FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. ? Seven hours from his Army post and thousands of miles from the Iraq war he left behind, Master Sgt. Kenneth Schweitzer confessed to walking into an Iowa bank, firing shots into the ceiling and walking out with a bag of cash.

He drove straight to a police station and turned himself in, saying he didn’t need the money, he just wanted to live in an 8-by-8 foot cell, authorities said.

The case has baffled 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 robbery, but some say there must be a connection.

Schweitzer apparently knew no one in Keokuk, a town of 11,000, before he walked into the Keokuk Savings Bank and demanded money. He found compassion from an unlikely source — the president of the bank.

To Ed Johnstone, a Navy veteran and the bank’s president, one thing was clear: Schweitzer needed help. Johnstone asked the local prosecutor to transfer the case to military courts, where he believed Schweitzer could get the best counseling.

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

Prosecutor Michael Short agreed to transfer the case to Army courts because he agreed that they 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. Lt. Col. Trey Cate, a public affairs officer for the 101st, said Schweitzer’s attorney would not comment.

Schweitzer deployed with the division when it fought in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and he earned a Bronze Star.

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