Three Roads Back

(5 of 5)

It was to gain "life experience" that Batchelor joined the Army in August 2001, dropping out of the branch of Texas A&M University in Commerce, Texas. He had spent three years working toward a degree in criminal justice, and now hopes to find a way to complete it without having to sit in classrooms full of people, a prospect he can't bear. He walked out on a job answering phones for a credit-card company last month and spends his days on his father's farm in Kemp, Texas, working on his car.

"I got no job, my wife has left me, and I need to see a shrink," Batchelor says, chuckling. "I laugh about it because, hell, it can't get much worse." --By Amanda Bower/ Copperas Cove