Seventeen years after Army Maj. Nidal Hassan shouted “God is the greatest” in Arabic and opened fire at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center, the victims remain absent from prominent casualty memorials and databases. The Nov. 5, 2009, shooting killed 12 soldiers and a civilian physician’s assistant and injured 32 people.

That absence persists even though the victims received Purple Hearts more than a decade ago. Their names and sacrifices are recognized at the Fort Hood November 5 Memorial in Killeen, Texas, where each person killed is represented by a pillar, etched photograph and sculpture.

Pfc. Francheska Velez is memorialized with a Scooby-Doo sculpture embracing a smaller Scooby. The figures represent Velez and her unborn baby, who also died in the shooting.

The Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial in Marseilles, Illinois, also carries the names of those killed at Fort Hood. It additionally includes service members killed at a Chattanooga, Tennessee, recruiting center in 2015 and active duty personnel who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

Carla McPhee, the memorial’s vice president, said its sponsors intended from the beginning to recognize troops killed in terrorist attacks regardless of location. Their reasoning was straightforward because “the enemy and the sacrifice are the same.”

“We did not add these names lightly, and we did not add them to make a political point. We added them because they are fallen American service members killed in the War on Terror, and our promise at the Wall is that no fallen hero in that fight is forgotten — whether they fell in Iraq or Afghanistan, or here at home at Fort Hood,” McPhee said in an email to Military Times.

Yet the Army’s Global War on Terrorism Memorial at the National Infantry Museum in Fort Benning, Georgia, does not include those killed at Fort Hood. The memorial’s accompanying online database also omits their names.

They are likewise missing from the Defense Casualty Analysis System, which lists fallen personnel by conflict. Civilian databases maintained for more than 20 years by Military Times, CNN and other organizations also do not include them.

Retired Army Col. Kathy Platoni treated victims at Fort Hood and said she was at the top of Hasan’s hit list. She called the omissions egregious and said the shooting remains classified as workplace violence despite special authorization under the National Defense Authorization Act for Purple Hearts.

“We put our lives on the line to serve, sacrifice and pay with our very lives, and yet we have the betrayal by our own government,” Platoni told Military Times.

For years after the shooting, the Army described it as workplace violence. An investigation found that Hasan attended the mosque of al-Qaeda recruiter and imam Anwar al-Awlaki and remained in contact with him after al-Awlaki joined al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

A congressional directive resulted in the victims receiving Purple Hearts in 2015. The service and the Pentagon had protested that awarding the medals would “irrevocably alter the fundamental character of this time-honored decoration” and compromise Hasan’s right to a free trial.

After the medals were presented, then Army Secretary John McHugh promised the victims all related combat related benefits. Platoni said she will not be satisfied until the attack is formally classified as domestic terrorism and the victims receive associated line of duty benefits for the period before the Purple Hearts were awarded.

When asked about the missing names, DoW officials referred questions about the Defense Casualty Analysis System to the U.S. Army. The Army did not respond to several emails before publication.

An official at the National Infantry Museum said its Global War on Terrorism database receives names from the War Department and the Defense Casualty Analysis System. Eric Strand, a former Minnesota Army National Guard member who wrote about the issue in 2023, described the circular response as maddening.

A national Global War on Terrorism Memorial is planned near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. A person familiar with design discussions said the current proposal does not include names, although no decision is final.

Sheryll Pearson’s son, Pfc. Michael Pearson, was 22 when he was killed on Nov. 5, 2009. She said she wants future generations to remember everyone killed or injured, declaring, “These names should be everywhere.”

Pearson’s son is honored at the memorials in Marseilles and Killeen. Hasan’s execution by firing squad is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood.