FORT HOOD, Texas -- A Langley High School graduate and grandmother was among the 13 people killed during Thursday's shooting rampage at the
Fort Hood Army base in Texas.
Juanita Warman, 55, was a nurse practitioner who previously worked in the UPMC hospital system.
She was about to be deployed to Iraq, according to a post on her Facebook page.
"She did this for her country. She believed in this country, and this was out of love. She wasn't in it for the honor or the glory. She knew what she wanted to do, what she needed to do, and she went about and did it," said Warman's sister, Margaret Yaggie.
Warman, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, leaves behind a husband, two children and six grandchildren.
Channel 4 Action News' Ashley Hardway talked to Warman's grandson, Corey Chiodo, Sunday evening.
"Since I was a little kid the only memories I can remember were her as a soldier," Chiodo said. "Always remember her dressed up in the whole uniform or something with the Army."
Warman had just arrived at Fort Hood on Nov. 3. She was looking forward to her deployment and the chance to help people, Chiodo told Hardway.
"That was her life. The army, taking care of people. That's what she loved to do and that's what she wanted to do," he said.
Some of Warman's family from Pittsburgh have made plans to fly to Fort Hood Monday for a memorial service on Tuesday, Chiodo said.
Family members told Hardway there likely will not be a Pittsburgh service, but, Chiodo said, he knows many locals will keep his grandmother's memory close to their hearts.
"People around here should know, be proud that she did serve 24, 25 years," he said. "She did a lot, as much as she could."
Monessen-Native Survives Fort Hood Shooting
Army 2nd Lt. Brandy Mason, a mother from Monessen, Westmoreland County, is among the survivors of the Fort Hood Army post shooting that left 31 wounded.
Mason, a 1996 graduate of Monessen High School, was expected to have surgery Friday or Saturday to remove a bullet from her left thigh after the bleeding is controlled.
"She dove under a table. She looked at him and he was reloading, (so) she took off and he shot at her," Mason's aunt, Sabrina Heath, told WTAE Channel 4's news exchange partners at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Heath said she remained anxious in the moments following the shooting until she got the call from her niece.
"I just saw it on the news and I was just hoping it wasn't [her], but it seemed like forever," said Heath.
Mason's daughter is currently a cheerleader at Monessen High School, and the school's principal has fond memories of the student who would eventually become an Army 2nd Lt.
"She was a graduate of the class of 1996 -- good student, was active in activities, good basketball player, a great person," said Principal Randall Marino.
Mason brought her high school a flag that once flew over Iraq. It now rests in the school's entryway.
Gov. Ed Rendell has ordered that U.S. and state flags be flown at half-staff at all Pennsylvania government facilities in tribute to the Fort Hood victims. Flags will remain lowered until Veterans Day on Wednesday.
Survivors, Witnesses Describe Fort Hood Shooting
The Army identified the suspected shooter as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and said he was hospitalized in stable condition with a gunshot wound and would be interrogated as soon as possible.
Staff Sgt. Cecil Williams, a native of Pittsburgh's Garfield neighborhood, told Channel 4 Action News’ Tara Edwards what he saw as the post went under lockdown Thursday afternoon.
Williams said he and his company were holed up in a building where they work and peered out of windows to watch the scene unfold.
“You see the sirens, you see the helicopters,” Williams said, “dozens of ambulances racing up and down the road.”
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Watch Tara Edwards' ReportWilliams, an Oliver High School graduate, said he survived deployment to Iraq, but this attack on home soil was even harder to bear.
“It hits home. When we lose a soldier, it hurts,” he said. “That’s our brother, our sister. It hurts really bad.”
A priority for Williams and fellow soldiers, he told Edwards, was contacting loved ones.
COMPLETE COVERAGE - Visit our Fort Hood page for latest news, videos from the scene, an interactive map and more.Specialist Jason Weintraub, of Grove City, is also based at Fort Hood. He called his mother, Alana, to let her know he was safe.
“I started crying and figured my son survived 15 months in Iraq, now just doing his job, he has to be concerned with this,” Alana Weintraub said to Channel 4 Action News.
Williams told Edwards that, as the lockdown dragged on, the only thing left to do was pray.
"We’re grieving, but we’re holding on and staying strong," he said.
Belle Vernon-native Anthony Canzonieri served a tour in Iraq with the Army. So did his younger brother, Pfc. Allen Canzonieri, who is stationed at Fort Hood.
"First thing I did is call my brother and make sure everything was OK. Then, I couldn't get a hold of him for a while. So, obviously, you get a little nervous," Anthony Canzonieri said.
He added, "Fort Hood is a huge Army post, but you still automatically think, 'Well, what if it's him?' Then, it came out that it was at the SRC site, which is where he works. So, I was a little more nervous. Then, we got a hold of his wife and everything was OK."
While Allen Canzonieri wasn't hurt, he was in a neighboring building during the shooting.
"It was obviously a very tense situation. Everyone (was) scared and worried and confused, and everyone (was) kind of wondering how something like that could happen on a military post," Anthony Canzonieri said.
Allen Canzonieri's line of work often takes him to that very building, where he was just days before.
"Everybody's really glum, gloomy, sad and still in shock of what happened," Anthony Canzonieri said.
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