Bowe Robert Bergdahl (born 28 March 1986) is a United States Army soldier who was held captive by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan from June 2009 until his release on 31 May 2014.[3][4][5][6] The circumstances under which Bergdahl went missing are disputed. Accounts of how he was captured differ. The U.S. Department of Defense reported that he went missing on 2 July 2009, attributing his disappearance to "walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts".[7]
Early life and education
Bergdahl was born on 28 March 1986, in Sun Valley, Idaho, to Jani (née Larson) and Robert "Bob" Bergdahl, a commercial truck driver.[1][8][9] Bergdahl has an older sister, Sky Albrecht,[1][10][11] and was home schooled by his mother Jani in Hailey, Idaho. The family attended Sovereign Redeemer Presbyterian Church, an Orthodox Presbyterian Church. According to Bowe's pastor at the time, he struggled with his faith.[12]
He received a GED certificate through the College of Southern Idaho by the time he was in his early 20s.[8][13][14][15] As an adult, Bergdahl studied and practiced fencing and martial arts before switching to ballet classes at the Sun Valley Ballet School in Ketchum, Idaho.[8][13] He never owned a car; he rode his bicycle everywhere.[15] He spent time in a Buddhist monastery between 2007 and 2008.[12]
Career
Bergdahl graduated from infantry school in Fort Benning, Georgia in late 2008.[1] He was assigned to the 1st Battalion,501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska.[16]
According to fellow soldier Specialist Jason Fry, Bergdahl was quiet: "He wasn't one of the troublemakers – he was focused and well-behaved." Bergdahl was more isolated from his fellow soldiers; for instance, rather than socializing with his peers during Thanksgiving, he preferred studying maps of Afghanistan. Bergdahl told Fry before their deployment to Afghanistan, "If this deployment is lame, I'm just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan".[1]
Bergdahl's unit was sent to an outpost called Mest-Malak in Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations. Bergdahl began learning to speak Pashto, and, according to Fry, Bergdahl "began to gravitate away from his unit", spending "more time with the Afghans than he did with his platoon". Bergdahl's father described his son to military investigators as "psychologically isolated".[1]
Before capture
On 25 June 2009, Bergdahl's battalion suffered its first casualty: First Lieutenant Brian Bradshaw was killed in a blast from a roadside bomb near the village of Yaya Kheyl, not far from Bergdahl's outpost. According to a Rolling Stone article written byMichael Hastings, Bergdahl's father believes Bradshaw and Bergdahl had grown close at the National Training Center, and Bradshaw's death darkened Bergdahl's mood.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowe_Bergdahl | 
