A riddle.
What’s the one question that always generates an infinite number of responses but never really gets answered?
Answer, to the riddle, coming up.
Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Thirteen people died after a shooting spree Thursday at Fort Hood, a sprawling Army post in Texas.
Here's a look at the victims whose names have been released:
Michael Grant Cahill, Spokane, Washington
Michael Cahill, 62, liked his job as a physician's assistant at Fort Hood so much that he only took one week of recovery time after undergoing heart surgery, his sister told CNN affiliate KREM.
Cahill, who served in the Army Reserve, previously worked as a registered nurse, Marilyn Attebery told KREM. He later returned to school to pursue a career as a physician's assistant, she said. Cahill was assisting with physicals for soldiers preparing for deployment at the time of the shooting, his sister said.
"I'm just upset for all the families and for what went on here. They're talking about wars and show wars and it's right there in Fort Hood and it's just devastating to everybody and all the families," Attebery told KREM.
Cahill is survived by his wife, Joleen, three children and a grandson, Attebery said.
Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, Tipton, Oklahoma
Hunt, 22, wanted to be part of something greater than himself, his sister Leila Willingham told CNN. He enlisted in the Army in 2006 and spent his 21st birthday in Iraq, she said. He chose to re-enlist, dedicating the next six years to the military.
"I think that says a lot for that kind of man who makes that kind of choice for his country," Willingham said.
Willingham sobbed as she talked about the love she had for a brother she was "super proud" of.
Hunt was recently married and set for his second deployment to Iraq, his sister told CNN's "Larry King Live."
Hunt graduated high school in 2005 and tested his hand at a career in information technology, Willingham said. But he had a different calling.
"I really feel like when he enlisted in the Army he fulfilled that part of himself that wanted to serve other people and live for something greater than himself," she said.
Willingham said she doesn't know the details of her brother's death, but wants to believe he died trying to save others. "It's something he'd do," she said.
Sgt. Amy Krueger, Kiel, Wisconsin
Amy Krueger, 29, was a high school athlete who joined the military after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Kiel High School Principal Dario Talerico told the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.
"I know she was proud to serve and proud to share her experience," Talerico told the newspaper. "She took pride that she was able to serve her country."
Krueger played for the high school basketball and softball teams and graduated in 1998, Talerico said.
A high school friend who later shared an apartment with Krueger had fond memories of the sergeant.
"She was one of the best people you could have ever met," Carrie Marie Senkbeil told the newspaper.
Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, West Jordan, Utah
Aaron Nemelka, 19, graduated from high school and enlisted in the military in the same year -- 2008. He was set to deploy to Afghanistan in January, his family told CNN affiliate KUTV.
Nemelka, the youngest of four children, was happy to offer his service, the family said in a letter read aloud by Lt. Col. Lisa Olsen of the National Guard to KUTV.
"Aaron was very happy as a combat engineer. He was anxious to be deployed to Afghanistan in January."
Family members said they were devastated by their loss.
"Aaron was the most kind and loving son, brother, nephew, cousin and favorite uncle."
Nemelka had a girlfriend and he may have had plans to marry her, KUTV reported.
Pfc. Michael Pearson, Bolingbrook, Illinois
Michael Pearson, 21, enlisted in the Army more than a year ago to realize his musical dream. He hoped the military would be his path to college, where he could study musical theory, his brother Kristopher Craig told CNN affiliate WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois.
"He was a genius as far as we were concerned," Craig told WGN-TV, reeling from the news that his 21-year-old "little kid brother" was dead.
"He was really living his life playing guitar," Craig said. "When he picked up a guitar, we all understood that he was expressing himself."
Pearson was scheduled to deploy either to Iraq or Afghanistan in January, his brother said. He was learning to deactivate bombs and training in the Mojave Desert, said his mother, Sheryll Pearson. She was looking forward to seeing her son at Christmas.
