Testimony: no one was killed in lengthy search for Bergdahl

The Houston Chronicle ^ | Thursday, September 17, 2015 | Sig Christenson

[kristinn]

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's platoon commander had fallen asleep after pulling night watch at a remote outpost in Afghanistan when a soldier woke him.

"Sir, we need you to get up. We can't find Bergdahl," Capt. John Paul Billings recalled hearing, adding that at first he thought it was a joke. "These guys are just messing with me. They want me to … call higher headquarters."

It was no joke. Prosecutors offered three witnesses describing the search for the missing soldier at a hearing Thursday in San Antonio that will help decide if Bergdahl faces a court martial.

Contradicting some talk radio hosts and politicians who have called Bergdahl a traitor, the witnesses said nobody was killed during the search, which started with Billings' platoon and turned into a 45-day effort involving thousands of U.S. and Afghan troops.

Held for nearly five years and released in exchange for five high-profile Taliban leaders, Bergdahl, 29, of Hailey, Idaho, is accused of desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty and misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place.

He faces up to life in prison on the latter charge but showed no emotion throughout the testimony, sitting next to his lead civilian attorney, Eugene Fidell, and taking notes at the Article 32 hearing at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

SNIP

Soldiers with Blackfoot Company encountered roadside bomb attacks every few days, and occasional ambushes over the month and a half they searched. Attacks went up as other units searched as well, partly because there were so many, working in unfamiliar territory.

While nobody was killed, one sergeant was hit by roadside bombs three times in a single day. Silvino, the company commander, ordered him back to their main base for rest...

[kristinn]

Much more at the source link.

[MeshugeMikey]

so no one was killed. Bergdahls actuins have ZIP to do with that’

‘People put theire LIVES on The Line to find him.

DO THE CRIME DO THE TIME!!

[PghBaldy]

I swear I saw pictures of six men who were killed... So thsoe were all lies? I wonder...

[Trailerpark Badass]

Didn’t Bergdahl reveal operational details? So maybe no one was killed in the actual “search,” but any squadmate killed in any action subsequent to his desertion is on his head.

[huldah1776]

“Capt. John Billings, who led Bergdahl’s platoon, described the 45-day search for the Idaho native as grueling, saying soldiers got little food or sleep and endured temperatures in the high-90s.”

“Finally, Bergdahl’s battalion commander, Col. Clinton Baker, said that although no soldiers died as part of the search, there was a spike in improvised explosive device attacks because soldiers were going to places they ordinarily wouldn’t have gone.”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/17/army-sgt-bowe-bergdahl-faces-hearing-over-desertion-charges/

But...
“ Cheryl Brandes said she has spoken to the six platoon mates of Bergdahl, who appeared together on The Kelly File last night, and has no doubt they are telling the truth. She says they have told her that her son, 20-year-old Pfc. Matthew Martinek, was part of a search for Bergdahl when he was struck by an IED a few months after Bergdahl walked off the base.

“The accounts of everything that happened, every detail that I was told when my son was hit. There’s no way that anybody could ever make anything like that up. They wouldn’t do that. They’re not liars. They’re our defenders of America,” said Brandes.”

http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/06/06/fallen-soldiers-mom-no-doubt-my-mind-my-son-matthew-martinek-died-looking-bergdahl

However, were any other units or special ops teams looking for him?

[max americana]

“I swear I saw pictures of six men who were killed... So thsoe were all lies? I wonder...”

I remember those too. Don’t tell me we have another bin laden cover up?

[goodnesswins]

I think the ones who were killed were not necessarily looking for Bergdahl....but, were deaths as a result of the soldiers having to move around a lot, and exposing their positions....and who know...maybe Bergdahl was feeding the enemy information???

[JennysCool]

Here’s the Time article on the six killed looking for Bergdahl.

http://time.com/2809352/bowe-bergdahl-deserter-army-taliban/

[JLS]

There was probably an official search period and an extended unofficial search period. So maybe technically no one was killed during the official search period, but some lost their live in the unofficial search for him that stretch on after the official search ended.

[ClearCase_guy]

This soldier was badly wounded:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3169457/posts

This family believes there son died while searching for Bergdahl:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3180071/posts

But I guess, officially, the search was uneventful.

