rampage by a lone gunman last november. at first, carroll thought the shooting was a joke. then, after being hit by two bullets, carroll says he came face to face with the suspected shooter, major nadal hassan. >> me and him looked at each other and all you're thinking is [ bleep ]. you know? damn it, i'm dead. he fired off two shots. one went past the ear and the other hit me in the leg. >> reporter: by the time the smoke cleared, 13 people were dead. carroll's company lost three soldiers that day. >> it's bumpy. >> reporter: three months later the company deployed to afghanistan. despite the rounds, carroll was determined to be there with him. >> you won't make it. you won't make it. i like proving people wrong. it's my thing, i guess. >> reporter: in afghanistan, the 20th engineering battalion hunts
the world. and shadows one of the most dangerous jobs but the u.s. soldier in afghanistan bares scars brought from home. he was a victim of the deadly shooting spree at ft. hood in texas. cnn's ivan watson has his story. >> reporter: some of the soldiers fighting this war are survivors of one of the deadliest domestic shooting incidents in american military history. a bomb-hunting patrol rolls home in a cloud of dust. among the road weary troops, alan carroll from new jersey. he moves with surprising strength and speed, less than a year ago carroll was shot four times with a pistol. >> i got hit one right there. i took one right there. came out here. i took the one in my side and one in my leg. >> reporter: carroll was wounded not in afghanistan but at ft. hood, texas, during a shooting
roadside bombs. carroll spent his first six months here operating a one-man bomb sniffing husky vehicle that the sergeant nicknamed the koch. provised devices hit all but one of the vehicles in i had one hi truck. it wasn't really that significant. still scared the crap out of me, but it wasn't really all that crazy. >> reporter: thanks to armor, carol survived. >> kevlar. >> reporter: but taliban ambushes have claimed victims, including a fellow platoon member who was killed last august. >> yo. >> reporter: nine years ago, allen carol was in seventh grade, waiting for a school bus when he first learned about the september 11th attacks. a lot has changed since then. >> i get nightmares and stuff a lot. but i mean, i'm used to it by now, so i know it's not real, i know it's not happening anymore.