Obama to Attend Memorial for Fort Hood Victims

President Barack Obama walks off Marine One on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, after going to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(AP)

President Barack Obama will attend a memorial service Tuesday honoring victims of the Ford Hood shootings, an attack he described as "all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable" because it occurred on the nation's largest Army post.

He praised those who ended the shootings, which killed 13 and wounded 30 others, and lauded the armed services' diversity — a move designed to calm tensions about the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

"They are Americans of every race, faith and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers," Obama said in his radio and Internet address Saturday, airing the weekend before Veterans Day.

"They are descendants of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other."

After the address aired, Obama talked about the Fort Hood shootings with Democratic House members. On Capitol Hill for a private meeting on health care, Obama opened his remarks by speaking about Fort Hood, participants said.

He told lawmakers that the hardships members of the military make for the country "is what sacrifice really is," according to Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., as opposed to "casting a vote that might lose an election for you."

The president asked for patience while officials piece together what happened Thursday in Texas.

"We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing," Obama said in his address. "But what we do know is that our thoughts are with every one of the men and women who were injured at Fort Hood. Our thoughts are with all the families who've lost a loved one in this national tragedy."

But Obama said while "we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America."

"We saw soldiers and civilians alike rushing to aid fallen comrades, tearing off bullet-riddled clothes to treat the injured, using blouses as tourniquets, taking down the shooter even as they bore wounds themselves," Obama said.