President Barack Obama was supposed to leave for his first trip to Asia as president on Wednesday but the mass shootings at Ft. Hood Army Base have caused the White House put its schedule in "flux" according to the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

The president will attend a Ft. Hood memorial service whenever it occurs, Gibbs said, and he indicated Obama will do so even if it means pushing back Obama's departure for China. Indeed, Gibbs told reporters that the White House has told the Pentagon that the president will plan his Asia schedule around the timing of the memorial service.

Here's Gibbs' exchange with a reporter:

MR. GIBBS: I anticipate — we will attend a memorial service at Ft. Hood when it is scheduled. I anticipate that that will likely happen prior to Asia. But again, this is, again, somewhat in flux based on the scheduling of this — families that would have to come in from all over the United States. And our schedule is — will be formed around that.

REPORTER: And they're not building the schedule around his schedule, I take it, for the memorial service, as far as you know?

MR. GIBBS: We have communicated with — with the Department ofDefense that our schedule is built around the families that suffered tragic losses yesterday.

REPORTER: So if they were to delay it until Tuesday or Wednesday or something like that, he could end up changing his schedule on the Asia trip?

MR. GIBBS: We — we anticipate going to Asia and we anticipate we will go to a memorial service. I — I hate to get into hypotheticals —

REPORTER: Right, but you're not ruling out the possibility of changing the departure time.

MR. GIBBS: I'm not ruling — I'd — I'd prefer to talk about the schedule when we have a better sense of its formation.