Army Reservist John Gaffaney

Remember Our Heroes

Serra Mesa Army reservist among those killed at Fort Hood
By Karen Kucher, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

SAN DIEGO— A county government employee who recently deployed with the Army was among those killed Thursday at Fort Hood in Texas.

John Gaffaney, a supervisor in the county’s Adult Protective Services department, was one of 13 people killed when Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire in a crowded medical building. Thirty others were injured, making it the nation’s worst-ever attack on a stateside military base.

Gaffaney was 56 and lived in Serra Mesa.

Ellen Schmeding, assistant deputy director for the county’s Health and Human Services Agency, sent an e-mail message to county employees Friday to inform them of Gaffaney’s death.

“We all admired and respected John so very much for his commitment to do what he could to help during the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was an inspiration to all of us in so many ways,” Schmeding wrote.