but as before he was always planning to come back.

In a war zone?

That's some plan.

so he went without it.

sometimes curiosity is stronger than fear.

the people. He really believed that. If you think about that mindset and naivete for a few seconds, yes, he probably believed that he could do that and did plan "to come back." The Rolling Stone article is very enlightening. It gives you an idea what they guy's mindset was like.

But that is a big if and he deserves a fair investigation.

I really object to him being tried in the media. It's beyond cruel to his parents as well.

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty.

There were six members of Bergdahl's platoon on with some blond. It seems those guys mostly want to know why he left and abandoned them. They also want him to have due process and if the evidence warrants a court-martial, they would be satisfied with a prosecution.

What I am curious about is his mental status.

and military tradition is being seen as a huge mistake by the right wing propaganda machine?

I have not watched any other Fox News coverage of this story (or anything else for that matter), so I have no way to comment on your post.

Make a court martial even less likely.

Let's just say execution squads and no chain of command to blow the Whistle to would make this very embarrassing. It does explain the rush to create a story line though in some quarters, including the war is always glorious (as long as I don't have to fight it) hard right.

They all must have known of the Rolling Stones article. I am sure, if any of these allegations are true, they would have preferred a bag of bones, preferably long dry.

Many decades ago we used to play a war game set in a fictional sci fi setting. This was ascribed to Chancellor Liao, but could be an apocryphal Stalin quote going back to WW2. "Dead heroes tell no lies."

I have only read bits and pieces about the operational fitness of that company. I guess I have some research to do.

Long but worth it.

Suffice it to day, the Sergeant was not a good fit for the army, but.

Some other allegations are starting to emerge from other places. If there is a grain of truth, the last thing the Army needs is a court martial, worms and cans come to mind

That is never a good thing for a military man.

"Some other allegations are starting to emerge from other places."

Can you elaborate or give me a link?

I thought it was the OP.

Some of the things emerging is that a few of the soldiers going after the Sergeant got big chicken dinner discharges or general, due to the problems when deployed. If you read into it, if true, they would have preferred a bag of bleached bones. The soldiers that is.

To me it sounds like a real cluster of a unit, and it came together after the army severely lowered standards to fill recruitment numbers. So the sergeant is highly idealistic, wants to help, peace corp or the navy would have been a better fit...he spends time trying to learn language and understand the culture. He still is a really bad fit for the line infantry.

He deploys with these goofballs who developed a reputation as a kill team, and he apparently had lousy NCOs and JOs. All this would go into a court martial. Assuming one tenth of this is true, the embarrassment is not one welcomed by the military. They might have to try people for war crimes.

Why I am almost betting on a pow ribbon, medical discharge, back pay,and honorable...

There is something going on in RW land that makes all this odd. But it also is making the good war become a really bad one...like Lt Calley and Vietnam. That is like the last thing they need, why they are rabid in the attacks.

Hastings' Rolling Stone piece raised a lot of questions about the unit and its leadership. And anyone with any military experience who is following this has to wonder how commanders failed to address indications of problems with this unit.

It pains me to think that the 1/501 was my sister battalion in Vietnam, when that unit and mine--2/501 Infantry--were both battalions of the 101st Airborne Division.

But it's a different unit today. After VN both bns. were deactivated and it wasn't until the GWOT that 1/501 was reactivated--but now as part of the 25th Infantry Div. out of Ft. Richardson, AK. It was only very recently that my bn. was reactivated--now as part of the 82nd Airborne Div., the 101st's rival!

In leadership positions. You in a line unit, me in a reserve medical unit, why that article raised all kinds of moments for both of us.

The first thing that got me going was his sergeant at NTC going "Fuck diz shit!"

The second was in country the most senior officer at the outpost was a buck sergeant after the LTee got relieved. We were always short handed, but I never really heard of that. I don't about you, but that was a moment.

As you say...alarms were ringing and confirmed to me how stretched the army still is.

The 1/501 is the home of Easy Company of Band of Brothers fame.

I know a kid who served in that unit, contemporary to this mess. When he came back he was ahem, counseled out after issues at Bragg. He was transferred soon after coming home. He still got an honorable but after reading that piece by Hastings...it just makes you wonder.

The way the kid talked before the deployment raised questions in my mind, but first deployment, young and dumb...he ended up in a Long Range while in country and completely changed. The latter did not surprise any of us. His younger brother never deployed. He had many discipline issues.

What both said was odd though. Things they were allowed to do by young sergeants, but most sergeants did not reup after their term, and JOs who gave not a fuck. We thought it was traditional junior vs senior and enlisted vs officer fun and games. Even if it sounded a tad extreme. It raised alarms, but when you are not in...all you can do is go by gut.

506th is the Currahees and 501st is the Geronimos. They were sister regiments of the 101st, but Band of Brothers was the 506th PIR.

ETA: To be clearer for those not familiar with Army unit designations, the 501st PIR also had an E Company. But the E (Easy) Company of Band of Brothers fame was the one in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, not the E Company in the 501st PIR.

Who was a tanker and left as an O-3 father Somalia.

-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5053628

They first saw Bergdahl missing in the morning when they woke up. Little green men could have taken him away for all they know.

One of the 6 said, It wasn't aggressive enough for Bergdahl. That would mean Bergdahl was upset about the war or mission he was on because it wasn't aggressive enough.

Who knows what Bergdahl has to say about this. First you need a trial and guilt of desertion anyway.

How is it you missed that?

I knew the continents shifted, but thought it happened a lot longer ago.

Nowhere in the UCMJ is there a crime for which the punishment is 'leave you in enemy hands after you are found guilty on FOX news'.

The compact does not have an asterisk or fine print. We send you there, we bring you home or do everything in our power to do so. Period.

Who said, "F this" and went native.

It happens.

Having to cope with circumstances beyond one's ability to cope leads to thinking that any alternative is preferable.

and half the enemy is engaged in hopscotching back and forth across international borders. One could speculate that it's relatively safe for a walk, until it's not safe. Did he desert, or just take a ill-advised time out?

As I recall the military had been forced to relax some recruitment standards in order to recruit enough soldiers for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Maybe this kid wasn't an optimal candidate for serving but was enlisted anyway. All the more reason he should be shown some compassion!

after reading the Rolling Stone piece from a couple of years ago. I don't know if it's a mental thing or a behavioral thing or what, but I don't think he was a good candidate for the military. He seemed to think that he could do what he liked in the army whether it was generally doing things "right" (the way he thought they should be done) or getting fed up and just walking away. He also seemed exceptionally naive when he enlisted seeming to not understand that this was a war.

I need to read the Rolling Stone piece thanks