Retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford still remembers the tings each time a metal shell casing hit the floor inside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Texas, five years ago.
Lunsford was working in the center when Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire on those inside. The attack on Nov. 5, 2009, left 13 people dead and more than 30 injured.
Lunsford was at a work-station to check in soldiers for medical evaluations before deployments when the shooting started and he dropped to the floor.
As he crawled on his stomach from behind a counter to get outside, he could hear Hasan stalking him, the tings getting closer. Lunsford wanted to get to his Jeep and search for a weapon, but Hasan shot him above his left eye, then in his back.
Lunsford changed his breathing pattern to his diaphragm so his chest would stop moving up and down. Hasan was fooled and walked away to continue shooting inside the building.
“The smell of death was in the air,” Lunsford said. “You hear screams, people pleading for their lives, bullets ricocheting.”
Lunsford, who now lives in Lillington, was near Hasan when the rampage started. Hasan jumped on a counter and began shooting, Lunsford said. He remembers Hasan firing only at people in Army uniforms.
A doctor and friend of Lunsford’s tried to take down Hasan with a folding chair but was shot and killed instantly.
“He killed my friend right in front of my face,” Lunsford said. “Things got real, real fast.”
In 2013, Hasan was convicted of 30 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to death in a general court-martial.
Lunsford was shot seven times.
He lost half of his intestines and is blind in his left eye. A bullet doctors haven’t been able to remove is still lodged in his back. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and traumatic brain injury.
The injuries forced the 22-year veteran from Roxboro to take medical retirement from the job he loved in February 2013. Throughout his career, Lunsford had worked as a combat medic, optometry specialist, laboratory specialist and psychology specialist.
He has had more than 10 surgeries for his injuries. He will be on medication for the rest of his life, he said.
Even as he recovered, Lunsford, 48, found himself continuing to battle - this time, the government.
He was told the attack was considered “workplace violence,” not terror-related, so victims would not be eligible for the Purple Heart medal. The medal comes with various benefits, including money that could cover medical expenses.
Lunsford remembers a judge advocate pulling him aside after he testified during Hasan’s Article 32 hearing to say he would never receive the medal.
Five years after the attack, however, the secretary of the Army has cleared the way for the Fort Hood victims to receive the Purple Heart.
In February, Secretary of the Army John McHugh approved awarding the Purple Heart, and its civilian counterpart - the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom - to victims of the 2009 shooting.
Congress approved redefining what should be considered an attack by a “foreign terrorist organization,” clearing the way to award the medals to the victims.
Now, incidents when there is communication between the attacker and a foreign terrorist organization before the attack, or when the attack was motivated by a foreign terrorist organization, are included.
In this case, the Army determined there was sufficient evidence to conclude Hasan was in communication with a foreign terrorist organization before the attack, according to McHugh’s office.
McHugh directed Army officials to identify soldiers and civilians who are eligible for the awards and to arrange their presentations.
“It’s an appropriate recognition of their service and sacrifice,” McHugh said in a statement.
Shortly after the Army’s announcement to award the Purple Heart, Lunsford said, he received a call from the Department of Defense to confirm his medal.
Before then, Lunsford said, he had a heated conversation with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. He said he was disappointed that Holder, who does not have military experience, was involved in the decision to classify the shooting as “workplace violence.”
“He’s gonna step outside his lane and call it ‘workplace violence?’” Lunsford said. “Really?”
Lunsford also requested a meeting with President Obama to ask how officials were assisting victims in a 2014 shooting rampage at Fort Hood and to inquire about the status of the 2009 case. He said he was denied.
Lunsford said he lost his military pay in December. He has been denied for Combat Related Special Compensation three times, he said.
The Purple Heart would automatically get him the Combat Related Special Compensation, among other benefits, he said. The benefits would cover the medical expenses that Lunsford anticipates he will always have.
Survivors of the Fort Hood rampage stayed in touch, bringing awareness to their situations. Lunsford has appeared on national television to share his story.
“We kept building awareness,” he said. “We’re resilient. We bounced back.”
The survivors agreed that they would like to see a ceremony at the White House with President Obama, he said. That would signal that the government acknowledges the rampage was an act of terror, Lunsford said.
He never doubted it was terrorism.
“We don’t have ‘workplace violence’ in the military,” Lunsford said. “It was a ‘terrorist act.’”
He vividly remembers seeing Hasan sitting in the Soldier Readiness Processing Center with his hands to his face. Hasan then roused a civilian medical coder to move away and jumped on top of a counter and yelled, “Allahu Akbar,” which translates to “God is great.”
That is when Hasan opened fire, Lunsford said.
“We were wounded. We were hurt in combat,” Lunsford said from his home in Lillington. “I wake up, I see the evidence of what this man tried to do to me.”
Even after he was shot in his back, Lunsford said he crawled through a back door outside the building, determined to get to his Jeep. He passed out in the grass.
He was in and out of consciousness. The last thing he remembers is two nurses standing over him.
His stomach felt like it was burning, and the nurses would not describe the wound to him, he said. He remembers the nurses got him on a tarp and moved him toward a medical helicopter.
“The last thing I remember, someone standing over me saying, ‘He’s one of ours. Put him on the bird now! Put him on the bird!’” Lunsford said.
Lunsford later learned Hasan, who was wounded in the rampage, was next to him on that medical helicopter.
In the time since the rampage, Lunsford has moved back to his home state of North Carolina. He and his fiancee, Gherri, married.
He spends time with his five children and grandson.
Every day, he carries around two bullets - one that is unspent, and the other that was pulled from his body after the attack - to remind him of his struggles and his desire to persevere.
When he feels like his day is crumbling, he will reach down and pull out the bullets to reflect.
“I have that with me at all times,” he said. “When you have those dark days and your back is against the wall and you feel those four walls closing in, I do have to remind myself of where I came from.”
Lunsford is the athletic director and physical education teacher at Alpha Academy. He also spends time coaching an Army wheelchair basketball team and girls’ basketball for Fayetteville Christian School.
Time on the court has helped him cope, he said. The tough, 6-foot-9 man breaks into smiles when he is on the court calling plays to be practiced.
“They keep me balanced,” he said. “My wife tries. She goes above and beyond what’s expected of a spouse of a wounded veteran.”
On a recent Friday, Lunsford stood near the middle of the court at Fayetteville Christian School with coach Don Gardner watching the girls run plays. Lunsford paced at the top of the key, fiddling with a whistle around his neck.
After one of the girls missed a shot, he paused the play to jump in and explain what went wrong.
They ran the play again - a few times.
“This is my salvation,” Lunsford said. “They don’t really understand what they do for us. When I go on a basketball court, I don’t feel any pain.”