Category: Army News

Reuters reports that Bowe Bergdahl claims that he tried to escape from the Taliban/Haqqani folks who were holding him, according to a statement that his lawyer released yesterday;

…Bergdahl tried to escape his Taliban captors a dozen times in five years as a prisoner of war, once remaining free for nine days, but each time he was found and brutally beaten…

[…]

The sergeant said his first escape attempt occurred within hours of his initial capture, when his minders briefly left him alone in a village where he was being interrogated and beaten for evading questions.

“After a while they put the blindfold back on and threw the blanket over my head. Some moments after that I believed I had a chance to run for it and did,” Bergdahl said.

He was tackled near the outskirts of the village by a large group of men who pummeled him with their fists and clubbed him with the butt of an AK-47 rifle, snapping off the stock.

He tried to escape again near the end of his first week as a prisoner, eluding his captors for about 15 minutes in a populated area, the statement said, but he was found and beaten with a thick rubber hose.

I have no doubt that he tried to escape, he escaped from his own US military unit, didn’t he? But the charges against him are for the reasons that he left his unit, not his conduct while in captivity. His escape attempts can’t mitigate the fact that he walked away from his unit, left his weapon and body armor behind. He shipped some of his possessions home and then went on a walkabout.

CNN reports that Bowe Bergdahl’s lawyer told CNN that he will be charged with desertion and “misbehavior” whatever that means;

UPDATE 2:08 p.m. – Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will be charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, according to Bergdahl’s attorney and a Congressional source.

UPDATE 1:52 p.m. – The U.S. military said Wednesday that it will make an announcement on the Bergdahl case at 3:30 EDT from Fort Bragg.

It’s been nearly a year since Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl returned to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange and since the Army began a formal investigation into his disappearance from his unit. Yet the Army still hasn’t made public its findings and, with them, what discipline — if any — Bergdahl will face for leaving his base in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009.

That begs the question; WTF has taken so long to charge him? At least we’ll finally get the answers that the American public deserves. Depending on how long it takes to get him to trial.

ADDED: From the Washington Post;

Article 85, desertion, applies to a service member who “quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service.” The maximum sentence for those convicted is death, although no soldier has faced that punishment since 1944, when Pvt. Eddie Slovik was executed by a firing squad after running away from combat duty in France.

Article 99, misbehavior before the enemy, applies to a service member who has run away in the face of the enemy, abandoned his unit, cast aside his weapon or ammunition or willfully failed “to do his utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is his duty so to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy.”

The New York Times thinks they should just discharge him, that’s severe enough;

Military officials had a range of options on how to deal with Sergeant Berdgahl, from declaring him innocent of any wrongdoing to being charged with being absent without leave — AWOL — to charging him with desertion, the most serious charge Sergeant Bergdahl faced.

But it still remains uncertain whether Sergeant Bergdahl will be court-martialed, the Defense official said.

Another question is whether the Army will give Sergeant Bergdahl an honorable discharge if he is found guilty of desertion. For members of the military, an honorable discharge is no small matter, and not getting one can not only hinders a veteran’s job prospects, but also weigh on the entirety of how a service member looks back on his or her career.

From Fox News, because you need more blondes in your life;

Eleck Stone had a wish to be Ranger. He also has cystic fibrosis, but the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Rangers of the 75th Ranger regiment combined forces to help Eleck’s wish come true, according to the Army Times;

Eleck Stone joined soldiers with the 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia, for two days of training last week — everything from airborne operations training to time on the shooting range to a simulated raid alongside his battle buddies and his younger brother, Bryce.

After a stellar performance, “the Regimental Commander and Regimental Sergeant Major voted unanimously to add Eleck to the ranks of the U.S. Army’s premier raid force,” the unit’s Facebook page announced Friday.

I’m thinking that live firing that .50 caliber machine gun would cure anything that ails young Eleck.

Andy11M sends us a link to the Associated Press report that the Poles have welcomed US troops in their country. Troops from the 3rd Squadron of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment drove their unit through Eastern Poland this week and the Poles seem grateful to see the Americans on their soil;

“This really means a lot to us. We see that we are not alone, that there is someone to defend us,” Zdzislaw Narel, 60, told The Associated Press. “This is really a historic moment.”

“You make us feel like movie stars,” a U.S. soldier was heard saying from atop a Stryker.

The “Dragoon Ride” convoy of dozens of armored vehicles started last week from Estonia and passed through Latvia and Lithuania before entering Poland, on a 1,700-kilometer (1,000-mile) return journey to a base in Vilseck, Germany. They took part in the Atlantic Resolve exercise intended to demonstrate NATO’s readiness to defend its members.

If I’m not mistaken, this is part of the new strategy to station equipment in Poland while rotating troops in and out of the country to demonstrate our support for Polish democracy as well as the other regional states. Funny how most of the world sees US troops on their soil as guarantors of their freedom. How many other nations can boast that?

Chief Tango sends us a link from the Washington Post about General John F. Campbell, the fellow commanding International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Campbell’s staff have investigated more than 700 instances of dating profiles on the internet of people claiming to be US troops stationed in Afghanistan. I’m sure he was thinking of former Sergeant Major of the Army Ray Chandler when the general told the Post;

“I am happily married and my wife Ann is very much alive and my children do not need money for any medical procedures,” Campbell said in his post. “I DO NOT use any dating sites, skype, google plus, yahoo messenger or any other account.”

The general added that most of the scammers appear to be in Ghana and Nigeria.

“My daughter is NOT doing volunteer work there,” he said.

So, sorry, ladies, if you thought you were reeling in and landing a general on the internet, in this case at least, you were wrong.

The Associated Press reports that the First Brigade of the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division is deploying to Eastern Europe for exercises in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The article says that about 750 vehicles/aircraft arrived at the port in Riga, Latvia yesterday. Some of those will remain there as the US rotates troops in and out of the region;

The Defense Department has announced plans to reduce its overall permanent basing in Europe. But at the same time, it is ramping up its program to send military units on short-term deployments across Europe for training and exercises. Over the past year, the U.S. has sent a variety of troops, including special operations forces, to exercises and training program in Eastern Europe, including Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Those nations are particularly concerned about potential threats from Russia in the wake of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and the ongoing fighting between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country.

I was a Marne Man in the Second and Third Brigades when the Division was based in West Germany. Three years in Wildflecken and four in Aschaffenburg. So it is with a certain amount of pride that I watch the Rock of the Marne lead the Army into a new era of the defense of Europe from the God-less Russian hordes.