[huldah1776]

Doing a quick search

” Army Pfc. Morris L. Walker
Remember Our Heroes

Army Pfc. Morris L. Walker, 23, of Chapel Hill, N.C.

Pfc. Walker was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska; died Aug. 18, 2009 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Also killed was Staff Sgt. Clayton P. Bowen.

WCHL 1360 — Twenty-three year-old Morris Walker, a UNC graduate who had joined the army this past spring, has been killed in Afghanistan.

Barbara Lambert works as the director of admissions at Fayetteville Academy, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where Walker attended grades 6 through 12.

Walker’s sister sent out an email notifying those who knew him that he had been killed when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) hit his convoy.

Walker graduated UNC in May 2008 and signed up for the army April of this year. Lambert says she believes Walker had plans to attend law school.

Before deploying to Afghanistan, Walker was stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia and Alaska. Lambert says Walker’s mother had been in poor health when she got the news of her son’s death.

Lambert says Walker will be remembered for being genuinely well-liked and always having a smile on his face.

Funeral arrangements, as of Wednesday afternoon, had not been made yet.

Army Pfc. Morris L. Walker was killed in action on 8/18/09.”

http://livinglegendteam.blogspot.com/2009/08/army-pfc-morris-l-walker.html

[ForYourChildren]

From this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3287973/posts
Reports Surface That White House Knew All Along About Bergdahl’s Desertion

Besides the solders that were killed searching for Bergdahl, we also have this.

Army MSG Mark Allen’s wife writes on the Facebook site, “Bowe Bergdahl is a traitor:”

"“Meet my husband, injuries directly brought to you by the actions of this traitor. He can’t give an account of what went down, because he can no longer speak. Now, which guy is a ‘hero’ again?!? Sick.”

https://mediachecker.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/army-hero-msg-mark-allen-and-army-deserter-bowe-bergdahl/

"MSG Mark Allen is a hero who selflessly went out to rescue a fellow American soldier from a fanatical enemy known for beheading those they capture. He did his duty from Iraq to Afghanistan, and his life was destroyed and nearly lost on a rescue mission – a rescue mission to save a deserter who abandoned his post and sympathized with the enemy."

"At least six died for the deserter Bergdahl, and many more lives were devastated, like the lives of MSG Mark Allen and his family."

[jwalsh07]

Big push on to let Bergdahl walk away that comes from Obama through the Perfumed princes with the stars.

Me? I believe the grunts since I once was one.

[huldah1776]

“Capt. John Billings, who led Bergdahl’s platoon, described the 45-day search for the Idaho native as grueling, saying soldiers got little food or sleep and endured temperatures in the high-90s.”

July 1 they may have set out. Forty-five days afterwards would be August 14th. So they got back to base after the search and were on patrol within days?

[lacrew]

Bergdahl is gone June 30, 2009. He was in the 4th BCT.

Aug 18, 2009 SSG Clayton Bowen of 4th BCT dies
Aug 18, 2009 PFC Morris Walker of 4th BCT dies
Aug 26, 2009 SSG Kurt Curtiss of 4th BCT dies
Sep 4, 2009 2LT Darryn Andrews of 4th BCT dies
Sep 4, 2009 PFC Matthew Martinek of 4th BCT dies
Sep 6, 2009 SSG Michael Murphy, of 4th BCT dies

I think the parsing of words here is the story caveats the search as taking ‘45 days’.

[CivilWarBrewing]

We KNEW this was going to happen. Our crack-smoking, fudge packing military brass whores for 0bama WILL LIE TO PROTECT MUZZIE BERGDAHL.

To what extent is 0dingo using his NSA to GET DIRT ON PEOPLE that he can use TO BLACKMAIL THEM FOR THE OUTCOME HE DESIRES???

[huldah1776]

thanks

[beelzepug]

“...crack-smoking, fudge packing military brass whores for 0bama...”

Short and to the point. Definitely NOT the same Army I served in.

[madprof98]

None of this matters at all. The new gay-guy who is running the Army will just put up a rainbow flag and make all the bad thoughts go away.