He was shot three times in the spine and chest and died on the operating table, she said, according to TV affiliates in Chicago.
"His father is still in shock and very angry," Sheryll Pearson said. "We're all very angry."
Craig, who also had been stationed at Fort Hood and now serves in the Illinois National Guard, said he cannot accept a fellow soldier gunned down his brother.
"It's unfathomable," he said. "I couldn't imagine something like that -- attacking another soldier. It's just ridiculous. I don't understand it."
Francheska Velez, Chicago, Illinois
Francheska Velez, 21, lived the dream her father never realized.
Velez enlisted three years ago, an act her father Juan Guillermo Velez always wanted to accomplish, he told CNN affiliate WGBO. He encouraged his three-months pregnant daughter to stick with the military after she gave birth.
"My advice to her was to continue with her career in the military after she had her child," he told WGBO. "Then she would tell me, 'Daddy,' always with a smile on her face, which I will never forget, 'I will continue with my military career.' That was a dream that she made happen for me."
Francheska Velez had recently returned from Iraq and was transferred to Fort Hood last week because she was pregnant, her father said.
In the wake of his loss, Juan Velez struggled to comprehend why.
"It's a very difficult slap because you understand if it was terrorists or if it happened over there during the war. What hurts the most is that one of her own killed her and in her own house, the base where there should have been security."
Pfc. Kham Xiong, St. Paul, Minnesota
Kham Xiong, 23, was preparing for his first deployment since joining the Army, his sister told CNN affiliate KARE.
Xiong enlisted last year and was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in January, Mee Xiong said.
She thinks her brother was at the site of the shooting because he was getting a medical checkup and vaccinations, she said.
With another brother serving in Afghanistan, the news of Kham Xiong's death is "hard on the family," his sister said.
"He is a loving person, everyone loves him and adores him," Mee Xiong told KARE.
Her brother was a father of three, KARE reported
Officials also are releasing the names of the 38 people wounded.
Among them are Justin Johnson of Punta Gorda, Florida; George Stratton II of Post Falls, Idaho; Kimberly Munley, the Fort Hood police officer who returned fire and halted the suspect; Nathan Hewitt of Lafayette, Indiana; Keara Bono of Independence, Missouri; Ray Saucedo, hometown unspecified; Spc. Grant Moxon of Lodi, Wisconsin; Amber Bahr of Random Lake, Wisconsin; Matthew Cooke, hometown unspecified; Staff Sgt. Joy Clark of Des Moines, Iowa; and Pfc. Joey Foster of Ogden, Utah.
From here on out, loudly for awhile and then, as the dust of chaos settles and what passes for sanity in this life resumes, more softly and less often, experts and laymen alike will speculate, theorize, hyperbolize, articulate, ponder, contemplate and, more often than not, simply guess as what it is that lives among us, breathing our air, walking our streets, living in close proximity to our families and friends that can, in an insane nano-second, inflict such damage on us.
And the question that never fully gets answered will be asked over…and over…and over…
The responses will be plentiful…enough to fill a library.
Stress. Chemical imbalance. Unhappy childhood. Bad marriage. Drugs. Alcohol. Genetic defect. Abusive parent. Abusive parents. Too much TV. Bad flossing habits.
Mysterious ways.
Or just plain fucking insanity.
Each of those is a response to the question. A way for us to, hopefully, put some kind of label on it, to come to terms with it, as if by matching the correct response to the question, we could solve the puzzle, find a cure and sleep a little better at night knowing that the key to it would not only answer the question, but enable us to lock out the evil the next time it comes knocking.
But a response is not necessarily an answer.
And in our hearts, we all know that one question for which there is no answer.
The tragedy of something like this is the shattering loss that loved ones must endure and the pain that we all, as fellow travelers, suffer when the madness comes knocking.
The heartbreak of it, though, is in knowing, no matter what we think, hope, wish, demand, pray for and/or choose to believe, that in the end there is no answer to the question.
Why.
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