her said. She wrote back: "Same to you. Love you back."

RUSSELL SEAGER

Seager, 51, a nurse practitioner from Mount Pleasant, Wis., was preparing to deploy to Iraq. His uncle, Larry Seager, told the Wisconsin State Journal that he was eager to go abroad and had "pushed officials for deployment."

"He wanted to get in there and help the soldiers coming home and leaving," Larry Seager said.

Larry Seager learned of his nephew's death Friday morning when he received a call from his sister, the paper said.

In August, the soldier was profiled by WUWM-Milwaukee Public Radio.

"I've always had a great deal of respect for the military and for service, and I just felt it was time that I stepped up and did it, actually," he said. "I mean, it sounds corny and patriotic, but when you talk to people that decide to do this, the feelings are similar."

KHAM XIONG

Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn., a 2004 graduate of Community of Peace Academy, enjoyed hunting and fishing.

"The sad part is that he had been taught and been trained to protect and to fight. Yet it's such a tragedy that he did not have the opportunity to protect himself and the base," his father, Chor Xiong, told KSTP-TV through an interpreter.

Xiong's 17-year-old brother, Robert, described Kham as "the family clown, just a real good outgoing guy."