Brad Ping

She tore up her own blouse to help a wounded comrade during the Fort Hood shooting, using it to make a tourniquet. What she didn't realize was that she had also been shot in the back. She was only 19 years old. Her name was Amber Pfund, a young soldier from the small town of Random Lake, Wisconsin, serving at Fort Hood, Texas. It was Thursday, November 5, 2009, at approximately 1:30 p.m. Amber was inside a processing center where soldiers were preparing for deployment. It had been an ordinary day until a gunman suddenly opened fire. Screams filled the building. People fell to the ground. Soldiers on the post were unarmed, and chaos erupted. But Amber did not freeze. She ran toward the wounded. She tore up her blouse, fashioned a tourniquet, and tied it around an injured comrade to help stop the bleeding. She continued moving from one wounded person to another, refusing to stop and think about her own safety. She was so focused on helping others that she never realized a bullet had struck her in the back. She discovered she had been shot only later, while receiving treatment in an emergency room. That evening, she called her mother, Lisa Pfund, who was relieved to hear from her daughter. Amber explained what had happened and told her that she hadn't even known she had been hit. The November 5 attack claimed 13 lives and wounded 31 others, making it the deadliest mass shooting ever to take place on a U.S. military installation. Amber survived. Five days later, President Barack Obama visited Fort Hood, where approximately 5,000 people gathered for a memorial service. He shared the stories of those who had been killed and also recognized the courage of those who survived. Among them was Amber. He described how determined she had been to help others, explaining that she did not realize for some time that she had been shot in the back. The following day, First Lady Michelle Obama also shared Amber's story. She had met the young soldier at Fort Hood, where Amber explained what mattered most to her: the safety of her fellow soldiers was her number one priority. In February 2010, Amber returned home to Random Lake, Wisconsin, where her community welcomed her as a hero. But Amber humbly rejected that description. She insisted she was not a hero; she was simply a soldier doing what she believed she had to do. Although she survived, she continued living with the physical and emotional scars of that terrible day. Years later, the Army announced that Purple Hearts would be awarded to victims of the Fort Hood attack. Amber was among those recognized for her wounds. At just 19 years old, she ran toward danger to save others, never realizing that she herself had been wounded. She put her fellow soldiers' lives ahead of her own and kept helping even while bleeding. Amber Pfund represents the courage, selflessness, and dedication of a soldier who never stopped caring for her comrades. Some heroes don't realize they're heroes. They simply do what needs to be done.