Obama honors 13 killed in shooting at Fort Hood

HOUSTON, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama participated in a memorial service at the Fort Hood Army base, Texas, Tuesday to honor 13 people killed by a U.S. Army psychiatrist.

U.S. President Barack Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle Obama, participates in a memorial service on November 10, 2009 at the Fort Hood Army base, Texas, to honor 13 people killed by a U.S. Army psychiatrist.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Obama honored the men and women killed in Thursday's shooting rampage for their service, and said that the fact the they were killed on American soil makes "the tragedy even more painful."

"This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle," Obama said. "They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great American community. It is this fact that makes the tragedy even more painful and even more incomprehensible."

"Their life's work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness-- that is their legacy," the president said.

The president recalled memories of those killed. "Neither this country - nor the values that we were founded upon - could exist without men and women like these thirteen Americans. And that is why we must pay tribute to their stories, " he said.

The men and women killed at Fort Hood embody responsibility "in an age of selfishness" and "in an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans," the president said.

Obama also vowed that justice will be done. "We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes."