Ok, just a few things

1) He plead guilty to desertion, so he deserted
2) The wounds of a few of the search party are going to be used in applying sentence.
3) his time served will lessen his sentence

Now, this next part I cant find anywhere but on a Vets forum I visit and read, and there are people claiming he was on a QRF team. If he was QRF, then he is considered ALWAYS on duty 24 hours, even when sleeping. I cant verify if he was QRF, but QRF is normal duty in most Infantry units, and he was infantry, so there is always that

I know on the DMZ, we did 6 weeks on the DMZ< 6 weeks in garrison (4 day work weeks) and 6 weeks QRF, where we are restricted to base and not allowed to drink alcohol.

QRF they use in a lot of ways, and they are always training, but the soldiers assigned to QRF have their movement restricted a lot.

We could not leave our base if we were QRF, we could not be served alcohol if we were QRF (if you had an NCO club on base, we didnt) We had to be in bunks by 2100 (I think, maybe it was 2200)

If we did go off base while assigned to QRF, it was for road marches and such things

Simple answer. Give him a choice. Door #1 Dishonorable discharge and 10 years, which is much better than life for treason. Or, Door #2 We drop him back in Afghanistan with a juice box and a sandwich and wish him the best. His choice.

Choice 3. Turn him over to his unit

@JY I'll go along with that metaphor.

The duck dinner is enough, imo. He already paid five years as a pow in deplorable conditions.

F that. 5 years ain't enough. He earned that all by himself. He now.owes his brothers who he.left

The US already abandoned him in Afghantistan three different times when they didn't pick him up after his multiple escapes. So, he's already served for that bit of blundering incompetence. And as for his unit, you mean the unit that should also be subject to dishonorable discharges for abusing civilians? That unit? Great idea. Better to drop them in Afghanistan with a juice box and a sandwich.

Somehow, everyone is willing to totally gloss over the fact they were up to things that needed reporting.

And treason? Treason is aiding and abetting an enemy for which there is precisely zero evidence. It's not like he colluded with a foreign enemy to sabotage our elections or anything like that. You just make yourself look even more like a moron.

Now, we see people retreat from "people died" to "there were some wounds." Next it will be "we should lengthen his sentence for scratches on the pain to the trucks they drove around in."

Say, did anyone ever go to prison for dropping white phosphorus on civilians or using depleted uranium rounds or blowing up people's weddings?

Onion. What branch of the.military were you in? He pleads guilty t9 desertion and misbehavior already.

People did die bit they are not part of the.case for.whatever reason

Got a problem with tour unit use your damn coc. That's what it's thwrw.for

Ogion, you only care because of 1 thing. You like pissing people off You have bad-mouthed military people forever and a day in these forums, and now you want to protect this guy? No you dont, you just like being you...mr I know everything about everything, and you dont know jack about being in the Army, specifically in THAT MOS he is in.

that POS should have used his CoC or even JAG.

Michael Waltz was a Special Forces major who took leadership over a team of Green Berets that day. “We unequivocally—all of my sources, all embedded forces, all trainers—stop what we are doing, pivot and devote every asset we had to this search,” he says.

One of these Green Berets was apaprently killed in this search, but his name is not mentioned in the case. Why? I have no idea

Also, they say Bergdahl was Airborne Infantry, but having looked at many photos of him, both in BDU and Dress greens, I see no paratrooper wings anywhere, so I am not sure why that happened.

Ogion, this small base used 9 of their men to go searching for him shortly after it happened, and according to the 2nd Lt in charge, put his base in "grave danger"

These are the charges. This is why it was so serious. If there were crimes committed by that unit, it does not excuse THIS behavior.

Because the Maj Gen in charge of the investigation concluded that no one was killed in the process of the search. That's why that hasn't come up. I'm sure you know more about it than the guy in charge of the investigation though.

I can smell bad faith lynch mob when I see one. No, I never took a job in the military because signing up to kill people seems a poor way to serve anyone. ANd yes, I think the glorification of the military and the attitude that military people often assume that they're better than everyone else makes me want to take the whole institution down a peg.

And people are blabbing Fox News style about totally fake facts (derliction of duty? treason? Lol. You guys don't even know the meaning of the word.) and completely disproportionate "give him a life sentence" when people who have committed war crimes and actually, you know, gotten people actually killed with their mistakes (where is the court martial for the commander in Niger?) get a free pass.

So, what we learn about the military is this: For the folks who engaged in torture at Abu Ghraib, we see a range from slaps on the wrist to a couple of sentences over a year, and a couple of dishonorable discharges. Very little concerted outcry from the military there, but white hot rage here. And you wonder why perhaps some folks are a bit skeptical here of the "honor" of the military?

