For example, many years ago in basic training I saw a kid take off all his clothes at the rifle range. I don't know if he had a breakdown or something or just decided he had made a bad choice to enlist and wanted out ASAP. Needless to say, he was taken away and processed out.

Walking off alone into enemy hands seems pretty radical for someone merely disillusioned.

he may have literally just gone for a walk and got snatched by the Taliban while taking his stroll. I was in the Army for 8 years, I've seen guys do a lot of dumb stuff.

. . . many of the 'eyewitness' accounts that make up this and other narratives about Berghdahl have been uncorroborated and amount to little more than rumor, at this point.

...I guess that includes me.

My opinion is that very few of his detractors have ever been in a war theater and most of his detractors avoided the military entirely. All of the hoopla surrounding his return is political sparring on steroids.

The details will eventually sort themselves out. Until then, Bergdahl deserves the respect and comfort afforded any returning prisoner of war.

TYY

for him. I don't see why these soldiers would have any reason to lie, either.

Joshua Cornelison, 25, who was a medic in the platoon:

Cornelison said Bergdahl was unusually reluctant to talk to fellow soldiers about his personal life or his background.

“He was very, very quiet. He kept everything very close to the vest,” Cornelison said, speaking from Sacramento, California. “So, after he actually left, the following morning we realized we have Bergdahl’s weapon, we have Bergdahl’s body armor, we have Bergdahl’s sensitive equipment (but) we don’t have Bowe Bergdahl.” At that point, Cornelison said, it occurred to him that Bergdahl was “that one guy that wanted to disappear, and now he’s gotten his wish.”

Cornelison, who completed his Army service in 2012, said he believes Bergdahl should be held accountable.

“Bowe Bergdahl needs to be held 100 percent accountable for all of his irresponsibility and all of his actions. He willfully deserted his post and he needs to be held accountable for that,” he said.

__

Evan Buetow, 27, who was a sergeant in the platoon:

Buetow, speaking from Maple Valley, Washington, said Bergdahl had asked him a number of questions a short time before his disappearance that, in retrospect, make it apparent that Bergdahl had been planning to leave.

Bergdahl asked him, for example, how much of a cash advance he could get and how to go about mailing home his personal computer and other belongings. He also asked what would happen if his weapon and other sensitive items such as night vision goggles went missing. He said he told Bergdahl that, as any soldier would know, that would be “a big deal.”

“At the time … it wasn’t really alarming” to hear Bergdahl ask about those things, Buetow said. “Yes, it was a kind of off-the-wall question,” but the notion of a fellow soldier running off during the night seemed so far-fetched as to not be possible, he said.

Buetow said he feels strongly that Bergdahl should face trial for desertion, but he said it is less clear that he should be blamed for the deaths of all soldiers killed during months of trying to find him. Beutow said he knows of at least one death on an intelligence-directed infantry patrol to a village in search of Bergdahl. More broadly, the mission of his entire unit changed after Bergdahl’s disappearance because it began to incorporate efforts to pursue clues to his whereabouts.

“Those soldiers who died on those missions, they would not have been where they were … if Bergdahl had never walked away,” he said. “At the same time I do believe it is somewhat unfair for people to say, ‘It is Bergdahl’s fault that these people are dead.’ I think that’s a little harsh.”

___

Matt Vierkant, 27, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was a team leader of another squad in Bergdahl’s platoon.

He’s now out of the military and studying mechanical engineering.

Soldiers from his unit and other units were wounded or killed on missions to chase down leads related to Bergdahl, he said.

Asked about the statement Sunday by National Security Adviser Susan Rice that Bergdahl served “with honor and distinction,” he said: “That statement couldn’t be further from the truth. I don’t know if she was misinformed or doesn’t know about the investigations and everything else, or what.”

He said Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers knew within five or 10 minutes from the discovery of disappearance that he had walked away. In retrospect the signs were there, he said, but there was nothing so definitive that would have prompted action.

“He said some strange things, like, ‘I could get lost in those mountains,’ which, at the time, that doesn’t really strike you as someone who is going to leave their weapon and walk out.”

Vierkant said he believes it’s paramount that an investigation determine whether Bergdahl deserted or collaborated with the enemy.

“It shouldn’t even be a question of whether, it should question of when,” he said.

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/06/03/unit-comrade-bergdahl-was-that-one-guy-that-wanted-to-disappear/

The Army is full of "shit house lawyers" with an opinion on how something/someone can be overcome and how you can get out of it. You can have 10 witnesses to an accident or serious incident and get ten different accounts of what really, really happened. I'm not ready to take any of his comrades accounting of what "really, really happened" unless and until there's an investigative report documenting it. Given the GOP has hired PR flacks to smear this man and his family, that investigative report will carry far more weight with me than an accounting from a TV station.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025044161

Plus it turns out the two of them have agendas and are money grubbing during their 15 minutes of fame.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025050773

Micheal Hastings' excellent article in Rolling Stone also illustrates how this platoon had real issues and had possibly committed war crimes - all reasons his fellow soldiers "might" want to get out ahead of Bergdahl and discredit him before he fingers them.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607


Finally nobody saw what happened that night. Nobody. There isn't a single eye witness so why are you perpetuating the RW memes? In fact Bergdahl had a history of taking walks. His platoon AND CO's knew about it and nobody ever thought he was deserting before.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014819538

me think they are telling the truth. I don't think it sounds like some kind of conspiracy by Fox news.

I think some duers are biased into finding the guy was innocent of these allegations, because otherwise the story of a rescue of a "heroic POW" all of sudden starts to look less good.

If the guy is a deserter, then that should not be swept under the rug or covered up, for the sake of political reasons.

They're demonstrably flawed to be acting as any kind of character witnesses. Its telling there's just these few. They didn't know Bergdahl any better than the rest of his unit (you did read the RS story right?) But none of the rest of the soldiers who served with Bergdahl are out there on a money grubbing paid slam fest.

Beyond that I'm not invested in absolving Bergdahl of anything but I am horrified to see any DUers spewing the RW PR coordinated smear job before we have both sides of the story.

I will speak out about that Quinnox.

wouldn't he take his weapon, ammunition, body armor, night vision equipment, grenades, battle plans, organizational charts, maps, and anything else he could get his hands on?