Bowe Bergdahl: ‘Serial’ Podcast Subject Says He Left Base to Expose

The U.S. soldier who was held five years by Taliban-linked insurgents says he walked off his base in Afghanistan in a stunt to prove he was like fictional Central Intelligence Agency movie spy Jason Bourne.

Bergdahl made the claims in 25 hours of recorded phone interviews with screenwriter and producer Mark Boal, whose film credits include “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Hurt Locker”.

As he walked off of his Afghanistan outpost in the middle of the night, carrying little more than knives, a compass, snacks and water, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said he saw himself as a real-life action hero in the mold of Jason Bourne.

“Good grief, I’m in over my head”, he said.

“I was fully confident that when somebody actually took a look at the situation and when people started investigating the situation that people would understand that I was right”, he said.

“When I got back to the FOB, you know, they could say, ‘You left your position, ‘” he said, referring to his forward operating base. “And I am not prejudging, O.K., but it is well known that in the searches for Bergdahl, after – we know now – he deserted, there are allegations that some American soldiers were killed or wounded, or at the very least put their lives in danger, searching for what is clearly a deserter”. “You know, that I could be what it is that all those guys out there that go to the movies and watch those movies – they all want to be that – but I wanted to prove I was that”.

So now, more than a year after the first season began, there’s a lot of pressure on the second to, if not strike ratings gold again, at least hold its own as a case study worthy of such close examination.

Bergdahl did not testify at a September preliminary hearing at Joint Base San Antonio-Ft.

And while Season Two boasts similar candid interviews as heard in Season One, host Sarah Koenig uses Bergdahl’s story to explore greater themes of war and politics.

We hear from Bowe Bergdahl for the first time about what drove him to leave his Army post.

He faces charges that could bring a life sentence, but investigators have recommended he not spend anymore time in prison.

Bergdahl’s lawyer, Eugene Fidell, said the podcast offered Americans a chance to “judge the matter calmly and in its proper light”.

But soon after he left his post, he said he realised it was a mistake and chose to make his way instead to a larger USA military headquarters in the area.

Bergdahl was initially skeptical of Boal’s Hollywood connection and was not familiar with his movie work, Boal said. He returned home in 2014, when the Obama administration swapped him for five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Dahl, who interviewed Bergdahl at length in his investigation, described him as “young, naive, and inexperienced”, and also “unrealistically idealistic”, adding that “I believe he is remorseful”.

It’s unclear how much of Bergdahl’s recounting is believable, something Koenig pledged to address in later episodes. In Bergdahl, it finds a deeply politicized story, and one wrapped in the complex nuance of both military culture and the military’s autonomous code of military justice.