Medic hurt in Fort Hood attack has local connections

An Army medic from DeKalb was among the dozens of people wounded in Thursday's attack on the Army base in Fort Hood, Texas.

Army Staff Sgt. Miguel Angel Valdivia, 36, was preparing to ship off to Iraq when he was badly hurt in a last week's attack that killed 13 people.

Members of Valdivia's family, most of whom live in Elgin, said Tuesday he is now in good condition after undergoing surgery on the day of the shooting.

"He says he's feeling a lot of pain," said his sister, Alma Valdivia, while adding: "He's going to do physical therapy. Eventually, he will get better."

Valdivia, his sister said, has served in the Army for nine years, including a stint in Kuwait almost two years ago. Several years after immigrating to America from Mexico, Valdivia joined the Army in part to help pay for college.

He recently earned earned a degree in math at Northern Illinois University and was working on another degree before the Army called on him to serve in Iraq, his sister said.

"He's very quiet," Alma said. "He didn't really ever complain about going to Iraq."

Valdivia's family, who is visiting him at the hospital in Texas, has not yet talked to him about Thursday's shooting, one of the worst incidents of soldier-on-soldier violence in recent decades.

"We haven't talked to him about it because we don't want him to think about it," Alma said.

Alma is an interpreter at Carpentersville's Dundee-Crown High School. Her sister, Araceli, is a secretary at Hampshire High School. Araceli is "a great gal, a really nice young lady," said her principal, Chuck Bumbales. "People are obviously concerned, but they have a lot of faith and they know that he's recuperating and he's going to be OK."

Community Unit District 300, for whom both sisters work, observed a moment of silence for the victims of the Fort Hood attack at Monday's board meeting. The tragedy underscored the sacrifices of America's military personnel as students across District 300 prepared to mark Veterans Day with numerous assemblies and educational activities on Wednesday.

"It's kind of woven that unfortunate event into what we're doing tomorrow," Bumbales said Tuesday. "It's (not) just what retired veterans have done but what all of the military does for us all the time. It's a great learning moment."

If you would like to reach out to the Valdivia family, you can e-mail Araceli at leticia.valdivia@d300.org or Alma at alma.valdivia@d300.org. You can also send a message to their respective schools.

After taking Monday off to deal with the family emergency, Alma returned Tuesday to find her inbox flooded with messages from well-wishers.

"I was surprised with so many e-mails I got from the district," Alma said. "I sent a response saying thank you for your prayers and thoughts."