Bit by bit, a nightmarish and complex portrait is emerging of Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the 39-year-old Army psychiatrist now held in the shooting deaths of 13 and wounding of nearly 40 others at nearby Fort Hood Thursday afternoon.

If information gleaned so far is true, Hasan’s mind was corrupted by notions of Islamic radicalism, tales of the horrors both experienced and witnessed by war-weary soldiers whose care was entrusted to him and, finally, deep reservations about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.

The irony is that, for those of us at the Trib who visit Fort Hood on occasion and have enjoyed the chance to talk with soldiers back from long tours of duty in Iraq, there’s also a sense of humanitarian accomplishment cited.

Yes, most soldiers reluctantly acknowledge the dangers of what used to be called the “war on terror.” But they also voice immense pride in what they’ve done abroad — particularly in terms of trying to connect with the Iraqi people by aiding in setting up schools and hospitals.

Several dispatches from Baghdad, e-mailed to me by Fort Hood’s 1st Cavalry Division only days before Thursday’s post massacre, offer a glimpse of how U.S. soldiers from the post cope with long tours of overseas duty and the pride so many speak of — something obviously missing from Maj. Hasan’s grasp of our mission abroad.

* Some dispatches from Camp Liberty, Iraq, tout continuing efforts by 1st Cavalry members in training Iraqi security forces to assume greater and greater roles in patrolling the streets of their own land. Classroom instruction and hands-on, realistic training scenarios reportedly help when joint U.S.-Iraqi patrols leaves the confines of joint security stations.

“Patrolling side by side with (the Iraqi Army) helps show them the way we do things,” said Army Cpl. Christopher Cannon, a Moore, Okla., native. “We aren’t forcing the way we do things on them, but it helps to show them that there are other options to consider.”

Those Iraqis attending the three-day “Warrior Academy” learn basic rifle marksmanship, weapon-handling and safety, basic tactical movements, first aid and combat patrolling.

One dispatch tells of 1st Cavalry soldiers in the first joint air assault involving U.S. and Iraqi military, with each side coordinating the attack in UH-60 Black Hawks and, for the Iraqis, MI-17 Hip helicopters.

* Some 1st Cavalry dispatches touch on the unique talents of soldiers and how they while away their time off. Some paint. Others write. One involves Spc. Jose Barrientos, a mechanic born in Michoacan, Mexico, but now of San Diego. Seems he’s also an illusionist.

Barrientos reportedly can put a card through a glass pane; burn a dollar and reform it; and make a deck of cards move without touching it. His magic skills have led the Iraqi Federal Police who share joint security responsibilities with U.S. forces to label him “the genie.”

“What I love about magic is that you can kind of reach out and touch people with it,” Barrientos said. “You can bend the rules of the universe for just a moment and everybody goes into that place in their mind where anything is possible.”

* Another dispatch tells how military personnel from Fort Hood’s 1st Cavalry were honored last month during a celebration of the first successful summer for the new al-Huda Girls School in the town of Tarmiyah. Girls sang, acted and displayed their artwork.

Soldiers emphasized there was good reason to celebrate. When the school was first constructed, insurgents built explosives into the walls, part of a plan to use the school building as a weapon, regardless of the young Iraqi lives that might be lost.

U.S. officials discovered the explosives and demolished the building. Today, the new, year-old school building, built with U.S. aid, is a modern facility for girls grades 7-12 in Tarmiyah.

Incidentally, the themes of the performances during the celebration were peace, education, exercising the right to vote, honesty and Iraqi unity.

One can only hope these ideas take root in the next generation of Iraqis.