NO WAY TO SPEND R&R

The 20-year-old soldier returned to Springfield on a two-week break from his assignment in the Middle East on Sunday to find many of his possessions in bags or missing. A pipe apparently broke above his ceiling and flooded his residence...

Springfield resident Jan Wood, Marler's mother, discovered the flooding in March while checking on the apartment in her son's absence.

Water flowed into each room, she recalled while shuffling through photographs of the damage.

"It was just overwhelming," she said. "The couch got wet. The bed got wet. He had clothes in the closet and on the floor, and they all got completely wet. By the time I came down here, everything had already started to mold."