A deranged murderer attacked an Army base packed with combat-ready soldiers trained to kill. The only person who could stop him? A female civilian.

Following Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's deadly Fort Hood shooting spree, and ensuing media chaos and misinformation melee (final stats: 12 dead, 31 wounded, one shooter, at least two guns), Lt. Gen. Robert Cone's press conference delivered several surprises: Though Hasan was gunned down on the scene, he was not, as previously reported, dead. Nor was the person who shot him. Both were in stable condition in the hospital—and one of them was a woman.

Reporters clamored for details about her, stammering breathless questions about the "hero," who she was, and why she was there. All we know so far is that she is not in the military; that she was a "first responder" (maybe a cop); that bullets from her gun were what stopped Hasan's massacre; that she was shot; that she nearly died; and that, had she enlisted to fight in the front lines of the Army, she would have been turned down. Combat units are male-only.

The tale of Fort Hood massacre will have many morals-of-the-story, complicated stuff about workplace harassment, medical licenses, Muslims in the military, and the twisted state of mental health in the Armed Forces. This, the case for letting women risk life and limb more often, is one of the happier ones.

There are plenty of reasons why dozens of soldiers (77 percent of whom were probably dudes) on the scene couldn't stop the shooter. (The most obvious of which is that even trained-to-kill soldiers don't wander around with loaded weapons at all times, especially when they're at the doctor getting a check-up, which is what Hasan's victims were doing. Which, by the way, only brings him that much closer to stealing Dr. Mengele's title as "shittiest doctor of all time.") But if a woman can storm into that place and save all those people, shouldn't she be allowed serve alongside them in a war zone, too? Yeah, sexual tension has a tendency to spook the Army (which is why there are no gays in the military, not even one!) and, oh, it'd be such a drag to deal with girl toilets and tampons in the barracks. But, guys, a chick just saved all your asses. Figure it out, already.

UPDATE: The female police officer's identity is now known. Meet Kimberly Munley, a "tough woman" with a 3-year-old daughter and military husband.