Ex-captive Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl could return to active duty Monday

[EC]

Now, before panties get bunched here - he has to go back to active duty for an inquiry or a court martial.

(CNN) -- Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has finished undergoing therapy and counseling at an Army hospital in San Antonio and could return to active duty as early as Monday, a defense official tells CNN.

Bergdahl was held captive by militants for five years before he was released in May in exchange for five Taliban members held by the U.S. military.

Some critics of the swap have said Bergdahl was a deserter who endangered colleagues searching for him.

Bergdahl went missing on June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan's Paktika province, where he was deployed with the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

An Army fact-finding investigation conducted in the months after his disappearance concluded he left his outpost deliberately and of his own free will, according to an official who was briefed on the report.

But there was no definitive conclusion Bergdahl was a deserter because that would require knowing his intent, something officials couldn't learn without talking to him, a U.S. military official has said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/14/us/bowe-bergdahl-active-duty/index.html

[Oceander]

/facepalm

[mystery-ak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/us/bergdahl-is-set-to-resume-life-on-active-duty.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

Bergdahl Is Set to Resume Life on Active Duty

By ERIC SCHMITT JULY 13, 2014



WASHINGTON — Six weeks after being released from five years in Taliban captivity, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is expected to return to life as a regular Army soldier as early as Monday, Defense Department officials said late Sunday.

Sergeant Bergdahl has finished undergoing therapy and counseling at an Army hospital in San Antonio, and will assume a job at the Army North headquarters at the same base, Fort Sam Houston, the officials said.

He is also expected to meet with Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, the officer who is investigating the circumstances of Sergeant Bergdahl’s disappearance from his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009.

Sergeant Bergdahl’s transfer from the therapy phase to a regular soldier’s job is part of his reintegration into Army life, officials said. He will live in barracks and have two other soldiers help him readjust.

The sergeant has been an outpatient at the hospital for about three weeks, during which time he continued to participate in debriefings about his time as a Taliban prisoner. He was released six weeks ago in exchange for five senior Taliban detainees.

Last Thursday, Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee, released letters from each of the Joint Chiefs of Staff supporting the repatriation of Sergeant Bergdahl, a rebuttal to critics who said the swap should not have been made.

[mountaineer]

When - if ever - will he be charged with desertion? 

[PzLdr]

When - if ever - will he be charged with desertion? 

I hear Johnny Mathis crooning "The 12th of Never".

[Chieftain]

When - if ever - will he be charged with desertion?

How about just an Article 32 hearing to start??  The function of such a hearing is to determine whether charges shall be filed against him.

If he is still a recovering patient, there is no way that the Army would charge him with anything.  Once he is returned to Active Duty though, things are much different.  It is significant that he is not being discharged.

Give this a bit of churn time.  Let's see exactly where this goes in a week.

[flowers]

Wow 6 weeks to totally recover from near death.    Isn't that what the regime said, he was so unhealthy they had to get him out?

[EC]

Wow 6 weeks to totally recover from near death.    Isn't that what the regime said, he was so unhealthy they had to get him out?

Well - to be totally fair - the Army has a wee bit of a different definition of health. If you can breathe, move on your own and don't get the shakes too much, you are healthy.

They want this mess out of the way, and by they I mean the ones at the top of the tree. I'll lay money on him being found unfit through mental illness and given an honorable discharge.

[Chieftain]

Well - to be totally fair - the Army has a wee bit of a different definition of health. If you can breathe, move on your own and don't get the shakes too much, you are healthy.

They want this mess out of the way, and by they I mean the ones at the top of the tree. I'll lay money on him being found unfit through mental illness and given an honorable discharge.

I quite disagree.  If he were unfit to continue on Active Duty due to any kind of mental illness or other condition that was a result of his captivity, he would not be retained, but would have been Administratively Separated upon release from the medical facility. 

Again, under the UCMJ, he has to have an Article 32 hearing before anything can be decided, and the only way he would ever face any charges is if he were found to be healthy enough to return to Active Duty.  The only way he would have escaped any charges is if he had been found to have a profound disability, or were suffering from extreme wounds, or some other obvious medical condition.  That he has been returned to Active Duty tells me that the legal process is just getting ready to begin for Bowe al Ameriiki.

Give this some time.

[EC]

I trust your judgement. So we give it time and see what shakes out of the tree. 

[mystery-ak]

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bowe-bergdahl-released/slain-soldiers-family-furious-bowe-bergdahl-active-duty-n155356

Slain Soldier's Family 'Furious' Bowe Bergdahl on Active Duty

The family of a soldier who blame Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for their son's death said Monday they are "furious" he has been returned to active duty while an investigation into his capture by the Taliban continues. "This is another attempt to give credibility to a deserter to protect the decision to free five extremely dangerous Taliban," Sondra Andrews, mother of fallen 2nd Lt. Darryn Andrews, said in a message to NBC News. Her son was killed in eastern Afghanistan in September 2009, and members of his platoon told the family that he was searching for Bergdahl when he was ambushed.

The Pentagon has not linked Bergdahl's abduction to the death of any service members killed in the weeks that followed as the military searched for him. But a number of families firmly believe that if Bergdahl had not left his base, their loved ones would still be alive, and they have branded him a deserter. Bergdahl was released May 31 after the U.S. agreed to release five Taliban militants from Guantanamo Bay, and he just completed the military's re-integration program.

[mystery-ak]

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/07/15/peters-bergdahls-military-desk-job-joke

BY
FOX NEWS INSIDER
 // JUL 15 2014 // 11:34AM AS SEEN ON
THE KELLY FILE
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is returning to active duty at a Texas military base, just weeks after the controversial prisoner swap for his release from Taliban captivity. He may also be eligible for $350K in back pay.

Soldier Who Took Part Bergdahl Search: 'He Is a Deserter'

Last night on The Kelly File, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters said Bergdahl’s administrative job is a “joke.”

“The Protocol Office? Give me a break,” Peters said. “They’re afraid to put him back at a combat arms place like Fort Hood or Fort Bliss ‘cause frankly, he’d get the crap beat out of him. He is despised.”

Despite that, Peters said Bergdahl isn’t the real issue at hand.

“The issue is that we’re on the verge of establishing a precedent, that desertion in the face of the enemy is no big deal.”

Peters said the ultimate proof against Bergdahl is that his own comrades turned against him. He also stressed that wounded soldiers and families of the fallen soldiers deserve more respect and benefits than Bergdahl.

“In no time in the history of our military, or any other military, was an alleged deserter treated so well," he said.

video at link

[EC]

It happens rarely, but you do occasionally find one of the brass who has a nice sense of irony.

Protocol office is perfect. After all, who better to teach the intricacies of dealing with fundie Muslims?