News Bowe Bergdahl Released: Taliban Exchange in Historic Deal

[OmCheeto]

I'd be a lot more interested in the official report on the actions of his NCOs 'around the time' Bowe took off from the camp. It looks to me Bowe just 'Went Native' to the point of no return and left with some mystical intention to help instead of hurt so let him go back home to complete his quest.

hmmm... This kind of makes me want to title his forthcoming book:

Idaho Buddhist in Afghanistan

subtitle: From Whenseforth, All Manner of Oxymoronic Statements, Spewed

I'm also shocked that a sensitive soldier would have problems with his Sergeant and Commander.

Well, maybe there is a difference between Bowe and I. The day after I was court-martialed^[1], I kind of performed a silly passive aggressive act.

I'd sent my captain a, "by the rules", subliminal message:

If you want me to play by the rules, you'd better play by the rules.

The captain expunged the court-martial from my records, the next day.

Though I think it was a combination of my hubris, and the fact that I fessed up to my incompetence at the trial, as my sergeant^[2] had the biggest, "OMG", ****-eating grin on his face when he told me the news.

---------------------------
[1] captains mast
[2] chief petty officer(whatever...)
pre-parsed for the civvies out there, because even I couldn't keep that trivial "rank" stuff straight back then.

 

[nsaspook]

The captain expunged the court-martial from my records, the next day.

I went to (XO) mast once but I gave the perfect Navy reason for being late to the guy. Got drunk on liberty, hooked up with a bar girl and was rolled for my money, pants and shoes but I always kept my ID card in my socks in town. He told me to get out and go back to work.

Most of the military understands that people sometimes screwup but if you simply walk away from your duty you better have a damn good reason why.

 

[OmCheeto]

...
Most of the military understands that people sometimes screwup but if you simply walk away from your duty you better have a damn good reason why.

Yah, he should have chosen the other option. It would have spared us all this trauma of having to blather about it.

We only had two suicide attempts in the four years I was attached to my submarine. My guess is they were claustrophobic.

hmmm... In my attempt to find statistics on battlefield suicide rates, I ran across the following:

All Quiet on the Western Front {Quotes}
Publication date 29 January 1929

“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.”

“It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on by small men.”

“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.”

“How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible. It must be all lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is.”

bolding mine

I've never read the book, nor seen the movie.

Perhaps Bowe should skip writing a book, just scratch Erich's name out, and insert his own.

 

[SixNein]

If true, I find that interesting.

Our politics is nothing short of ugly. This guy has sacrificed years of his life, and he isn't receiving the benefit of fair justice. Until such a time where an investigation is held and the facts clearly presented, people aren't doing anything but speculating on rumor.

People are going so far as to send his father death threats:
http://news.yahoo.com/bowe-bergdahls-father-receives-death-threats-police-chief-030621720.html

 

[jim hardy]

I've never read the book, nor seen the movie.

If you decide to see the movie i suggest the 1930 B&W not the 1979 remake.

 

[nsaspook]

Bergdahl’s writings reveal a fragile young man

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...165-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html?hpid=z2

On June 27, he sent an e-mail to his friends titled, “Who is John Galt?,” a reference to the hero of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged,” about individualism in a dystopian America.

“I will serve no bandit, nor lair, for i know John Galt, and understand . . . ” Bergdahl wrote. “This life is too short to serve those who compromise value, and its ethics. i am done compromising.”

Three days later, Bergdahl walked off his post.

 

[Evo]

Sounds like he is guilty of desertion.

 

[russ_watters]

This guy has sacrificed years of his life, and he isn't receiving the benefit of fair justice.

Nonsense. The word "justice" doesn't apply to public opinion on him. Americans are entitled to hold and express whatever opinions they want and that has no impact on justice.

In terms of actual justice, the justice he has received so far has been a default conclusion of innocence. With it came designation as a POW and promotion and pay while in captivity. That's more than fair and generous. I rather suspect the military was going to just discharge him, figuring he'd suffered enough instead of trying to inflict justice on him. Now that politics is involved, they may not and instead of being treated as default-innocent he may be prosecuted for his alleged crimes. At this point, "fair justice" for him would probably be bad for him.

 

[edward]

I just read a two year old article about Bowe Bergdahl. It helped me to fill in the gaps on this guy.

In his early years he was home schooled in an off the grid farmhouse by his devoutly Christian parents.

After 16 weeks of training, Bowe graduated from infantry school in Fort Benning, Georgia, in the fall of 2008. While others in his training unit – A Company 2-58 – used their weekend passes to hit up strip clubs, Bowe hung out at Barnes & Noble and read books. He was already an expert shot from his days firing his .22 in the mountains of Idaho. When his parents attended the graduation, the drill sergeant told them, "Bowe was good to go when he got here." After completing the course, Bowe was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Fort Richardson, Alaska, not far from Anchorage. He arrived in October 2008.

At first, according to soldiers in his unit, Bowe seemed to embrace Army life. "He showed up, looked like a normal Joe," says former Specialist Jason Fry, who is now studying for a master's in theology. "When he first got to the unit, he was the leadership's pet. He read the Ranger Handbook like no other. Some people resented him for it." Bowe kept to himself, doing physical training on his own. "He never hung out with anyone, always in the background, never wanted to be in front of anything," says Fry. He surrounded himself with piles of books, including Three Cups of Tea, about a humanitarian crusade to educate girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as instructions on Zen meditation and an introductory ethics handbook with writings from Aristotle, Augustine, Kant and Hume

bold mine


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607

 

[Evo]

The "Three cups of tea" book turned out to be a heinous fraud. Why didn't he go to his commander and admit he wasn't mentally capable of continuing duty and was a danger to everyone near him? Surely they would have relieved him of duty and the lives of his fellow soldiers would have been spared. Or was he too much of a coward, afraid of what penalties he might have?

I guess he found out that any penalties he might face for breaking down were certainly better than what he faced at the hands of the people he ended up with.

Still does not excuse what he did. He now needs to face up to what he did.

 

[edward]

The "Three cups of tea" book turned out to be a heinous fraud. Why didn't he go to his commander and admit he wasn't mentally capable of continuing duty and was a danger to everyone near him? Surely they would have relieved him of duty and the lives of his fellow soldiers would have been spared. Or was he too much of a coward, afraid of what penalties he might have?

I guess he found out that any penalties he might face for breaking down were certainly better than what he faced at the hands of the people he ended up with.

Still does not excuse what he did. He now needs to face up to what he did.

There are e-mails to his parents in the article that indicate he was disgusted with the situation, rather than afraid. I don't think a coward would walk out into the night in a remote area of Afghanistan.

In the early-morning hours of June 30th, according to soldiers in the unit, Bowe approached his team leader not long after he got off guard duty and asked his superior a simple question: If I were to leave the base, would it cause problems if I took my sensitive equipment?

Yes, his team leader responded – if you took your rifle and night-vision goggles, that would cause problems.

Bowe returned to his barracks, a roughly built bunker of plywood and sandbags. He gathered up water, a knife, his digital camera and his diary. Then he slipped off the outpost.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607

I agree that there is no excuse for what he did. I just think that he grew up in a manner that made him a much more complicated and complex person than the average grunt.

The family lived in a small cabin that had 5,000 books but no telephone, a close-to-nature existence that fed Sergeant Bergdahl’s wanderlust.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/bowe-bergdahl-obama-frees-pow-of-taliban-five-years.html?_r=0

 

[OmCheeto]

... Why didn't he go to his commander and admit he wasn't mentally capable of continuing duty and was a danger to everyone near him? Surely they would have relieved him of duty and the lives of his fellow soldiers would have been spared. ...

I don't see that option listed:

Quit the Military: Getting Out of Your Enlistment

From my recollection, from my military service, no one got out, except by attempted/threatened suicide. We had one kid, 19 years old, standing on the 5th floor window ledge, in the high-rise barracks, down at Point Loma. Fortunately, they talked him out of it. And subsequently, let him go. Nice kid. Kinda goofy. Can't remember his name.

nsaspook's article is good:

Bergdahl...

...before he joined the Army, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was discharged from the Coast Guard for psychological reasons...
...
Harrison and others close to Bergdahl said his writing and the events surrounding the Coast Guard discharge raise questions about his mental fitness for military service and how he was accepted into the Army in 2008. Typically, a discharge for psychological reasons would disqualify a potential recruit.
...
A senior Army official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the Army was aware of a prior “administrative discharge” when Bergdahl enlisted. A separate Army official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Bergdahl would have required a waiver to enlist under such circumstances.
...
According to a 2008 Army War College study on the subject, the Army was issuing waivers at a rate of one for every five recruits at the time.
...
“He is the perfect example of a person who should not have gone” to war, said Harrison [Bowe's close friend]...
...

Hindsight is 20/20. It looks to me, like lots of mistakes were made.

On June 27, he sent an e-mail to his friends titled, “Who is John Galt?,” a reference to the hero of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged,”...

Weird. I pulled this book from the bookshelf about a month ago. It's the only book on my coffee table. I read it when I was about 20. We apparently had spare time on the submarine I floated around in. I have no recollection of the details of the book. I only remember that I liked it, a lot. I can't find my copy of "The Fountainhead". My house is still a mess.

I will learn Russian. I will learn Japanese. I will learn French. I will learn Chines.

That does it. He's got a job at Omcheedao* Inc.

Edward's referenced article is also very good. A bit long, but very good.

*Trademark problem. You can still call me OmCheeto though.