Barracks Rumor Mill cover: full-frame photo of a soldier in OCP singing beside memorial wreaths at a Fort Hood remembrance ceremony, with the headline "13 Killed. 17 Years. Firing Squad Approved." over a dark band and a small CONVICTED stamp.

13 Killed. 17 Years. Firing Squad Approved.

October 8, 2026

The Army will execute Nidal Hasan by firing squad, the Pentagon announced Monday night, Oct. 5. Hasan is the former Army major and psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the method, and President Donald Trump approved it. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted the decision on X. "The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution," Parnell wrote. "Judgement day for Hasan has finally come." Hegseth posted one word: "Justice." The execution is set for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood.

If it happens, it will be the first U.S. military execution since 1961 and the Army's first firing squad in 81 years.

The attack

Hasan walked into the Fort Hood readiness processing center and opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun. That is the building where soldiers get their shots, records, and paperwork squared away before they deploy. Hasan himself was due to deploy to Afghanistan weeks later.

Twelve soldiers and one civilian were killed, including a pregnant soldier. Six of the 12 soldiers were specialists, privates first class, or privates, according to the roll read at the Nov. 10, 2009, memorial. At least two of them were getting ready for their first deployment.

Responding officers shot Hasan. He has been paralyzed from the waist down since.

The case

Hasan represented himself at his court-martial and admitted the shooting. Asked who he was defending, he told the judge, "The leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban."

A military jury convicted him in August 2013 of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and sentenced him to death. He has been on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, ever since. He is one of four men there.

The Army first classified the attack as workplace violence. Survivors and families fought that label for years, and the Army awarded Purple Hearts to the casualties in 2015.

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the death sentence in 2020. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces upheld it in 2023. The Supreme Court declined to take the case in 2025.

What happens next

Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle picked the date and place. The secretary job has been vacant since Dan Driscoll resigned in September.

Military law puts the date 60 to 150 days after the president's approval.

Appeals can still stall it. Hasan can ask a federal civilian court for habeas review, and that process can run for years. An Army private approved for execution by President George W. Bush in 2008 is still on death row today after more than 15 years of it.

In June, Army officials confirmed a plan called Operation Resolute Justice to move military death row prisoners from Fort Leavenworth to the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for execution. Nobody has said whether Hasan would be executed there, or how the Army would put together a firing squad after 81 years. The Pentagon declined to add anything beyond the announcement.

Why an E-4 should care

Every junior enlisted troop has sat in an SRP line waiting on shots, a dental check, and a stack of forms. The soldiers killed that day were in that line, and half of them were E-4 and below.

It has been almost 17 years since the attack and 13 years since the death sentence.

Cover photo: A 1st Cavalry Division Band soldier sings the national anthem beside memorial wreaths at the 15th anniversary remembrance of the Nov. 5, 2009, Fort Hood attack, Nov. 5, 2024, Fort Cavazos, Texas. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Nathanial Johnson, 1st Cavalry Division, via DVIDS (ID 8737892), https://www.dvidshub.net/image/8737892/15th-annual-november-5th-fort-hood-tragedy-memorial. The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.