Posted on 06/07/2014 7:32:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The platoon was, an American military official would assert years later, “raggedy.”
On their tiny, remote base, in a restive sector of eastern Afghanistan at an increasingly violent time of the war, they were known to wear bandannas and cutoff T-shirts. Their crude observation post was inadequately secured, a military review later found. Their first platoon leader, and then their first platoon sergeant, were replaced relatively early in the deployment because of problems.
But the unit — Second Platoon, Blackfoot Company in the First Battalion, 501st Regiment — might well have remained indistinguishable from scores of other Army platoons in Afghanistan had it not been for one salient fact: This was the team from which Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl disappeared on June 30, 2009.
In the years since Sergeant Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban, and even more since his release last week in a contentious prisoner exchange for five Taliban fighters, much has been written suggesting that he was a misfit soldier in something of a misfit platoon that stumbled through its first months in Afghanistan and might have made it too easy for him to walk away, as his fellow soldiers say he did.
Indeed, an internal Army investigation into the episode concluded that the platoon suffered from lapses in discipline and security in the period before Sergeant Bergdahl — a private first class at the time who was promoted while in captivity — disappeared into Paktika Province, two officials briefed on the report said.
But their problems in many ways reflected those of the Pentagon’s strategy writ large across Afghanistan at that moment of the war. The platoon was sent to a remote location with too few troops to seriously confront an increasingly aggressive insurgency, which controlled many villages in the region....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bergdahl ping.
Doesn't sound to shabby to me. How many platoons go through a year without loss of life and have only a few rebukes because of T-Shirts?
Gerald Sutton was a supply guy and was offering this info to the NYTimes as one who knew Bergdahl. As a supply specialist, it isn't likely he was on any of the missions, although it's a possibility.
Having a platoon leader relieved (not a commander) would be losing a lieutenant, and then losing an SFC platoon sergeant, the platoon would be visible and gain special attention.
What isn't clear in this NYT article is that Sutton has said that he thinks Bergdahl deserted and that it was premeditated.
I would like to be added to this ping list.
Thank you very much
Typical “demodummie”/doumbo move, blame the other guy, ruin his/her reputation, lie about everything the other guy has ever done or will do, black ball him/her and do what ever is necessary to make YOUR side appear the “good guy”.
I am sooooooooooo sick of hearing this crap. I truly hope that some day someone will do something to stop it forever.
And how many in the lapses of discipline was he actively participating in?
I saw the men that Bergdahl served with on TV for 40 minutes and they all came off as honest, intelligent and straight shooters. Well spoken too!
Can you access freepmail?
Let me know, okay?
The rot begins at 1600 Pennsylvania ave.
Who killed Michael Hastings
watch this Lou Dobbs report regarding reporter Michael Hastings who did a story in 2012 about Bergdahl. What happened to Hastings in 2013. Watch this report
http://youtu.be/uRetpla_hIc
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