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 ...
But it must have been soooo hard for him to serve with these raggedy men. It’s not his fault.
Oh yeah...//sarcasm off.
The soldiers who DIDN'T desert are gonna get "Timesboated"...
Back in the 60’s I was gigged for a haircut and a pocket unbuttoned. Several of my platoon deserted and rightfully so.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Hold on to that one for an "I told you so!" later. Give it a week or so.
these blatant mil defamers need to be personaly identified and visted at there homes to clarify their asertations
You probably never saw any of these, did you?
So, exactly how was he captured, when he voluntarily deserted his post and sought out the Taliban to join their forces?
He’s a known traitor, now everyone else is guilty...
Good grief!
I guess having a sleeper as president is very important to the NYT.
Obama is an out and out traitor in this deal.
End of story...
This is what happens when you have the media in your corner.
True...except they’re less credible than Lovitz’s character (to the extent that may even be possible.)
Well, the media is fronting for the worst possible global situation at the expense of the United States and the Western world.
That’s Obama’s agenda, so you’re right on target.
I believe firmly that we have a member of the Muslim Brotherhood for president.
Jake Tapper’s book “The Outpost” is all about Camp Keating, it’s worth reading to understand the conditions out guys had to endure.
They are trying to change the narrative; don’t pay ANY attention to the five terrorists who are (as I type) getting back to business thanks to barry, nope; pay attention to that mean unit that forced, FORCED I tell ya, bergdahl to abandon his post (violation of his 5th general order I might add).
The Regime is busy in the bowels of the White Hut, as we speak, conjuring up another scandal to take our minds off of this one.
Where Carter was incompetent, this administration is downright dirty 24/7.
He was the only sane soldier in a platoon of psychopaths: he HAD to leave for his own safety.
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