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Bergdahl, Back in U.S., Is Treated at Army Medical Center Bergdahl, Back in U.S., Is Treated at Army Medical Center
(about 3 hours later)
SAN ANTONIO — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the American prisoner of war freed in exchange for five senior Taliban members, returned to the United States on Friday, arriving overnight in Texas, where he will begin treatment at a military medical facility here. SAN ANTONIO — Exactly 1,809 days after he was captured by Taliban fighters who kept him in a metal cage for weeks and possibly months during nearly five years in captivity, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl returned to the United States early Friday, arriving at an Army medical center here in a homecoming dampened by stormy weather and the swirling political controversy over his capture and release.
A Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, said in a statement that Sergeant Bergdahl had been taken to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Sergeant Bergdahl, 28, America’s lone prisoner of war in the 13-year conflict in Afghanistan, landed before dawn aboard a military transport plane at an airfield adjacent to Lackland Air Force Base and was escorted to a nearby hospital at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston. He had been recuperating at a military hospital in Germany since he was released from Taliban captivity on May 31, in exchange for five Taliban detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He arrived in Texas amid high winds and lightning to begin the next stage of his recovery at the base, where he will undergo therapy and counseling as part of what Army officials call a “reintegration process.”
Sergeant Bergdahl “will continue the next phase of his reintegration process” at the Texas center, Admiral Kirby said in the statement. There was no timeline for that process, but it is likely to last weeks or longer.
There was no timeline for that process, but it is likely to last weeks or longer. The treatment is expected to end with a reunion with his parents. Sergeant Bergdahl has had no direct contact with his parents, military officials have said. Even as Sergeant Bergdahl arrived, the Army has started setting in motion a major investigation into the circumstances of his disappearance from his outpost in June 2009. The Army has selected a two-star general with combat experience in Afghanistan to determine whether Sergeant Bergdahl violated rules by apparently walking off his post, three Pentagon officials said.
The stay at Brooke Army Medical Center will be the start of the final phase of what military officials describe as a multistep healing and reintegration process for Sergeant Bergdahl, 28, who was held captive for nearly five years by militants. After his release on May 31 to American commandos in Afghanistan, he received medical treatment and counseling at an American military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. The officials did not disclose the general’s name and said he did not serve in Afghanistan at the same time as Sergeant Bergdahl. The officer is expected to receive initial briefings in Washington next week, and then assemble a small staff in San Antonio and begin regular debriefings of Sergeant Bergdahl, officials said.
“Our focus remains on his health and well-being,” Admiral Kirby said in a statement. The statement also said that the defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, “is confident that the Army will continue to ensure that Sergeant Bergdahl receives the care, time and space he needs to complete his recovery and reintegration.” Army officials have stressed that Sergeant Bergdahl would be given “minimal physical and emotional complications” during reintegration, and the military’s handling of his arrival — quietly slipping him onto the base far from a cluster of TV cameras, photographers and reporters who gathered outside a main gate — seemed intended to carry out that goal. He has had no direct contact with his parents and he would not be speaking to the media at a news conference planned for later Friday. His treatment at Brooke Army Medical Center is expected to end with a reunion with his parents, but so far, Sergeant Bergdahl has declined to have any direct communication with his parents or other family members, military officials said.
After Sergeant Bergdahl’s reintegration, the Army said in a statement that it “would continue its comprehensive review into the circumstances of his disappearance and captivity.” He did, however, speak by telephone this week to a close friend, according to the American official briefed on his condition. The friend, a woman named Kim, is the same person to whom Sergeant Bergdahl sent a series of emails before his disappearance, the official said. In the emails, which were first reported by The Washington Post, Sergeant Bergdahl alludes to “plans” he was working on — a possible foreshadowing of events to come.
Some members of Sergeant Bergdahl’s former unit say he deserted by walking off his post, and they have reacted angrily to his release in exchange for the Taliban detainees. They have also argued that the lives of American soldiers were put at risk in the search for Sergeant Bergdahl. “It was a brief call, but it went well,” said the American official, who declined to provide any other details and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the pending investigation.
Turbulent weather, including high winds and lightning, slammed San Antonio and other parts of Central Texas in advance of Sergeant Bergdahl’s arrival. At Fort Sam Houston, the site of the medical center, news crews began arriving late Thursday, waiting for hours before the Pentagon confirmed Sergeant Bergdahl had been returned to the United States. At some point after midnight on June 30, 2009, Sergeant Bergdahl, then a private, walked off his remote combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan and was later seized by the Taliban, military officials said. A classified military report completed two months after he left his unit concluded that he most likely walked away of his own free will, but stopped short of saying there was solid evidence that he intended to permanently desert, noting that he had wandered away from assigned areas before and then returned, according to people briefed on the report. President Obama’s decision to negotiate for the release of Sergeant Bergdahl in exchange for the Taliban detainees ignited anger among members of Congress and critics who equated the freeing of the Taliban detainees to bargaining with terrorists.
