Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The shooting that killed 13 people on a U.S. Army base in Texas has spurred the Obama administration to re-examine the stresses on a military force that has been at war for eight years.

In the aftermath of Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly shooting fellow soldiers at Fort Hood Army Base on Nov. 5, officials said they are redoubling efforts to study the impact of multiple redeployments and battlefield experiences.

“We have been trying very hard to understand the effects of stress, to understand the causes of everything from domestic violence to suicide to other crimes,” Army Secretary John McHugh told reporters at the base yesterday.

In 2008, the trend of military suicide rates being historically lower than the civilian population reversed, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health. The stresses of repeated and longer deployments are “important potential contributors,” the institute says on a Web page outlining the study.

For the first nine months of this year, the Army reported 117 suspected suicides among active-duty personnel, with 81 confirmed and 36 cases in which the cause of death hasn’t yet been determined. That compares with 103 suicides in the year- earlier period.

President Barack Obama talked with Defense Secretary Robert Gates about military morale hours after the Fort Hood shooting, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday. “That’s something that’s on their minds and Admiral Mullen’s as well,” he said, referring to Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Army ‘Stretched’

General George Casey, the U.S. Army chief of staff, said that the demands of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have “stretched” the Army. Still, he said, “it’s way too early” to say whether the shooting signals that the Army isn’t big enough to do the job being asked of it.

McHugh said that Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, hadn’t indicated he needed help before he entered a crowded medical processing center with two handguns and opened fire.

“You have an alleged actor, who did not reach out, who in fact did not do a lot of things” to indicate he was troubled, McHugh said.

The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are probing what triggered the attack in which, along with the 13 deaths, 30 people suffered wounds that required their hospitalization. Colonel John Rossi, the deputy commander at the base, said at a press conference last night that 23 of the wounded remained hospitalized.

Hasan’s Condition

Hasan was shot and wounded by a Fort Hood police officer. Rossi said Hasan was moved yesterday to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He “was intubated and not able to converse,” Rossi said.

Federal authorities seized Hasan’s computer early yesterday, said U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican. The authorities also searched his apartment in nearby Killeen, Texas, said Hilary Shine, a spokeswoman for the city.

Investigators are examining materials Hasan had with him during the shooting and evidence recovered from his vehicle, which was found parked on the base, a military official told the Associated Press.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, said she was told by Fort Hood authorities the suspect was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and had been “very upset and angry” in the past few days.

War on Islam

Hasan, 39, regularly described the war on terrorism as “a war against Islam,” according to a doctor who was in a graduate program with him.

While studying for a master’s degree in public health in 2007, Hasan used a presentation for an environmental health class to argue that Muslims were being targeted by the U.S. anti-terror campaign, said Val Finnell, a classmate.

“He was very vocal about the war, very upfront about being a Muslim first and an American second,” Finnell, 41, a preventive medicine doctor in Los Angeles, said in an interview yesterday. “He was always concerned that Muslims in the military were being persecuted.”

Hasan was a devout Muslim and had sought for several years to be discharged from the military, the Washington Post reported, citing his aunt. Noel Hasan told the paper her nephew endured name-calling and harassment about his faith for years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Hasan’s family doesn’t know what prompted the shooting, said Nader Hasan, a cousin who lives in Virginia, in an e- mailed statement yesterday.

‘Mortified’

“Our family is filled with grief for the victims and their families involved,” the statement said. “We are mortified and there is no justification, whatsoever, for what happened. Everyone is asking why this happened -- and the answer is that we simply do not know. We cannot explain, nor do we excuse or understand what happened.”

The family has spoken with the FBI and will continue to cooperate, according to the statement.

The Virginia Board of Medicine lists Hasan as a licensed physician with a primary practice at the Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood. It says he completed a residency in psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington in 2007 and a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry in 2009.

McCaul said Hasan’s experience at Walter Reed, where many soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq are treated, may have played a role in his behavior.

‘Poor Evaluation’

“The picture I am seeing is an individual who had a poor evaluation at Walter Reed,” McCaul said. “He obviously snapped.”

McCaul, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, also said that Hasan’s professional problems and reservations about the war may have played a role in the shootings.

He said shooting witnesses told him that Hasan said, “Allahu Akbar,” or God is great, as he fired.

“We are getting the picture of a guy who’s maybe internally radicalizing himself,” he said.

General Will Grimsley, deputy commander of III Corps, said Hasan fired only one weapon, a Belgian-make semi-automatic machine pistol with an extended magazine. He said Hasan reloaded and fired more than 100 rounds. Investigators are still finding shell casings, he said.

Hasan also carried a .357 magnum handgun but apparently didn’t fire it, Grimsley said.

Weapon Ownership

Rossi, at his press conference last night, said the weapons weren’t issued by the military. They were owned by Hasan and bought locally.

Rossi also told reporters it didn’t appear there were incidents of so-called friendly fire striking anyone during the shootout.

Military officials praised the quick actions of soldiers and civilian officers who responded to the shooting and tended to the wounded and dying. Kimberly Munley, a civilian police officer, was credited with firing the shots that hit Hasan and stopped the rampage.

Munley was wounded as she exchanged gunfire with Hasan and was in stable condition as of last night, Rossi said.

Some of the 138 soldiers graduating from college extension courses at a ceremony 164 feet (50 meters) away from the shootings ran in their caps and gowns to offer aid after hearing gunfire, Casey said.

Rescued Buddies

One private heard gunshots, “went back after his buddies, and with the help of others, dragged four badly wounded individuals into his pickup truck and drove them to the emergency room,” he said.

Hasan transferred to Fort Hood in July, said Colonel Kimberly Kesling, deputy commander of clinical services at the medical center. She told reporters she helped oversee Hasan and had no indication he was unstable.

McCaul said the FBI six months ago saw a Web posting by a “Nidal Hasan” that interested them.

The posting equated suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades. Officials are trying to confirm whether Hasan was the author of the postings.

Future Probes

Lawmakers said if the postings turn out to be Hasan’s, they want to probe why more wasn’t done to monitor him.

“I am absolutely concerned about the actions that either were taken or were not taken,” said Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat who serves on the Homeland Security Committee.

Jackson Lee, a subcommittee chairwoman on the panel, said she would press for a “full investigation” that may involve several House committees.

McHugh said that in the wake of the shooting, Army officials will be looking into better ways to identify early signs of a soldier having problems.

“We have to understand what caused that suspect to act in the way in which he did and derive back from that programs that can make a difference,” he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net; Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 7, 2009 00:01 EST