1. Beaudry Robert "Bowe" Bergdahl was born on March 28,1986 and is a former United States Army soldier who was held captive from 2009 to 2014 by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
52 Facts About Bowe Bergdahl
1. 2.
The circumstances under which Bowe Bergdahl went missing and how he was captured by the Taliban have since become subjects of intense media scrutiny.
3.
Bowe Bergdahl was released on May 31,2014, as part of a prisoner exchange for five high ranking Taliban members who were being held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
4.
Bowe Bergdahl then filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to have a US federal judge review his sentence.
5.
Bowe Bergdahl received a GED certificate through the College of Southern Idaho.
6.
Bowe Bergdahl spent time in a Buddhist monastery between 2007 and 2008.
7.
In 2006, Bowe Bergdahl entered basic training in the United States Coast Guard but was discharged after twenty-six days for psychological reasons, receiving an "uncharacterized discharge" as an entry-level separation.
8.
In 2008, Bowe Bergdahl enlisted in the United States Army and graduated from the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia.
9.
Bowe Bergdahl was then assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska.
10.
Bowe Bergdahl's unit deployed to outpost Mest-Malak in May 2009, where they conducted counterinsurgency operations.
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Bowe Bergdahl began learning to speak Pashto and, according to Fry, "to gravitate away from his unit [spending] more time with the Afghans than he did with his platoon".
12.
Bowe Bergdahl's father described his son to military investigators as "psychologically isolated".
13.
On June 25,2009, Bowe Bergdahl's battalion suffered its first casualty: First Lieutenant Brian Bradshaw was killed by a roadside bomb near the village of Yaya Kheyl, not far from Bowe Bergdahl's outpost.
14.
On June 27,2009, Bowe Bergdahl sent an e-mail to his parents before he was captured:.
15.
Bob Bowe Bergdahl responded to his son's final message not long after he received it:.
16.
The existence of such a note was disputed by the Obama administration during a meeting with Congress on the release of Bowe Bergdahl, according to Senator Saxby Chambliss.
17.
Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his battalion on the night of June 30,2009, at observation post Mest near the town of Yahya Kheyl in Paktika Province.
18.
Bowe Bergdahl was held by the Haqqani network, an insurgent group affiliated with the Taliban, probably somewhere in Pakistan.
19.
Bowe Bergdahl was a Private First Class when captured; he was promoted in absentia to Specialist on June 19,2010, and to Sergeant on June 17,2011.
20.
Bowe Bergdahl had written e-mails to his parents in which he reported having become disillusioned with the war effort and bothered by the treatment of Afghans by American soldiers.
21.
Bowe Bergdahl said in his e-mail he was ashamed to be American.
22.
Some soldiers who had served with Bowe Bergdahl have called him a deserter.
23.
On July 18,2009, the Taliban released a video showing Bowe Bergdahl, who appeared downcast and frightened.
24.
Bowe Bergdahl described his place of birth, deployment to Afghanistan, and subsequent capture and made several statements regarding his humane treatment by his captors, contrasting this to the abuses suffered by insurgents in prisons.
25.
Bowe Bergdahl finished by stating that the United States should not be involved in Afghanistan and that its presence there was akin to the Vietnam War.
26.
In November 2010, Bowe Bergdahl appeared briefly in a fourth video.
27.
In May 2011, Bowe Bergdahl appeared briefly in a fifth video.
28.
In June 2010, Bowe Bergdahl managed to escape his captors but was recaptured after less than nine days.
29.
In June 2013, Bowe Bergdahl's parents received a letter from him through the Red Cross.
30.
In January 2014, the United States received another proof-of-life video dated December 14,2013, in which Bowe Bergdahl mentioned the death of South African former president Nelson Mandela, indicating the video had been recorded after December 5.
31.
In early 2014, it was suggested in some media that the United States government had attempted to secure the release of Bowe Bergdahl by paying a ransom and that the intermediary had absconded with the money.
32.
The other showed a door being broken down and threatened that those holding Bowe Bergdahl would be hunted down.
33.
Bowe Bergdahl told medical officials that he was locked in a metal cage in total darkness for weeks at a time as punishment for trying to escape.
34.
On May 31,2014, Bowe Bergdahl was released by his captors and recovered by Delta Force, a Special Mission Unit component of the Joint Special Operations Command in eastern Afghanistan.
35.
Bowe Bergdahl was treated by US military medical staff at an undisclosed base in eastern Afghanistan.
36.
Bowe Bergdahl was then transferred to Bagram Airfield before being flown to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, for medical treatment.
37.
Ultimately, the Obama administration agreed to the prisoner exchange, allowing Bowe Bergdahl to be released on May 31,2014.
38.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Bowe Bergdahl was a "prisoner of war" and that "We didn't negotiate with terrorists".
39.
On June 25,2014, the US Army stated that there is "no evidence" that Bowe Bergdahl "engaged in any misconduct" during his years in captivity.
40.
On March 25,2015, the Army announced that Bowe Bergdahl had been charged with two counts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: one count of "desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty" and one count of "misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place"; the second more serious misbehavior charge can be charged with a life sentence.
41.
Bowe Bergdahl did have a severe mental disease or defect at the time of the alleged criminal conduct, he was able to appreciate the nature and quality and wrongfulness of this conduct.
42.
At the hearing, Dahl testified that he found no evidence suggesting that Bowe Bergdahl was "sympathetic to the Taliban" or intended to desert.
43.
Dahl testified that Bowe Bergdahl had "idealistic and unrealistic expectations" of people, identifying with Ayn Rand's character of John Galt.
44.
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Visger presided over the hearing and made a recommendation on whether Bowe Bergdahl should be court-martialed.
45.
In 2016, Bowe Bergdahl's case was the focus of Season2 of the podcast Serial.
46.
On President Donald Trump's inauguration day, Bowe Bergdahl's lawyers sought to use the president's words to end the prosecution.
47.
The defense attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the desertion and endangerment charges against Bowe Bergdahl, saying it was now impossible for him to get a fair trial.
48.
Colonel Jeffery Nance, the military judge presiding over the case, declined to dismiss the case in February 2017; Bowe Bergdahl's appeal was denied by the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals in March.
49.
Bowe Bergdahl returned to court for a pre-trial hearing on May 5,2017, where the judge said he intended to start jury selection on October 16,2017.
50.
In February 2021, Bowe Bergdahl filed a petition in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to have the conviction and sentence expunged.
51.
Sometime later in 2021, Bowe Bergdahl was discharged from the Army.
52.
In March 2023 Bowe Bergdahl received a partial win in the US District Court case.