Bergdahl court-martial conviction for Army desertion thrown out by federal judge

I am sure the five years held by the Taliban weren't pleasant. I struggle still as he willingly walked away from his post, which is punishable. Fellow soldiers were injured looking for him.
 
I know its a waste of tax's money and just a comment nothing more.

I would like to a retrial and no plea deals. With impact statements from the soldiers injured looking for him and the 6 U.S. Soldiers families who died.
 
There is a lot of conflicting information out there as to the number of injured/killed (if any) looking for Bergdahl. I've looked at multiple different sources and come up with mixed info and a lot of conflicting info. Interviews with those who were there also come up with different view points (not surprisingly).
 
After five years of not so pleasant treatment he looked pretty good at the turnover. Were those Master Degree or Phd. stripes on his robes I forge..
 

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Heatherg21 said:
There is a lot of conflicting information out there as to the number of injured/killed (if any) looking for Bergdahl. I've looked at multiple different sources and come up with mixed info and a lot of conflicting info. Interviews with those who were there also come up with different view points (not surprisingly).
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This was closet thing I was able to find concerning him and the 6 soldiers killed.
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Army’s internal investigations into the 2009 deaths of six soldiers from Bowe Bergdahl’s unit: Morris Walker, Clayton Bowen, Kurt Curtiss, Matthew Martinek, Darryn Andrews and Michael Murphrey.


Bergdahl has been blamed in certain quarters for the deaths of these men, which occurred in late August and early September of 2009. (Bergdahl walked off his post at OP Mest on June 30, 2009.) Soldiers who were in Afghanistan at the time said these men died—directly or indirectly—as a result of the massive efforts to look for Bergdahl. Some high-level commanders, such as retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, have said the same.

Meanwhile, the Army itself has never declared whether these deaths were in fact connected to the search for Bergdahl. The closest they got to a public statement was in 2014, when then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a congressional hearing, “I have seen no evidence that directly links any American combat death to the rescue or finding or search of Sergeant Bergdahl.”
 
Berghdahl should have never been allowed into the Army. The US Coast Guard had already washed him out ( https://time.com/2861963/the-significance-of-bergdahls-washing-out-of-the-coast-guard/ ). It leaves a bitter taste that good men were killed and injured in attempts to find/rescue him and almost as bad to release known terrorists to obtain his release. However, the Army lowered standards (or even ignored standards) to meet recruiting goals, so I can't completely blame Bergdahl for all the chaos he created.

Leadership failed Bergdahl and the men sent to find him. We should hold Bergdahl responsible, but we should also be investigating the chain of command that allowed this to happen in the first place.
 
Lets remember all the dead, i.e. the number of innocent people killed by the terrorists exchanged for him. :mad:
PS: That # isn't finalized yet...
 
Cerberi said:
Berghdahl should have never been allowed into the Army. The US Coast Guard had already washed him out ( https://time.com/2861963/the-significance-of-bergdahls-washing-out-of-the-coast-guard/ ). It leaves a bitter taste that good men were killed and injured in attempts to find/rescue him and almost as bad to release known terrorists to obtain his release. However, the Army lowered standards (or even ignored standards) to meet recruiting goals, so I can't completely blame Bergdahl for all the chaos he created.

Leadership failed Bergdahl and the men sent to find him. We should hold Bergdahl responsible, but we should also be investigating the chain of command that allowed this to happen in the first place.
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There were a lot of guys admitted into the military at the height of Iraq War & Afghan War that normally would not have been a 2nd look. Wars tend to change criteria for admission dramatically. In the Vietnam War the Army was admitting future officers into OCS who'd had a class or two in Junior College. Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara had his "Project 100,000" start in 1967, trying to get 100,000 new GIs for service in Vietnam who would previously not been allowed to serve. Stories abound of men being a choice between prison & serving. Retired USMC James "Mad Dog" Mattis went to jail twice before the Marines let him enlist (Vietnam War era). In WW2 imprisoned individuals could apply for parole to serve and many others volunteered for war-related work (manufacturing, farming, etc.) to help the war effort. Unofficially & officially, "waivers" for less-than-normative civilian behavior has always (in all nations) been more the rule than the exception. The US has never had penal battations, like some other more mobilation-minded armies, but when a war comes along the standards for enlistment are always loosened a bit.

In my opinion, for every Bergdahl there were 100 who served honorably when given a chance.
 
AF6872 said:
Pvt, Eddie D. Slovik A,S,N. 36896415.
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Slovik's death sentence was far from normal in WW2 (lone deserter who was executed since the Civil War, to-date) but necessay. Eisenhower was shocked at the mass surrender of US troops at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge and, moreso, of the fleeing from the front in the face of ther German onslaught. In Ike's mind, if a single GI was shot for dersertion, that would send a message to the Army that this behavior would no longer be ignored or foregiven.

The huge losses in the early weeks of the Battle of the Bulge (really a campaign more than a battle) also caused Ike to change his mind about using African-American troops to serve as replacements in units who had numerous casualties, in effect violating official US Army policy against racial integration of units.
 
AF6872 said:
Back pay and benefits on the horizon?
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Or retrial?

Vacating a sentence does not prohibit retrial for the same charges under a different presiding judge.

Also, Bergdahl still has a bad conduct discharge - no reversal there.

The judge who vacated the sentence was nominated to the federal bench by President George W Bush, in case anyone was wondering.
 
Day-Tripper said:
Vacating a sentence does not prohibit retrial for the same charges under a different presiding judge.

Also, Bergdahl still has a bad conduct discharge - no reversal there.
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A BCD (and a DD/Dismissal) is part of a court martial sentence…therefore if the entire sentence was vacated/set aside, then that would include any punitive discharge.
 
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