Banker feels empathy for his robber

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - Seven hours from his Army post and thousands of miles from the Iraq war he left behind, Master Sgt. Kenneth Schweitzer admitted to robbing an Iowa bank - and found compassion from an unlikely person.

Schweitzer apparently knew no one in Keokuk, a town of 11,000, before he walked into a bank, fired shots into the ceiling and demanded cash. He drove off with a bag full of money and went straight to a police station to turn himself in. He told officers he didn't need the money, he just wanted to live in an 8- by 8-foot cell.

It is a case that baffles police and acquaintances of Schweitzer, a 38-year-old father and decorated soldier who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. He told police his war experience was not related to the alleged robbery, but some say there must be a connection.

To Ed Johnstone, a Navy veteran and the president of Keokuk Savings Bank, the whys aren't important. One thing was clear: Schweitzer needed help. He asked the local prosecutor to transfer the case to military courts, where he thought Schweitzer could get counseling.

"Having served in the military as a young man, I understand the pressures people are under with being in the unit he was with," Johnstone said. "I have great empathy for his feelings and what he was trying to deal with."

The 101st Airborne Division is a rapid deployment unit, trained to go anywhere in the world in 36 hours. It is based at Fort Campbell in Tennessee, 480 miles from Keokuk.

Lee County, Iowa, prosecutor Michael Short agreed to transfer the case to Army courts because he believed Johnstone was correct in thinking the Army courts were best equipped to handle it.

"It was an extremely unusual case," Short said.

Schweitzer, who has been in the Army 18 years, is now in a confinement center at Fort Knox where the Army says he is receiving help. Charges against him could come later. Schweitzer deployed with the division when it fought in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He earned a Bronze Star for combat heroism or meritorious service.

He also went to Iraq. The 20,000 soldiers of the 101st returned home earlier this spring after having spent much of a yearlong deployment in northern Iraq. Fifty-eight of its soldiers were killed in the war.

Florida bankruptcy attorney Shawn Risen was shocked when he heard of Schweitzer's arrest. Even in the midst of a 1999 bankruptcy filing, Schweitzer came across as an honorable guy, said Risen, who represented him in Fort Walton Beach, where Schweitzer was living at the time.

"I perceived him to be one of the quintessential military types that we're most proud of, like the consummate soldier to me," Risen said. "Notwithstanding the financial circumstances he found himself in, I found him an admirable guy."

Schweitzer's wife, Karen Schweitzer, declined to be interviewed by the Associated Press, as did his commanders in the Inspector General's Office at Fort Campbell.

Authorities said Schweitzer left Fort Campbell the day of the robbery, and his wife was trying to find him. Keokuk police aren't sure why he ended up in their town.

Schweitzer told Keokuk police he knew from Army training that firing shots into to the ceiling could hurt people on the second floor, so he chose the bank he did because it had just one story.

Police don't know why he did it. "We haven't figured out yet. He definitely didn't want to hurt anybody," said police Capt. Kevin Church. "It wasn't for money. He said he was going to keep the reasons to himself."

But Rachel Yehuda, a psychiatry professor who directs the posttraumatic stress disorder program at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New York City, said the desire to withdraw from society can be a reaction to traumatic events in war.

War veterans often become emotionally isolated, Yehuda said, adding that some returning Vietnam vets chose to live in seclusion in the woods because they felt out of control and did not want to hurt anybody.

"I think this kind of behavior suggests that something terrible did happen," Yehuda said. "Given the news . . . no one should be surprised that there are terrible things happening in war that are not always talked about."

If a soldier like Schweitzer receives counseling from the Army, Yehuda said, it should be commended. It is only in recent years that the military has acknowledged soldiers need help readjusting as they return from war, she said.

The Army now offers screening and counseling to all soldiers returning from a combat zone. The Army would not say whether Schweitzer had received help.

Yehuda also praised Johnstone's actions. Sometimes it takes a veteran to understand what another one is going through, she said.

"It's a very touching story where everybody did the right thing, and trying to understand this behavior as a call for help, trying to treat it psychologically instead of legally," Yehuda said.

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