Fort Riley ? Six soldiers from one Fort Riley infantry regiment have been accused of murder in three separate incidents.

But neither the Army nor mental health professionals are sure what the problem is or why the unit has been so troubled.

The soldiers are from 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry. About 750 are serving their second tour in Iraq, where four men from Charlie Company have been charged with murdering Iraqi civilians. Two others, both who served during the invasion of Iraq with Bravo Company, are charged with murdering two other men from the unit at a rural Clay County house.

Few details are known about the killings, but officials say they are unrelated.

Christopher Wilson, a former military attorney now in private practice in Torrance, Calif., said even though this unit had been through a violent, chaotic time, four murder charges was a lot for one company. A company includes about 150 soldiers.

“If it was one incident, you would feel better about the command structure,” Wilson said. “Two is troubling.”

Frequent deployments

The battalion is one of the most frequently deployed at Fort Riley; it has also done tours in Bosnia and Kuwait.

Attached to the 3rd Infantry Division, the battalion was at the head of the Iraq invasion, which turned from a conventional war to a nasty urban fight against guerrillas. Soldiers returned to Iraq in June to face daily street fights.

The four soldiers of Charlie Company now in Iraq were charged in two separate incidents. Sgt. Michael P. Williams, 25, of Memphis, Tenn., and Spc. Brent W. May, 22, of Salem, Ohio, are charged with the murders of three Iraqis. Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., and Staff Sgt. Cardenas J. Alban, 29, of Inglewood, Calif., are charged with murdering one Iraqi.

Maj. Gen. Dennis Hardy, commander of Fort Riley, said he was confident civilian and military authorities would conduct thorough investigations.

“I remain confident that all our soldiers are exceptionally well trained; they know the difference between right and wrong, between acceptable and unacceptable actions,” Hardy said Friday in a prepared statement. “We should not allow these incidents to overshadow the tremendous efforts of our soldiers in Iraq.”

Changed by war

The mother of one of the soldiers charged with the Kansas killings said war changed her son significantly.

“It seems that he was not healthy,” said Pennie Macdowell, mother of Sgt. Aaron Stanley, 22, of Bismarck, N.D.

Stanley and Sgt. Eric Colvin, 23, of Papillion, Neb., are charged with first-degree murder in Kansas.

A July study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found the war has left many soldiers with some form of mental stress.

The study found that 15 percent to 17 percent of the soldiers and Marines surveyed who were part of the initial invasion suffered from major depression, generalized anxiety or post traumatic stress disorder. However, less than 40 percent of those soldiers sought treatment.

The study found that the stigma associated with mental illness was a barrier to soldiers seeking help, despite the military’s efforts to get them some help.

Macdowell said the stress from war caused her son to resort to other means to ease his pain. Investigators say that included drugs.

Stanley and Colvin were with Bravo Company in Iraq in 2003. Colvin was reassigned to the unit’s rear detachment for the second tour. Stanley was scheduled to go, but he was being held in the Pottawatomie County Jail on eight drug charges.

Post spokeswoman Sam Robinson said Fort Riley officials agreed to reassign Stanley to rear detachment so he could make an October court date.

Counseling occurs

Fort Riley chaplain Lt. Col. Dan McClure said he couldn’t discuss what counseling Stanley and Colvin received, if any, because of privacy concerns.

The Army briefs all soldiers about life after combat in the days immediately after they arrive home.

On Tuesday, McClure spoke to about 300 soldiers who returned Saturday to Fort Riley. It was a mix of humor and candidness designed to impress upon soldiers that stress-related issues ought to be expected.

How they deal with those situations — through counseling, friends, prayer or self-destructive activities — are up to the soldiers, McClure said.

“We’re always going to have an individual who’s not going to respond,” McClure said. “But if you get one person to respond properly than then they would otherwise, it’s worth it.”

McClure said it was difficult to know what happened in Iraq. Typically, he said, soldiers fought smarter and with less stress on their second tour.

Just outside Fort Riley is Junction City, where residents have been welcoming home soldiers.

“When you get three and 4,000 coming out for a redeployment, the support is still there,” Kenneth Burgoon said.

He said one reason residents weren’t concerned was because the incidents involved soldiers from across the country and weren’t in their back yards.

“One never knows what prompted it and what was the mental situation of those folks,” Burgoon said. “You certainly can’t blame the entire unit for the actions of a few individuals.”

Geary County Sheriff Jim Jensen, a Vietnam veteran, said he’d seen his share of violent incidents involving soldiers.All of them are tragic, but he said key was to pick up the pieces and move on.

“People pick up on the bad and not what the soldiers have gone through,” he said. “That’s where the real tragedy occurs.”