{"id":22921,"date":"2014-06-02T10:25:03","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T14:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22921"},"modified":"2014-06-02T10:25:03","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T14:25:03","slug":"the-story-from-someone-who-was-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22921","title":{"rendered":"The Story From Someone Who Was There"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First of all, I need to say that I am glad that <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Sergeant\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sergeant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Sgt.<\/a> <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Bowe Bergdahl\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bowe_Bergdahl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Bowe Bergdahl<\/a> is safe and on his way home. However, the more we learn about this deal, the worse it looks.<\/p>\n<p>Today<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2014\/06\/02\/we-lost-soldiers-in-the-hunt-for-bergdahl-a-guy-who-walked-off-in-the-dead-of-night.html\" target=\"_blank\"> The Daily Beast<\/a> posted a story by one of the people who was on the scene during the disappearance and aftermath of Sgt. Bergdahl.<\/p>\n<p>Nathan Bradley Bethea reports:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong> I served in the same battalion in <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Afghanistan\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=34.5333333333,69.1333333333&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=34.5333333333,69.1333333333 (Afghanistan)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">Afghanistan<\/a> and participated in the attempts to retrieve him (Sgt. Bergdahl) throughout the summer of 2009. After we redeployed, every member of my <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Brigade combat team\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brigade_combat_team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">brigade combat team<\/a> received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>&#8230;The next morning, Bergdahl failed to show for the morning roll call. The soldiers in 2nd <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Platoon (Special Edition)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Platoon-Special-Charlie-Sheen\/dp\/B00005AUJQ%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzem-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB00005AUJQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"amazon\">Platoon<\/a>, Blackfoot Company discovered his rifle, helmet, body armor and web gear in a neat stack. He had, however, taken his compass. His fellow soldiers later mentioned his stated desire to walk from Afghanistan to <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"India\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=28.6133333333,77.2083333333&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=28.6133333333,77.2083333333 (India)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">India<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>The Daily Beast\u2019s <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Christopher Dickey\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christopher_Dickey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Christopher Dickey<\/a> later <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2014\/01\/16\/proof-of-life-america-s-last-pow.html\">wrote<\/a> that &#8220;[w]hether Bergdahl\u2026just walked away from his base or was lagging behind on a patrol at the time of his capture remains an open and fiercely debated question.\u201d Not to me and the members of my unit. Make no mistake: Bergdahl did not &#8220;lag behind on a patrol,\u201d as was cited in news reports at the time. There was no patrol that night. Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted. I\u2019ve talked to members of Bergdahl\u2019s platoon\u2014including the last <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"United States\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667 (United%20States)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">Americans<\/a> to see him before his capture. I\u2019ve reviewed the relevant documents. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>That\u2019s what happened.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Please follow the link above to the article to read the entire story. The article explains how the search for Sgt. Bergdahl cost American lives. The prisoner swap was a really bad idea and will probably put our soldiers at greater risk. However, we need to consider that this may be only an initial step in removing prisoners from Guantanamo.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_h.png?x-id=82e0daae-ce0e-4467-9543-817c085e8b97\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First of all, I need to say that I am glad that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is safe and on his way home. However, the more we learn about this deal, the worse it looks. Today The Daily Beast posted a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22921\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[832,7621,7612,7620,7623,248,7622,285],"class_list":["post-22921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afghanistan","tag-bergdahl","tag-bowe-bergdahl","tag-brigade-combat-team","tag-christopher-dickey","tag-india","tag-sergeant","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22922,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22921\/revisions\/22922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}