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By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - About 50 people who survived a 2009 shooting rampage at the Fort Hood U.S. Army base in central Texas are set to receive Purple Heart and Defense of Freedom medals on Friday after years of lobbying by politicians and lawyers. In February, the U.S. Army cleared the way for the military and civilian distinctions after the shooting was declared an act of international terrorism.. The awards will be handed out at the base. Then-Army Major Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim, opened fire on unarmed soldiers preparing for overseas deployment on Nov. 5, 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in what he later called retaliation for U.S. wars in the Muslim world. The Army had previously designated the shooting to be "workplace violence" on the grounds that Hasan was a fellow soldier, and there was no evidence that the attack was directed by a foreign enemy.
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