[5] After high school Bales briefly enrolled at College of Mount St. Joseph, then transferred to Ohio State University, where he studied economics for three years, but left without graduating in 1996.

[9] In 2003, an arbitration panel found both Bales and his employer liable for financial fraud related to the handling of a retirement account and ordered them to pay $1.2 million in civil damages.

Kari states that Bales was a man "full of enthusiasm, eager to tell her every little thing he was learning about war and how to wage it," until he deployed to Iraq.

[17] Bales was promoted to staff sergeant (SSG) on April 1, 2008, which made him responsible for nineteen men, who he believed were insufficiently prepared.

It was also at this time that he became increasingly critical about Special Forces superiors, claiming that they were too passive towards the enemy, accompanied by a hostile attitude and a belief that he was not being granted the respect that he believed he had earned.

[5] On February 1, 2012, he was assigned to Camp Belambai in the Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, where he was responsible for providing base security for U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEALs who were engaged in village stability operations.

Bales says he had had six or seven drinks over the next couple of hours while watching the movie Man on Fire – a revenge action film about an ex-military bodyguard who goes on a murderous rampage after the girl he has been hired to protect is kidnapped and presumed dead.

According to the Army's investigation, as Bales became increasingly intoxicated, he once again discussed his prospective promotion to Sergeant First Class, the anger he felt about his comrades being seriously injured by insurgent attacks, his complaints about the leadership of the Green Berets, his marriage, and his financial troubles.

Around midnight, Bales consumed a handful of over-the-counter sleeping pills, stating that he had not slept in days and wanted to rest.

The pills did not move him to sleep, so he took his concerns to Green Beret SGT Clayton Blackshear, emphasizing that he felt he and his men were not doing enough to stop Taliban insurgents from operating freely in the area and targeting US soldiers.

[22] In the early morning hours of March 11, 2012, Bales killed 16 Afghan civilians (nine children, some as young as two years old, four women and three men) in the villages of Balandi and Alkozai in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province[5] near Camp Belambai.

[23][24] According to official reports, Bales left combat outpost Camp Belamby at 3:00 am local time wearing night vision goggles.

The sergeant was reportedly irritated, half asleep, and did not believe him, only relenting to "take care of Bales' kids" so that he would leave him to go back to sleep.

[35] When Bales exited the last house in Naja Bien, the commanding officer of the Green Berets, CPT Daniel Fields, ordered a rescue team to begin scouring the area around the base for SSG Bales, also dispatching the Persistent Ground Surveillance System, a high tech air balloon with a thermal camera attached to it.

[5] After being arrested, Bales sought out attorney John Henry Browne, well known in Washington state for reducing his clients' potentially hefty prison sentences and representing serial killer Ted Bundy in court.

The DNA evidence gathered from the walls of Afghan homes and from the family members of the deceased was never cross referenced against the US database to verify if any of the three adult males among the sixteen victims were enemy combatants.

[41] According to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Bales acknowledged the killings and "told individuals what happened" immediately after being captured.

The officer stated that, as a sniper, "Bales is trained to wait for his shot and quietly blend back into his surroundings.

"[41] On March 16, 2012, Bales was flown from Kuwait to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

[43][51] Browne described Bales as "mild-mannered", claiming his client was upset after seeing a friend's leg blown off the day before the killings, but held no animosity toward Muslims.

"[41][51] Browne denied the deadly rampage was caused by alcohol intoxication or marital problems and said Bales was "reluctant to serve.

[15][54][55] In 2010, he suffered a concussion in a Humvee accident, underwent traumatic brain injury treatment at Fort Lewis, and was deemed healthy.

Although Bales was never diagnosed with a mental disorder, Fort Lewis-McChord has had a history of psychiatric misdiagnosis and may have sent soldiers with PTSD back into combat.

[5] Investigators examining his medical history described his ten-year U.S. Army tenure as "unremarkable" and found no evidence of serious traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress.

"[41] However, Bales had been taking an anti-malaria medication (mefloquine) now known to cause a wide range of side effects, to include aggression, paranoia, psychosis, hallucinations, and suicidal thinking.

[3] The Army, as well as the prosecution, deny providing the drug to Bales, although a fellow soldier testified that he had witnessed the distribution.

[13] Then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that the United States would seek the death penalty, and President Barack Obama instructed the military to "prosecute" the case aggressively.

Lt. Col Jay Morse, a member of the US Army Trial Counsel Assistance Program, was the lead prosecutor in the Bales case.

[67] During several months of interviews while incarcerated, Bales revealed in depth his recollection of his actions the night of the murders, and why he believed he acted the way he did, to reporter Brendan Vaughan in an article published in GQ magazine on October 21, 2015.

[13] In 2023, a podcast series titled The War Within: The Robert Bales Story[68] covered the story of the Kandahar Massacre, and featured audio recordings of extensive interviews with Bales, as well as commentary from soldiers, lawyers, medical experts, and Afghan civilians who were involved with the case in various capacities.