ANDERSON — A gunman who killed 13 people on a Texas Army base on Thursday likely was spurred on by factors more than stress over his upcoming deployment, local veterans said Friday.

When Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan went on a shooting spree in the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood, he might have been acting out for reasons that didn’t involve his deployment, said Scott Reske, a retired Marine who served in Iraq, among other missions.

“I think we’re going to find out there’s a lot more to this guy than just a soldier deployed,” said Reske, who also serves as one of Madison County’s representatives in the Indiana General Assembly. “I think we’re going to find out that he was mentally ill or that he had some malicious motive. I think there’s going to be more to it than just stress.”

Most soldiers deployed to combat zones can handle the stress because they have been well trained for a certain mission, Reske said.

“The U.S. military does a good job of training everybody, and that eliminates a lot of anxiety,” he said.

Vietnam-era veteran Harold Barkdull agreed that most soldiers’ pre-deployment stress is mitigated by the training and intense preparations they undergo.

“Usually the bulk of the vets that are being deployed are gung ho,” said Barkdull, who started Stepping Stones, an Anderson shelter for veterans. “They’re schooled, trained and everything else to serve our country to the best of their ability, and they take pride in trying to achieve in that endeavor.”

Barkdull said Hasan’s shooting spree was surprising considering the camaraderie that most soldiers experience with each other.

“For somebody that you feel is supposed to be covering your back to actually turn on you and your comrades is mind-boggling,” he said. “The main thing is soliders don’t fight for themselves, they fight for their comrades. I think the main atmosphere there was camaraderie, and that is the main component you have in the military. To me, it’s unexplainable why some people snap at different things.”

That same camaraderie is what Barkdull said would help those at Fort Hood heal after Thursday’s shooting.

“The main healing from Fort Hood will come from within,” he said. “They’re all family. That’s that trust level they have for each other.”

Authorities on Friday were looking into Hasan’s motives, noting that he is a practicing Muslim and a former co-worker said Hasan had expressed some anger about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the morning of the shooting, a man identified by a store owner as Hasan was seen wearing traditional Middle Eastern clothing in video surveillance footage from a convenience store, and Hasan had given copies of the Quran to his neighbors.

Soldiers at the scene of the shooting report Hasan had shouted “Allahu Akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great!” — before he started shooting.

Anderson resident Don McAllister, who interviews veterans for the National Veteran’s Historical Archive, said Hasan should not have been discriminated against in the Army because he was a Muslim, but McAllister believes the shooter had religious motives.