Decorated soldier accused in Afghan killings was family man

(AP) Soldier accused in Afghan killings was family man
By ADAM GELLER and RACHEL LA CORTE
Associated Press
LAKE TAPPS, Wash.
On a winding road of wood-frame homes tucked amid towering trees, Robert Bales was the father who joined his two young children for playtime in the yard, a career soldier who greeted neighbors warmly but was guarded when talking about the years he spent away at war.

Speaking to his fellow soldiers, though, Bales could exult in the role. Plunged into battle in Iraq, he told an interviewer for a base newspaper in 2009 that he and his comrades proved “the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy.”

As reporters swarmed Bales’ neighborhood late Friday, Holland and other neighbors shook their heads, trying but failing to reconcile the man they thought they knew with the allegations against him. Military officials say that at about 3 a.m. last Sunday, the 38-year-old staff sergeant crept away from the Army base where he was stationed in southern Afghanistan, entered two slumbering villages and unleashed a massacre, shooting his victims and setting many of the bodies on fire. Eleven of those killed belonged to one family. Nine were children.

Until Friday, military officials had kept Bales’ identity secret and what little was known about him remained sketchy. But with the release of his name, a still-incomplete, but sharply conflicting portrait of the man comes into focus. Part of it reveals the father and husband neighbors recall, and a soldier quietly proud of his 11-year record of service, including three tours in Iraq.

But it also shows Bales had previous brushes with trouble. In 2002, records show, he was arrested at a Tacoma, Wash., hotel for assault on a girlfriend. Bales pleaded not guilty and was required to undergo 20 hours of anger management counseling, after which the case was dismissed. A separate hit-and-run charge was dismissed in a nearby town’s municipal court three years ago, according to records.

Bales has not yet been charged in the killings in Afghanistan. He was flown Friday from Kuwait to the military’s only maximum-security prison, at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. When the Air Force cargo jet with the soldier aboard arrived at Kansas City International Airport, about an hour from the military prison, security was very tight, with the terminal completely blocked off. It marked the tragic end of Bales’ fourth tour of duty in a war zone, one his lawyer said he had hoped to avoid.

A neighbor, Paul Wohlberg, recalled that when he last saw Bales in November the two men talked briefly about the soldier’s imminent departure for Afghanistan.

Wohlberg described Bales as a man who clearly loved his country.

Bales told neighbors little about his brigade’s three tours of duty to Iraq. But in a 2009 article published in Fort Lewis’ Northwest Guardian, Bales told the interviewer about finding many dead and wounded when his unit was sent to recover a downed Apache helicopter in Iraq.

After returning from his second deployment to Iraq, Bales was elevated to staff sergeant. In three tours of duty, Browne says his client was injured twice. One of those injuries required the surgical removal of part of one foot. In a vehicle accident, Bales suffered a concussion, the lawyer said.

But by last year, the soldier had reached a disappointing juncture. Bales received more than 20 awards and commendations, including three Army Good Conduct medals. But military files show a largely unremarkable service record, absent the Purple Heart awards that would be expected following a significant injury or wound in combat.

Then he was passed over for a promotion, according to a posting by his wife on her blog, The Bales Family Adventures.

The best case scenario for that next phase, Karilyn Bales wrote, would be an Army assignment in an adventurous location like Germany, Italy or Hawaii, and barring that, possibly an assignment in Georgia, where her husband could become a sniper instructor.

By late last year, Bales was training to be an Army recruiter, Bales’ lawyer said. When he learned he would be dispatched to Afghanistan, Bales and his family were very disappointed. Still, the staff sergeant’s family saw no indication sign of undue anger, Browne said.

Bales departed with his unit on Dec. 3 and was assigned about six weeks ago to a base in the Panjwai District, near Kandahar, to work with a village stability force pairing special operations troops with villagers to help provide neighborhood security.

On Saturday, the day before the shooting spree, Browne said, the soldier saw his friend’s leg blown off. Browne said his client’s family provided him with that information, which has not been verified.

On Friday, a senior U.S. defense official said Bales was drinking in the hours before the attack on Afghan villagers, violating a U.S. military order banning alcohol in war zones. The official discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because charges have not yet been filed.

Browne said his client’s family told him they were not aware of any drinking problem _ not necessarily a contradiction. Pressed on the issue in interviews with news organizations, Browne said he did not know if his client had been drinking the night of the massacre.

Then, in the middle of the night last Sunday, shots rang out in a pair of villages within walking distance of the base. Soon after, a surveillance camera mounted to a blimp captured an image of a soldier the Army identifies as Bales returning in the dark. A traditional Afghan shawl was draped over the gun in his hands. As he reached the gates of the base, the man in uniform lay the weapon down. He raised his arms in surrender.

Browne said he did not know if his client had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but said it could be an issue at trial if experts believe it’s relevant. Experts on PTSD said witnessing the injury of a fellow soldier and the soldier’s own previous injuries put him at risk.

On Friday evening, Bales’ neighbors said they did not know what to think. They gazed toward the soldier’s home, where overflowing boxes were piled on the front porch and a U.S. flag leaned against the siding.

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Associated Press writer Rachel La Corte reported from Lake Tapps, Wash. and AP National Writer Adam Geller reported from New York. Also contributing to this report: AP writers Gene Johnson in Seattle, National Security Writer Robert Burns in Washington, Phuong Le in Seattle, Haven Daley and Manuel Valdes in Lake Tapps, Wash. Lisa Cornwell in Evendale, Ohio, Dan Sewell in Cincinnati, Dana Fields in Kansas City, Mo., and John Milburn in Lawrence, Kan.