In US,questions over what triggered Afghan massacre

That solid-guy reputation followed him into the Army infantry. He joined at the relatively seasoned age of 27,just a few weeks after the attacks of September 11,2001,and became respected for his maturity and calm,including in battle. “He was a damn good leader and a damn good soldier,” said Zachary Parsons,who served with Staff Sergeant Bales in Iraq in 2007.

So when many of his old neighbours from Norwood,Ohio,and former battalion mates from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State heard the news that Sergeant Bales had been accused of coldbloodedly shooting to death 16 Afghan civilians on March 11,they were not simply shocked. They grieved.

Michelle Caddell,48,who knew Sergeant Bales when he was growing up,watched a video clip of the news over and over and over again,mesmerized by disbelief. “I wanted to see,maybe,a different face,” she said,fighting back tears. “Because that’s not our Bobby. Something horrible,horrible had to happen to him.”

Friends,relatives and his lawyer say they have an idea of what that horrible thing was: war.

Three deployments in Iraq and a fourth in Afghanistan,where he went reluctantly,left him struggling financially,in danger of losing his home. During his deployments,Sergeant Bales,38,lost part of a foot and injured his head,saw fellow soldiers badly wounded,picked up the bodies of dead Iraqis,was treated for mild traumatic brain injury and possibly developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Neighbours remember him as a gung-ho soldier eager to get back to the fight. But that seemed to have changed and many blame it on the strain of war.