The Army will award the Purple Heart to survivors of the massacre at Texas-based Fort Hood that left 13 people dead, sources confirmed to Fox News on Friday.
The decision to give the award, expected to be announced next week, comes after the victims and their families have tried and failed for years to get the Army to hand out Purple Hearts. The honor will come with benefits lawyers say will help victims who are still mentally and physically traumatized by the 2009 attack and are unable to work.
"No one will be the same," Neal Sher, an attorney for the victims and their families, told Fox News.
Things recently changed when Congress passed legislation requiring the Defense Department to reevaluate if the victims qualify for the medal, which is given to service members for wounds inflicted during combat.
"The administration and the Pentagon, they lobbied hard against it," Sher told Fox News of the troubles they faced in getting the legislation considered. "But we worked very hard and we were successful in garnering bi-partisan support for this."
In addition to the 13 killed, more than 30 people were wounded after Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and open fired.
The incident was classified as "workplace violence," the station reported.
Since the attack, investigators have learned Hasan had extreme views about Islam and was encouraged by former al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. Hasan later pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State, according to Fox News.
Hasan was convicted in August 2013.