What Happened To Sgt Bowe Bergdahl?

Sgt Bowe Bergdahl disappeared from his base in Afghanistan and was held in captivity by the Taliban for five years.

The circumstances of his capture remain unclear, with speculations that he might have abandoned his base out of disillusionment with the US military.

He was then liberated as a result of secret talks between the US government and the Taliban, who swapped him for five Guantanamo's prisoners.

However, in 2015 he was charged with desertion and endangering fellow soldiers, as a consequence he faced a court martial.

The military judge ruled Bergdahl be dishonourably charged from the US Army, a decision which according to his civilian attorney he will appeal

With immediate effect Novmeber 3rd 2017, Bowe Bergdahl's rank was reduced from sergeant to private. He was also ordered to pay $1,000 per month for the next ten months.

He isn't only considered America’s most notorious prisoner of war, but also the only US soldier being held by the enemy in the Afghan conflict.

So who is Bergdahl and how did we get this far?

Bowe Bergdahl was born in 1985 in Sun Valley, Idaho to a very religious Orthodox Presbyterian family.

During an interview with an Army investigator in 2014, Bergdahl says he grew up in a 'very strict setting'.

Being home schooled by his mother, he says he lacked understanding of how to move through society, which led him to later find city life overwhelming.

:: 2006 - Bergdahl enters basic training in the US Coast Guard, but has a psychological breakdown and is discharged because of an “adjustment disorder with depression.”

:: 2008 - He is allowed to enter the Army with a waiver. However, he soon starts to feel cynical towards his fellow soldiers and recruitment. In the same 2014 interview, he says:

"There were these guys who just didn’t care. They had no respect for what they were doing there. They were there for a paycheck. (...)

"It was just these people that shouldn’t have been in the Army. (...)

"The type of guys that shouldn’t have graduated are the guys who have blatantly showed that they have no respect for the Army, what it stands for, what the command is, and what we’re supposed to stand – what we as soldiers are supposed to represent.”

:: January 2009 - Bergdahl is deployed to Afghanistan with an Alaska-based infantry regiment.

Here he starts to fell discouraged towards his leaders, particularly after returning to a base after a long mission in which his unit was stranded for almost a week and exchanged fire with the Taliban. In the same interview, he says that a battalion commander criticised the members of his unit for not shaving: 

“There was no concern for his men’s well-being. The first thing that came out of his mind, as it came down the line and the radio was, our platoon sergeant stepped out of the truck onto the ground and the B.C. said to him, “What, you couldn’t shave?”.

"His main concern was that after our extended mission for six days, after our two I.E.D.’s and a complex attack, after making it back finally, after all this mess, his main concern was the fact that, as soldiers, we didn’t think it was important to pack a shaver and shaving cream."

At this point, he feels responsible to change things and comes up with "a fantastic plan":

“I had to come up with some plan because I knew nobody else was going to do anything about it. Everybody else was going to keep their heads down and just try to ride it out. That is what you are supposed to do."

:: 30th June 2009 - His plan is to create a DUSTWUN, a military term for a missing soldier procedure. By doing this, he thought he could draw attention to flaws in Army leadership. However, the private first class is captured in Paktika province, Afghanistan.

He later on told Army investigators that he was not planning on making contact with the Taliban, but he wanted to gather intelligence and report it to superiors.

:: 2nd July 2009 - A US military official says that he is being held by the clan of warlord Siraj Haqqani. The US Army currently believes he was across the frontier in Pakistan for most of his captivity, reportedly held by the Haqqani network, which is allied to the Afghan Taliban.

:: 2009, 2010 and 2011 - Several videos of Bergdahl are released on the Internet, including one which is nearly 45 minutes long.

:: 12th July 2010 - Bergdahl is promoted to specialist. While in captivity, the Army has been promoting him as if his career had gone as planned.

:: 6th May 2011 - Robert Bergdahl, Bowe's father, uploads a YouTube video asking for his son's release, his first statement since the disappearance of his son.

:: 12th June 2011 - He is promoted to sergeant.

