KILLEEN, Texas (BP)--At a memorial service at Fort Hood, President Obama placed the slaying of 12 servicemen and one civilian in the context of America's defense of freedom at home and abroad.

Obama also noted that one of the slain soldiers was an expectant mother.

Obama and his wife Michelle traveled to Fort Hood, the nation's largest military base in Killeen, Texas, for the Nov. 10 memorial service.

Obama spoke from a podium behind a row of memorials for the victims -- each with a picture of the deceased, a pair of combat boots and a rifle topped with a helmet.

The alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist and a Muslim, remains hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio with several abdominal wounds that halted his Nov. 5 rampage at Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Center. In addition to the dead, 29 were wounded, more than a dozen of whom remain hospitalized.

Obama, in his remarks, though not mentioning Hasan by name, stated that "no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. For what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice -- in this world, and the next."

"These are trying times for our country," the president continued, according a transcript of his 2,000-word address posted at the White House's website. "In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans continue to endanger America, our allies, and innocent Afghans and Pakistanis. In Iraq, we're working to bring a war to a successful end, as there are still those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that Americans and Iraqis have sacrificed so much for.

"As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon. Theirs are the tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call -- the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans....