The desertion charge carries a maximum of five years.
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“It’s our turn at bat”, Bergdahl’s lead attorney, Eugene Fidell, said Thursday, shortly after prosecutors had finished presenting their case.
It’s the latest chapter in the story of a soldier who has been the subject of controversy since his 2014 release after five years as a Taliban prisoner. After surviving that, should he be sent to prison for desertion and abandoning his post? Bergdahl’s attorneys called four witnesses Friday, including the officer who led the investigation into Bergdahl’s disappearance. Maj. “That would be inappropriate”.
Bergdahl’s Article 32 hearing ended Friday. “I think that’s what needs to happen here and I have good faith the military will do the right thing”. Bergdahl “very bright and very well-read” and fascinated by samurai warrior culture.
Dahl said Bergdahl felt the problems put his platoon in danger, but that Bergdahl’s perceptions were “completely off the mark”.
He’d already mailed home his computer, Kindle, a journal, and two books. Bergdahl “unrealistically idealistic” about other people and remorseful for his actions. He was unarmed and carried an Afghan disguise to hide his identity to anyone he might come across.
But General Dahl testified that he found Sergeant Bergdahl truthful during the day and a half he spent interviewing him as part of the investigation.
“His experience ranks on the same echelon as the worst treatment we’ve seen in 60 years”, he said.
Bergdahl never gave up trying to escape despite living in deplorable conditions in which he was first beaten and then left to waste away, Russell said. Instead, he was captured by the Taliban 10 to 12 hours after he left. He says Bergdahl had uncontrollable diarrhea for years and was kept in a metal cage for three years.
Russell said Bergdahl’s captors treated him like a “dirty animal”, beating him with rubber and copper hoses and giving him little food and water. Russell debriefed Bergdahl. According to earlier testimony, Bergdahl and other members of his platoon had been constructing a remote outpost and doing guard duty, and Dahl said Bergdahl really wanted to be “kicking in doors” and looking for the Taliban. “It’s a hard thing to swallow”, Billings said, adding that a squad immediately went out to look for him. Russell’s testimony capped the end of a preliminary hearing that will determine whether to pursue a court martial against Bergdahl to charges that could send him to military prison for life.
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Curtis Aberle, a family nurse practitioner at Fort Sam Houston who has been treating Bergdahl, said the soldier suffered extensive injuries during his time as a prisoner in Afghanistan that have made him unfit to remain in the military. He testified Friday at Bergdahl’s Article 32 hearing in Texas that Bergdahl will need a lifetime of medical care.