:: May 2012 - The US government acknowledges that it has engaged in talks with the Taliban to free Bergdahl.

:: 6th June 2013 - Bergdahl's family announces they have received a letter they are confident was written by their son through the International Committee of the Red Cross.

:: May 31, 2014 - President Barack Obama announces the release of Bowe Bergdahl, who is traded for five senior Taliban commanders previously detained in Guantanamo.

The exchange is filmed and released by the Taliban. It shows Bergdahl sitting in a pick-up truck before being walked to the helicopter.

Once the aircraft leaves, Bergdahl writes "SF?" on a paper plate - an abbreviation for special forces - and reportedly breaks down when the men say:

"Yes, we've been looking for you for a long time."

During a press conference with Barack Obama, his father Robert Bergdahl speaks briefly in Pashto, as he says Bowe struggles to speak English after his long captivity.

:: 5th June 2014 - US military officials announce that Bergdahl will no longer be automatically promoted to staff sergeant as he is no longer "missing in action". He will now have to compete for his next promotion like other Army sergeants. If he was still in captivity, he would have automatically been promoted again.

:: 13th June 2014 - Bergdahl returns to the United States.

:: 14th July 2014 - The US Army announces that Bergdahl will return to active duty with a desk job after completing medical care and mental counselling.

:: 16th June 2014 - The US Army announces that two-star general Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl will investigate the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl's decision to leave his post in 2009.

:: 3rd March 2015 - He is charged with one count each of desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty, and misbehaviour before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place.

:: 25th March 2015 - His attorney, Eugene Fidell, releases a statement outlining his defence. He also publishes a two-page letter from Bergdahl describing the torture he endured, which included being locked in a cage or chained on all fours for years.

:: 18th September 2015 - Maj. Dahl testifies at a preliminary hearing. After interviewing Bergdahl for a day and a half, he concludes that jail time would be "inappropriate" for Bergdahl and that there is no evidence to corroborate the reporting that Bergdahl was... Sympathetic to the Taliban.". However, he finds that the sergeant wanted to highlight poor leadership of his unit.

:: 8th October 2015 - US President Donald Trump, then GOP presidential candidate, calls Begdahl "a no-good traitor who should have been executed." He adds that “30 years ago he would have been shot.”

:: 14th December 2015 - Gen. Robert Abrams, the commander of US Army Forces Command, orders Bergdahl's case to a general court martial. This goes against what indicated by the US military officer overseeing Bergdahl's preliminary hearing, who recommended the former prisoner to be referred to a special court martial and face no jail time.

:: 9th February 2016 - A judge in the court proceedings puts the court martial on hold. This is in place until a dispute on the sharing of classified evidence with Bergdahl's defence team is solved.

:: 17th March 2016 - Bergdahl's defence team releases hundreds of documents on a website called 'The Bergdahl Docket'. In one of them, an Army Sanity Board reports that Bergdahl had schizotypal personality disorder "at the time of the alleged criminal conduct" and now suffers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

:: 28th April 2016 - The US Army Court of Criminal Appeals denies an appeal by the prosecution, thereby granting Bergdahl's defence team access to hundreds of thousands of pages of classified information. The court also lifts the stay of proceedings, allowing the court martial to proceed.

:: 24th May 2016 - The Army posts online over 40 documents related to Bergdahl's military legal case.

:: 16th October 2017 - Bowe Bergdahl pleads guilty to desertion and misbehaviour before the enemy at a court martial hearing in North Carolina. The first charge carries a potential five-year sentence, while misbehaviour carries a potential life sentence. His lawyers have argued he can't get a fair trial following criticism from the US President.

:: 23rd October 2017 - Even though the guilty pleas allow him to avoid a trial, Begdahl will still face a sentencing hearing.

:: 3rd November 2017 - Bergdahl receives a dishonourable discharge from the US Army, which according to his civilian attorney he will appeal. Bergdahl avoids prison time but has his rank reduced from sergeant to private. The military judge also orders him to pay a $1,000 fine from each of his salaries for the next ten months.