Family friend Steve Berling says toms Bales shoes

But his friends black toms glitter and neighbors remember Bales as a man of honor.


"The thing I buy toms shoes really remember," says neighbor Edith Bouvette, in Lakewood, Wash., "is him in his uniform with his pants tucked inside his boots. He was crisp, clean, military."


Family friend Steve Berling says Bales, "felt that he needed something bigger in his heart and his mind and in his soul, (and) that's why he went in the military."


Bales joined the Army shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. He was already 27 years old at the time.


Capt. Chris Alexander served with Bales and has known him for years.


"Bales is an extremely professional NCO," Alexander told CBS News. "No job too menial or too dangerous, and he would always get it done, and get it done very well."


Bales has secured the services girls toms of attorney John Henry Browne, who left Seattle Sunday and talked to reporters when he arrived in Kansas City to meet his client face-to-face for the first time.


"Everybody (who) has had three or four deployments to the Middle East is probably going to have some form of PTSD," Browne said, adding that his client, "had a concussive head injury that can be as serious, if not more serious than PTSD."


Bales' wife, Karilyn, who kept a running blog, wrote about the stresses repeated deployments were putting on her husband, their two children, and herself. There were financial stresses. A house Karilyn bought before their marriage reportedly was in foreclosure. Their family home was put on the market just this month for $50,000 less than they paid.


"You know," Browne said, "nobody goes and kills women and children because they had financial stresses."


But there were other signs of stress. Bales was charged with assaulting a girlfriend in 2002 but, after he underwent anger management, the charges were dropped. A police report describes a 2008 hit-and-run accident. Bales admits he rolled his car after colliding with a signpost, but says he fell asleep. Witnesses saw a man running away, bloody and smelling of alcohol. Charges were dismissed after Bales paid a fine.


Now, he's seeking support for his toms legal fees stemming from his alleged crimes in Afghanistan.


"Something terribly terrible has happened to him," neighbor Stuart Ness says. "And I think anybody in the shoes military who's been in combat certainly understands the kind of stress these guys have been going through."
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