Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
Did he go AWOL?
In June 2012, Michael Hastings (of GEN McCrystal “fame”) appears to have made that suggestion in a lengthy piece published by Rolling Stone.
The mother and father sit at the kitchen table in their Idaho farmhouse, watching their son on YouTube plead for his life. The Taliban captured 26-year-old Bowe Bergdahl almost three years ago, on June 30th, 2009, and since that day, his parents, Jani and Bob, have had no contact with him. Like the rest of the world, their lone glimpses of Bowe – the only American prisoner of war left in either Iraq or Afghanistan – have come through a series of propaganda videos, filmed while he’s been in captivity.
Within the article Hastings says:
Bowe Bergdahl had a different response. He decided to walk away.
. . . .
Bowe returned to his barracks, a roughly built bunker of plywood and sandbags. He gathered up water, a knife, his digital camera and his diary. Then he slipped off the outpost.
The response to Bergdahl’s release has been across the board. See e.g., Critics Rouse as US Defends Swap With Taliban
Among the responses, Brad Knickerbocker of Christian Science Monitor has this headline today – Did Bowe Bergdahl go AWOL in Afghanistan?
Ils accusent.