I said Desertion, which he has pleaded guilty to. Endangerment is also on the table.

My rage comes from teh fact I held the exact same job as he did in the Army, and you can never ever understand the bond there. It is not something that can be described

Also, some of us not so lucky to get to go to school without finding alternate ways of funding it. My parents were poor immigrants, my dad was a coal miner. I had about zero chances of getting a scholarship (very good grades, just not that good) and student loans were not happening.

So, i went with this choice.

The endangerment is what will get him.life if he gets it

You did, but read the rest of the thread

My dad was a poor immigrant and my mom not a lot better off, but they were smart and hardworking and made a success of it. Sothere is that. Makes sense to pay for college that way, but that doesn't necessarily make you a superior person or holy. That's my point

I still maintain it'd be an abomination if he gets life in prison while some of the most heinous torturers walk free. It'd seriously undermine the credibility of the military as an institution.

Ogion, I have become to doubt you really are an attorney. Oh you may have gone to a 'law school' but I doubt you passed the bar. Smokin' too much wacky tabbaky. The US military justice system is as about perfect in balancing justice and the rights of the accused. Your commentary is uninformed and inflammatory. Sad!

I will agree with that some people are taking this too far. He's copped to desertion, with a max sentence of (I think) five years and dishonorable discharge. No need to execute him. He didn't commit treason either.

As to dereliction of duty, that is a lesser offense than desertion... And basically means violating any order. I'd place money on the fact that wandering off base violates an order.

People dying... it's difficult to say definitively. Say five patrols a day were going out before and they increased the patrols to eight to look for him. If someone dies, there is no way to know for certain if that person would have died if he hadn't been captured. But it certainly upped the chances and it very may well have been the case.

Dont make me superior in any way but one, but it does make me understand the situation on the ground far better than you do.

You ever wonder why guys jump on grenades to save their comrades? It is this sort of self-sacrifice without thought that you will never know if you are capable of. This is what puts SOME of these guys into a category you cant grasp

KingCyrus, i think the other charge that carries serious time in prison is the endangerment. I think that does carry life.

My personal feelings, and since I was also Infantry in the Army, and deployed to the M.E they are far more 'bias' are not going to be taken into account, and my logical side knows he wont get death, but his unit would certainly love to get their hands on him.

Ogion, military justice is swift and generally without much emotion in either way I dont recall exactly the crimes charged in those other cases, and who got what, but that dont excuse Bergdahl leaving his boys in a tough spot

King, as I understand the base 'commander' was a 2nd Lt. So, this base could not have held more than 50-60 guys total. 2nd Lts are at best Platoon leaders, nothing else

SO, if the only thing on that base was a platoon of Light Infantry, then I am going to say, without a DOUBT there would be a standing order to not leave the base.

I have no idea how many soldiers required for perimeter defense, but my guess is no less than 12, with another 8 on QRF I do know there was Afghan NG and police, but if it is me, I am not leaving my perimeter under their care exclusively

This is the Army first General Order We learn it our first day of basic training We repeat it every day for 16 weeks We know it like the back of our hand (or in my case, did..lol)


I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved. I will obey my special orders and perform all my duties in a military manner. I will report violations of my special orders, emergencies, and anything not covered in my instructions to the commander of the relief.

For some reason I think that 1st g.o changed

Trump called soldiers that get captured by the enemy losers like Senator John McCain.

@stressed I don't think you can attack @ogion because he didn't serve in the military and therefore cannot appreciate the atrocities that the USG policy causes. That is misguided. Lot's of veterans, such as myself, are very much opposed to our stupid empire policy. We drone strike weddings. We sell grenades and missiles to dictators. Yes, the USG is completely guilty of atrocities. Bergdahl should never have gotten into the military. As I understand it, he was kicked out of boot camp for psychological problems, but then the army let him join and put him on an isolated OP in very hostile area. The people who should answer to this are the policy makers. The deaths of any troops are on them, not Bergdahl.

I who said anything.abiut.empire? Did I advocate for such a thing once? He left his unit and put them all in danger.

@stressed. You can't attack a liberal. Only liberals are allowed to attack conservatives

Bergdahl did.

The point is that a life sentence for a guy who leaves his unit after being relieved while torturers get a few years would tell the world that military "justice" is bullshit and not worth a damn thing.

Stressed, unless you were IN Afghanistan at the time and with Bergdahl during his walk, you don't know any more than I do, but you do have a clear bias because of your association with the military.