Amber Bahr
What a week for Army Private First Class Amber Bahr of Random Lake.
Caught up in the tragic shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas on Nov. 5, the 19-year-old acted heroically to assist others before discovering her own gunshot wound. She and other soldiers were congratulated by President Barack Obama when he visited the base on Tuesday.
Bahr’s actions have received international publicity. She was praised on Friday’s NBC “Today” show by her commander, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone, who said that she is an “amazing young lady” for helping others after being shot herself.
2008 RLHS Graduate
Bahr joined the Army Reserves in December 2006 at age 17 to earn money for her post high school education. She completed basic training between her junior and senior years of high school.
She spent her senior year as a member of the Army Reserves, graduating with the RLHS Class of 2008. She also was a co-captain on the Random Lake girls’ soccer team.
She is a member of the 36th Engineer Brigade, 20th Engineer Battalion, working as a nutritionist/cook.
Bahr has been stationed at Fort Hood since May 2009. Her unit is scheduled to be deployed overseas in January 2010.
On Thursday afternoon she was inside the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood to get a medical screening and shots in preparation for deployment.
Thursday’s shooting occurred at about 1:30 p.m., allegedly carried out by Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist. The rampage left 13 people dead and 30 injured. Hasan was shot four times but he has survived.
Bahr spoke publicly about the incident for the first time on Monday’s “Today” show. She was dressed in fatigues and seated next to her mother, Lisa Pfund of Random Lake, during the program.
Bahr said she first thought the shooting was a drill. She said she dropped to the ground as shots were fired after hearing a yell, consistent with other soldiers’ reports that the shooter yelled “Allahu Akbar!” – an Arabic phrase for “God is great!”
“I wasn’t sure what I heard – I just heard somebody yell something, and then I dropped to the ground with everyone else in the room and we just covered ourselves,” Bahr said. “The shots stopped after a couple seconds and I smelled sulfur in the air, and then everything kind of hit me. I heard screaming and I saw blood and then I realized it wasn’t a drill.”
The readiness center became a scene of chaos.
“People were trying to hide like behind the walls that they had, and they were pulling chairs and tables over them to protect them and their battle buddies,” she told Today host Meredith Vieira.
Bahr spotted a wounded friend and used her blouse to fashion a tourniquet around the wound. She said the shooting continued as she and others escaped.
Bahr was shot in the back, with the bullet exiting her abdomen. But she didn’t realize she’d been hit until after going to the hospital with an injured friend.
“I don’t know if it was the adrenaline, but my own personal safety wasn’t really what mattered to me,” Bahr said. “Making sure that my battle buddies were safe was my No. 1 priority.”
Surgery May Be Required
It may turn out that Bahr does not need surgery. She was released from the hospital late last week but she will be going back in later this month.
“I pushed people toward the door and I was pulling out the door,” she said. “Then I low-crawled toward the door, and once I got to the door I just got up and I ran outside.”
What about the word hero? “I don’t think I’m a hero,” she told the show host. “I was just doing what I was trained to do, I was doing what any soldier would do.”
On Tuesday, President and Mrs. Obama came to Fort Hood for a memorial service. The families of the deceased, as well as the injured soldiers and their families, had the opportunity to meet the president.
“It’s crazy,” Bahr told the Today show. “I’ve always wanted to meet him – it’s always been a dream of mine to just meet any president, really. I wish it could be under different circumstances, but it’s certainly something I’m looking forward to.”
The president asked each soldier how he or she has been treated. Obama said he was proud to have them as members of the U.S. Army.
The Random Lake resident was surprised to be mentioned in Obama’s speech during the memorial ceremony: “...One young soldier, Amber Bahr, was so intent on helping others, she did not realize for some time, that she, herself, had been shot in the back...”
Mrs. Pfund told the Sounder that she has been treated well by the Fort Hood staff. On Saturday she flew to Texas with her friend, Dawn Freiburger of Fredonia, and Amber’s sister, Erika Bahr. They returned on Thursday, Nov. 12.
Amber was able to spend a few days with them in a hotel over the weekend.
“It could have been so much worse,” Mrs. Pfund said. “It is very somber down here”
Mother and daughter had spoken to each other via cell phone on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 5, shortly before the shooting incident began.
When the shooting started Bahr tossed her cell phone to another soldier for calling “911.” Later that evening an emergency room employee called her parents in Random Lake, who were under going some anxious moments.
“Every single thing was running through my mind,” Pfund said. “It could have been her that was killed.”
Pfund said that Amber will be coming home for some time prior to her overseas deployment in January. But for now she is a happy and relieved mother, who describes herself as “very, very, very proud."
A series of American flags have been placed around the soldier’s town of Sherman home, located off Abbott Rd. a mile north of Random Lake.
