Washington, DC - Susan Tileston sets a half-full mug of beer on the table, and pulls an eagle's-head pendant and dog-tags from their hiding place underneath her jacket. The talismans are from her son, Army Specialist Levi Modrelle, who she says is "missing in action." Levi was part of the initial invasion of Iraq, and served almost eleven months with the 101st Airborne before coming home to Kentucky in late December of 2003.

Susan was reunited with her 18-year-old son on Christmas Eve, but he was not the boy who went to war. "He barely talked. That wasn't like him. And he was shorter by about an inch and a half. I don't know why, but he was. He also had scars on the back of his head."

Several weeks later, he received orders to report to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on January 31, 2004, to return to Iraq. He said he was going, but in February, Susan received a call from officials at Fort Campbell asking about Levi. He had never reported for duty. The military initially listed Levi as Absent Without Leave (AWOL); he's now classified as a deserter.

Susan fears it's more than that, citing the $11,000 that has sat untouched in his bank account for nearly three years. After Levi left, Susan learned that he had told a friend what he couldn't tell her: he'd killed an eight-year-old boy who fired at the contractors he was protecting. Levi was so disturbed by the shooting that he said he couldn't go back to Iraq. Susan filed a missing person report with the Kentucky State police in the fall of 2004, but the only entry in the case is a traffic citation issued to Levi in Florida later that year.