Military Hearing begins for Army Sargent Bowe Bergdahl

While the Pentagon has said there is no evidence anyone died searching for Bergdahl, legal experts say the misbehavior charge allows authorities to allege that Bergdahl’s actions put soldiers who searched for him in harm’s way. Bowe Bergdahl, troops were forced to sleep outside after hiking through nearby mountains.

Bergdahl’s lead defense attorney, Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School, has appealed to Army officials to release a summary of the investigation by Maj.

Fidell said he would call four witnesses, though he declined to say if Bergdahl would be among them. Bergdahl, who slipped divided from his section in a remote partial of Afghanistan in 2009, environment off months of hunt and rescue operations.

Kurz said Bergdahl had mailed home his computer and Kindle tablet before he disappeared. He spoke briefly at the start of the hearing, acknowledging that he knew his rights when questioned by the presiding officer, Lt. Col. Mark Visger.

Maj. Silvino Silvino, Bergdahl’s company commander, said he was also surprised when the sergeant vanished. The search lasted 45 days, they said, beginning on June 30, 2009, the day Bergdahl walked away from his post in southeastern Afghanistan. If Bergdahl is tried and convicted of the misbehavior charge, he could get life in prison.

The company commander at the time of the incident said he instructed his men to search high and low to find ‘one of their brothers’.

Bergdahl, 29, of Hailey, Idaho, appeared at the hearing in his dress uniform with a crew cut, occasionally clenching his jaw, sipping water, taking notes and consulting his attorneys but otherwise calm.

Bergdahl’s former platoon leader described him as a good soldier whose disappearance rocked the unit.

The colonel said he had no doubt his paratroopers could handle the grueling mission physically and mentally.

Bergdahl, who’d grown disillusioned with the war in Afghanistan, left to tell the nearest general officer about “what he thought were disturbing circumstances”, Fidell said.

“The desertion charge, which falls under Article 85 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, carries a maximum punishment of five years confinement, a dishonorable discharge, reduction to the rank of E-1, forfeiture of all pay and allowances”. He was held for five years before being swapped in 2014 for five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo, in a controversial deal.

Billings said he hadn’t been told the U.S. Army Coast Guard had discharged Bergdahl previously for psychological problems or that the Army waived its standards for mental health to admit him.

In March, 29-year-old Bergdahl was charged with one count of desertion and one count of misbehavior before the enemy.

Aberle said Bergdahl also suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, but he didn’t mention any other psychiatric issues Bergdahl may have.

The U.S. Army is holding an Article 32 hearing in the case of Sgt.

Col. Clinton Baker testified Thursday that the increase was due to soldiers being sent to places that they ordinarily wouldn’t have gone. Abrams will decide whether the case should be referred to a court-martial or be resolved in another manner.