KILLEEN, Texas – No one who knows Kimberly Munley is surprised that she went head to head with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and came out on top.

"She's quite an exceptional individual," said Chuck Medley, director of emergency services at Fort Hood.

And those who don't know Munley are anointing her an American hero because she showed the kind of bravery Thursday afternoon that most people could never muster.

"I live next door to a hero," said Army Capt. Amanda Maben, a neighbor who returned home from South Korea last week. She said she knows Munley mostly by exchanging friendly waves when they see each other. "She's my neighbor and she's a hero."

Munley, 34, a Fort Hood civilian police officer, confronted Hasan and shot him four times. She suffered gunshot wounds in both legs and her right wrist. She was alert and resting comfortably in her hospital bed Friday. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Munley's main goal Friday was to be reunited with her husband, Staff Sgt. Matthew Munley, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C.

"I visited with her at 2 a.m. [Friday]," said Medley, one of her bosses at Fort Hood. "She was in extremely high spirits. The only thing she wanted was for us to get her husband here. She's an upbeat person. Always smiling. Physically fit."

"She is the most upbeat significantly injured person I think I've ever seen."

According to Medley, Munley was active-duty military before joining the civilian police force. She arrived at Fort Hood in January 2008, he said.

Killeen, a Central Texas city of 120,000, is inextricably linked to nearby Fort Hood, the region's largest employer.

Munley's subdivision – neatly tended brick homes with two-car garages – is often half empty because so many military personnel are overseas. But it was full of reporters mixing with neighbors on the street Friday afternoon.

Sgt. William Barbrow, one of those neighbors, said Munley's feisty reputation is well known. Although he admits it might be just rumor, he once heard that she found a man breaking into her house, threatened to shoot him and chased him away.

Barbrow's wife, Ana, preferred to focus on something else: "It's good that a woman did something like that."

Brooke Beato, another neighbor, described Munley as an outgoing woman who carries her 5-foot-5 frame as if it were larger. But she said Munley also is a committed mother who plays with her 3-year-old daughter, Jayden, in the yard. The same woman who is becoming a symbol of valor washes her car in the driveway, hangs wind chimes by the door and carefully tends her lawn.

Neighbors said Munley also has a 12-year-old daughter, Hope, who lives in California. "Everyone is talking about how good an officer she is," Beato said. "But there's a mom side."

Munley graduated in 1993 from Hoggard High School in Wilmington, N.C., a coastal community with nice beaches.

Dave Spencer, the school's principal, coached football and taught back then. He remembers Munley as a well-rounded student – quick to help people and an intense athlete who played volleyball and softball.

Spencer said Munley's heroics don't surprise him.

"From what I remember of Kim, this just reconfirms everything she's done," he said. Dennis Barbour, Munley's father, is a North Carolina businessman who lives near Wilmington. He told a Wilmington television station that his daughter called him after undergoing surgery to mend her gunshot wounds.

"We were happy that she was as responsive as she was," he said.

In more ways than one, Munley was the right person to confront Hasan. She had been in the Army and she had also trained as a civilian police officer to succeed under fire.

In February 2008, she participated in a two-day course for first responders: Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, or ALERRT.

The program began after the Columbine High School massacre. Police officers learn tactics to deal with situations exactly like the one that erupted at Fort Hood.

"Basically, it sounds like the training kicked in," said Terry Nichols, a San Marcos police officer and founding member of ALERRT. "We teach you: Move toward the sound of the gunfire. We teach you not to hide behind a wall or your car." Nichols said Munley was not the only hero at Fort Hood.

"All the ones who went running to the sound of gunfire are heroes, too," he said. "She was the first one there. She's the model for us all to live by."

Staff writer Christy Hoppe contributed to this report.

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