As the first glimmer of daylight broke, traffic began streaming into one of the main gates as TV correspondents near a visitors center reported for early morning news shows. While medical officials in Germany have pressed Sergeant Bergdahl for details about his time in captivity to help begin repairing his medical and psychological wounds, these specialists did not focus on the critical questions about why he left his outpost and how he was captured by insurgents. That phase of the questioning will soon begin in earnest, officials said.
In San Antonio, Sergeant Bergdahl will begin the last of three phases of what the military calls “post-captivity reintegration,” including specific steps to overcome the coping strategies that a captive may have developed to handle the trauma of being imprisoned, isolated and degraded. The reintegration can involve hundreds of people, including family members, members of a freed prisoner’s former unit, doctors and lawyers. Pentagon officials initially dismissed the idea of court-martialing Sergeant Bergdahl, saying five years in captivity was punishment enough. But last week, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as top Army officials, said the military would determine whether Sergeant Bergdahl had broken any regulations when he left his post.
In another potentially divisive aspect of the case, Army officials are weighing whether Sergeant Bergdahl warrants receiving extra back pay for the time he was held in captivity. “They’re determining whether he’s entitled to it or not,” according to an American official who has been briefed on his condition.
In San Antonio, Sergeant Bergdahl will begin the last of three phases of what the military calls post-captivity reintegration, including specific steps to overcome the coping strategies that a captive may have developed to handle the trauma of being imprisoned, isolated and degraded. The reintegration can involve hundreds of people, including family members, members of a freed prisoner’s former unit, doctors and lawyers.
The process is likely to be complicated by the length and circumstances of Sergeant Bergdahl’s confinement, and the uproar over his release, said Dr. Frank Ochberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University who specializes in post-traumatic stress disorder.The process is likely to be complicated by the length and circumstances of Sergeant Bergdahl’s confinement, and the uproar over his release, said Dr. Frank Ochberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University who specializes in post-traumatic stress disorder.
While military doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center indicated this week that Sergeant Bergdahl was physically ready to return to the United States, some American officials questioned whether he was emotionally prepared to make the trip. Of particular concern, they said, were the potential psychological effects of reuniting with his parents and media exposure upon his return. While military doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the medical facility in Germany where Sergeant Bergdahl was being treated, indicated this week that he was physically ready to return to the United States, some American officials questioned whether he was emotionally prepared to make the trip. Of particular concern, they said, were the potential psychological effects of reuniting with his parents and media exposure upon his return.
As recently as Wednesday, Mr. Hagel told Congress that Sergeant Bergdahl was only beginning to recuperate from the trauma of his imprisonment and that his doctors “don’t believe he’s ready” to leave Landstuhl. As recently as Wednesday, the defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, told Congress that Sergeant Bergdahl was only beginning to recuperate from the trauma of his imprisonment and that his doctors “don’t believe he’s ready” to leave Landstuhl. Until Thursday, Sergeant Bergdahl was cloistered at the hospital in Germany without access to television or the Internet, officials said.
President Obama’s decision to negotiate for the release of Sergeant Bergdahl in exchange for the Taliban detainees, who were being held at the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, ignited anger among members of Congress and critics who equated the freeing of the Taliban detainees to bargaining with terrorists. Lawmakers in both parties have objected to the move, saying Mr. Obama did not consult adequately with them about Sergeant Bergdahl’s impending release. Sergeant Bergdahl’s arrival was far more restricted and subdued than the homecomings held at military bases more than 40 years ago for freed American prisoners of war from Vietnam, a sign of the political uproar over his disappearance and release.
The Obama administration bypassed a law requiring Mr. Hagel to give Congress 30 days’ notice before transferring a Guantánamo detainee. It did so based on a signing statement issued by Mr. Obama that asserted that he could lawfully sidestep the requirement under certain circumstances. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, released prisoners of war often returned to the United States greeted by red-carpet ceremonies and their waiting loved ones. Many of them stood before reporters and photographers at news conferences shortly after they landed. “God bless the president, and God bless you, Mr. and Mrs. America, you did not forget us,” Lt. Commander Everett Alvarez Jr., a Navy pilot, told reporters at Travis Air Force Base in California in February 1973, upon his release after more than eight years in captivity by the North Vietnamese.
Until Thursday, Sergeant Bergdahl was cloistered at the Landstuhl hospital without access to television or the Internet, officials said. But some details of his imprisonment by the Taliban have emerged, including accounts that Sergeant Bergdahl was held in a cage as punishment for one or two attempts to escape.