Boise, Idaho (CNN) -- Five American soldiers have been charged with killing Afghan civilians for sport and staging the slayings to look like legitimate war casualties. The youngest of those five -- a now 20-year-old private from Idaho -- came home a changed man, his mother says.





And, said Dana Holmes, the Army not only should have known something had gone dreadfully wrong, but commanding officers should be held responsible.





"The man that came home was not my son," said Holmes. "He was very thin. He'd lost about 50 pounds. He said the Army told him he had a parasite. I made him his favorite sandwich, and it took him two days to eat the whole sandwich. Just couldn't eat; he didn't sleep."





Pfc. Andrew Holmes was a healthy, 185-pound 18-year-old when he joined the Army, his mother said. He came home on leave in April -- weeks before the Army launched an investigation into the suspected illegal drug use by his platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, Fifth Brigade.





Holmes' family had him hospitalized in Idaho to restore his strength. He told his mother that he gave himself daily IVs of fluids in Afghanistan to keep hydrated, a claim that horrifies his mother, who cannot believe the Army would not treat a soldier who was clearly ill. During his time on leave, she said, he was paranoid, always asking the family their whereabouts, concerned that someone was going to harm them.





Shortly afterward, he returned to Afghanistan to rejoin his unit.





"I threatened to break his leg and keep him home, but he just hugged me and said, 'Mom, I've got a job to finish.' It was hard to put him on the plane. It was the first time I've seen him fall apart, when we put him on the plane. ... He was still hyper-vigilant about making sure we weren't alone," she said.





And not long after Holmes returned to action, the Army launched its investigation, which quickly grew in scope -- with a new main focus on the murder of Afghan civilians. Now, Holmes and four others face numerous charges, including drug use, premeditated murder, possessing body parts and possessing photos of corpses. Seven others in the platoon are charged with various other crimes, from assaulting a fellow soldier who blew the whistle on the group's hashish smoking to collecting body parts as war trophies and posing them in grisly photos.





Tapes describe killings for sport





Holmes and some of the others are being held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, where the platoon was based, to await courts-martial.





Dana Holmes thinks the Army should be held accountable for what happened at that forward operating post in Afghanistan.





"If they were smoking that much hashish, you can smell it," she said. "Where was the command? Did they just dump these boys off and say go forth and conquer?"





"How did they know what was going on? My son was a healthy 18-year-old kid when he went over there, and now he is a mess. And I don't understand why the Army is not going after the officers."





The highest-ranking soldier accused is a staff sergeant, Calvin Gibbs. His attorney has declined comment on the numerous charges Gibbs faces, including premeditated murder. He has not entered a plea.





Reports show Army sgt. tracked kills with tattoos





Gibbs has been depicted in documents and discussed in interrogation videos by some soldiers as the ringleader they feared. But no one above his rank has been charged with any offenses -- or, according to lawyers, disciplined for allegedly allowing the platoon to make up its own rules of war.





Holmes is charged with the first reported civilian killing in January. He is accused of conspiring with Cpl. Jeremy Morlock to shoot at the civilian and then toss a grenade to look like the soldiers were under attack.





Morlock's attorney disputes those accusations.





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