By the time it was over, 13 people were dead and dozens more wounded in an attack that brought home the war to this sprawling military base in the heart of Texas, and raised the specter of homegrown Islamic extremism.

A year after the shootings, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 40, sits paralyzed from the chest down in a jail cell facing 13 counts of premeditated murder -- charges that could bring the death penalty.

The November 5, 2009 shooting shocked the nation. Military officials have faced intense criticism for overlooking warning signs about Hasan, an army psychiatrist who corresponded by email with a radical cleric now in Yemen.

The cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, has since been accused of links to a string of other plots originating from Yemen, most recently the discovery of explosive devices on US cargo planes.

The Army's top civilian, John McHugh, and chief of staff, Gen. George Casey, will speak here Friday at a ceremony in memory of the victims.

Survivors have searing memories of the day.

At pre-trial hearings, witnesses have testified they heard or saw Hasan cry out, "God is great!" in Arabic and start firing with a 5.7mm handgun as he entered a facility where troops were being processed for deployment to Afghanistan.

As people dove behind desks and dividers, physician's assistant Michael Cahill walked out of a cubicle with a chair high over his head.

"Major Hasan at that time turned his weapon on Doc Cahill," said Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford, a combat medic who was blinded in one eye in the attack.

Shot dead, Cahill fell to the floor.

Army Reserve Captain John Gaffaney, a psychiatric nurse headed for Iraq, rushed Hasan.

"Captain Gaffaney got up and charged the shooter, but he wasn't fast enough and he got shot at close range," said Martin, the specialist.

Army Reserve Specialist Logan Burnett saw an empty magazine hit the floor.

Deciding to act, he reached for a chair.

"I tried to throw it toward the shooter," he said.

Burnett didn't get the chance. He was shot in one hip, fell to the floor and crawled to a cubicle.

Major Steven Richter, the officer in charge of the center, thought of making a charge of his own, but then saw Hasan train a red laser on him before civilian police officer Kimberly Munley fired.

Richter ducked behind a car; Hasan turned and shot Munley, who was knocked to the ground. Seconds later, civilian police officer Sergeant Mark Todd shot Hasan four times, finally bringing him down.

As survivors and families prepared to mark the anniversary of the rampage, two senators said their panel's investigation into the attack showed authorities failed to act on information that could have prevented the shooting.

"Our report will show that our domestic intelligence system must be strengthened in order to counter the threat of homegrown terrorism, and that our military must have zero tolerance for the expression of violent Islamist extremism in its ranks," Senate Homeland Security chair Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Senator Susan Collins, the panel's top Republican, said in a statement.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, dismissed concerns from Hasan's defense lawyer that ceremonies marking the one-year anniversary could somehow jeopardize the prospects of a fair hearing in court.

"His ability to get a fair trial and our ability to mourn and remember and mark the year anniversary of this tragic shooting are not mutually exclusive," press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.

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