SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, Wis. — A Fort Hood shooting survivor from Sheboygan County says she wants to witness the December 3 firing squad execution of the man who shot her 17 years ago.
Amber Dimoff was a young Army private when Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychologist, opened fire on U.S. soldiers at Fort Hood military base in Texas in November 2009. Thirteen people were killed.
She's no longer in the military but Dimoff still carries bullet fragments in her back and says the pain — both physical and emotional — has never gone away.
This week, Dimoff received an email update about the planned execution, but said she was surprised to learn from news reports how the execution would take place and that it would be livestreamed.
"Yes, I feel like for part of my healing and like I mentioned before, being able for me to close this chapter and move on to the next one, I feel like it's something that I want to be there for," Dimoff said.
Dimoff's commanders credited her for helping other wounded soldiers escape to safety during the chaos of the shooting.
"I didn't see him when he started shooting. I did see him before he started shooting, but yeah, there, there was massive amounts of chaos in that room," Dimoff said.
The physical and emotional toll of that day has stayed with her.
"I still have some, some lower back pain to this day. I still deal with like PTSD and stuff like that," Dimoff said.
Her mother, Lisa Pfund traveled to Fort Hood days after the shooting to be reunited with her daughter and to mourn the loss of life on the base. The painful memories of that November day remain for both of them.
"I ask her around the anniversary time, you know, how are you doing? Do you want to talk about anything and you know what she saw, what she felt, and it's definitely gotten easier over the years, but it's -- it's always going to be a part of our life," Pfund said.
Despite everything, Dimoff says the experience has also made her stronger.
"He did change me and changed my life in ways that I'll never be able to get certain things back. I'm forever changed for what happened to me that day. but I'm also a much better person," Dimoff said.
"I've learned things about myself that have just allowed me to grow in a way that I don't think I would have been able to had I not gone through that situation," Dimoff said.
Dimoff is now a mother of three with another child on the way and is studying to be a registered nurse. She and Pfund chose to share their story again so people don't forget what happened that day.
Dimoff has talked to her children about what happened to her.
"They know that a bad thing happened to me. They don't know his name. We don't, we don't talk about that. I have used it more for kind of teaching my children what to do if they ever happen to be in a situation like that, " Dimoff said.
This story was reported on-air by Charles Benson and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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