US military commanders need to pay close attention to soldiers showing signs of stress and get them help after a shooting rampage here last week, the head of Fort Hood army base said on Monday.
The shooting suspect, Major Nidal Hasan, "was a soldier," said General Robert Cone, "and we have other soldiers that, you know, that might have some of the same stress and indicators that he has."
The general told reporters that officers needed "to look across our entire formation, not just in the medical community, but look hard to our right and left.
"That's the responsibility for everybody from the top to the bottom, to make sure we're taking care of our own."
Cone said that "what I'm directing commanders to do is immediately take a hard look and make sure anybody out there struggling, we're going to address their issues."
The general added that he was referring to troubled soldiers with worrying behavior and not Muslim troops. Hasan was a devout Muslim and investigators are examining accounts from some co-workers who say he was angered by the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I think what we're looking for are people with overwhelming personal problems and patterns of behavior that are not at all related to religion. Not at all," Cone said.
The US Army leadership also planned to investigate whether any warning signs were missed before last week's shooting spree, he said.
The army wanted to "look at anything that might have been done to have prevented this."
A round-the-clock inquiry at the Texas base has so far failed to pin down the reasons for the shooting.
His comments come as Hasan, a 39-year-old army psychiatrist specializing in combat stress, regained consciousness after having been in critical condition.
He was shot and wounded by a female civilian police sergeant, who reportedly halted his deadly gunfire.
