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U.S. Army soldiers who were serving with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl when he left his post and wound up in the hands of the Taliban say no one has contacted them, even though military brass are currently conducting a new investigation into the case. Several soldiers who immediately came forward after Bergdahl was released on May 31, in a swap for five Guantanamo Bay detainees, have accused the 28-year-old Idaho native of deserting. But even though the Army is probing that very charge, investigators have not reached out to at least two former Army sergeants — including the platoon’s leader —...

The Army last week began notifying about 1,100 captains that they will be purged from the ranks. The same fate is awaiting about 500 majors, who beginning this week will be told their active-duty careers are over. They're among nearly 2,500 officers and NCOs who will be involuntarily separated this year as part of an ongoing drawdown of forces. ... some officers who were let go are scrambling to find a home, as well as a job. Thankfully for the captain who's expecting his first child, his landlord is allowing him and his wife to continue to rent the house...

The U.S. Army has reported that it has found no evidence that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey engaged in any misconduct during his five years in captivity of the Taliban. The report stated that there is no evidence Bergdahl helped his captors while he was held after going missing from his Army outpost in eastern Afghanistan five years ago today, June 30, 2009. However, the Army has not concluded its investigation into the Bergdahl case. Officials still plan to invetsigate the circumstances of Bergdahl's capture by enemy forces. That investigation is expected to last several weeks or more. Bergdahl reportedly...

Major Jim Gant was thrown out the military unceremoniously in March 2012 after his secret affair was discovered Had been living with former Washington Post reporter Ann Scott Tyson for a year The pair had 'gone native' with the Pashtun tribe living in Magwel, in the north of Afghanistan Gant and Tyson both were married with four children when they become involved Green Beret Gant had been serving continuously for 22-months Was respected and praised by then General David Petraeus - US commander in Afghanistan The former general encouraged Gant's unconventional tactics and called him 'Lawrence of Afghanistan' Gant was...

More than two-thirds of America's youth would fail to qualify for military service because of physical, behavioral or educational shortcomings, posing challenges to building the next generation of soldiers even as the U.S. draws down troops from conflict zones. The military deems many youngsters ineligible due to obesity, lack of a high-school diploma, felony convictions and prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But others are now also running afoul of standards for appearance amid the growing popularity of large-scale tattoos and devices called ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.

The Army has “no reason to believe” that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl collaborated with his Taliban captors during his five years as a prisoner, as some have speculated, and he has not said anything that might incriminate him in other misconduct, Army officials said Wednesday. A two-star Army general is currently investigating the exact circumstances of Bergdahl’s 2009 disappearance from his post in Afghanistan, which led to his capture by the Taliban-allied Haqqani network. Investigators have not yet interviewed Bergdahl, who was released May 31 as part of a controversial prisoner exchange with the Taliban. He is now living at a...

When Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released in a swap for five Taliban prisoners three weeks ago and celebrated by the White House as a hero, his fellow Army platoon leaders came forward with details about how he was "captured" as a prisoner. Bergdahl was accused of being a deserter who violated his oath and left on his own accord by the men who served with him. At the time of their statements, State Department Deputy Press Secretary Marie Harf was asked during a press conference about the knowledge the platoon members had surrounding Bergdahl's alleged desertion. She dismissed their statements...

A soldier who kept fighting despite grenade shrapnel wounds to the legs and arm in the controversial battle of Wanat in Afghanistan will receive the Medal of Honor, the White House announced Monday. Former Army Staff Sgt. Ryan M. Pitts, who was medically discharged in 2009, will be the ninth living recipient of the Medal of Honor from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Obama will present him with the nation's highest award for valor at a White House ceremony on July 21. Pitts will receive the MOH for his actions while serving as a Forward Observer with 2nd...

Picture it: It's March 1, 2015. Tokyo and Beijing are headed towards what was once the unthinkable. Over the last several months China has instituted daily non-naval maritime patrols around the hotly disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Beijing is even sending fully-fledged naval assets within the islands' 12 mile exclusion zone while its aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, exercised only 50 miles away from the islands back in February — truly the end of Beijing's small-stick diplomatic strategy. But on 1 March the plot thickens. Two Chinese SU-27 fighters come within 25 feet of a Japanese P-3 Orion surveillance plane just 10 miles...

Like the six other former captives who have been through the Army’s reintegration program at Brooke Army Medical Center before him, daily life for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is focused on routine. He rises, eats and sleeps on a “normal schedule” and lives in a “typical” room at the huge hospital facility on a floor he shares with other patients. What isn’t typical is the security presence outside his door. The reason, says Col. Hans Bush, command spokesman for U.S. Army South, is not to keep the returnee in, but “to make sure he doesn’t get overwhelmed in a social setting.”...

(CNN) — Like the six other former captives who have been through the Army’s reintegration program at Brooke Army Medical Center before him, daily life for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is focused on routine. He rises, eats and sleeps on a “normal schedule” and lives in a “typical” room at the huge hospital facility on a floor he shares with other patients. What isn’t typical is the security presence outside his door. The reason, says Col. Hans Bush, command spokesman for U.S. Army South, is not to keep the returnee in, but “to make sure he doesn’t get overwhelmed in a...

Mexican Army Troops INVADING Arizona, Shooting at U.S. Citizens. According to documentation Mexican Army troops have invaded U.S. soil 300 times challenging the Border Patrol, local citizens and shooting and injuring one person seriously. The accompanying video by Channel4 indicates the seriousness of this situation. The Channel 4 news crew crossed into Sonora Mexico and interviewed the commander of the Mexican Army outpost on the border. The U.S government claims to be investigating these incidents but nothing has been disclosed or resolved.

A former member of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl‘s platoon interrupted a Democrat on Capital Hill Wednesday as he asked an academic expert about conditions the soldier might have endured in Afghanistan to tell him “nobody else deserted.” Much to the consternation of U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., former Army Specialist Cody Full asked for permission to speak as the lawmaker was in the process of building a case that Bergdahl may have had reason to act in “an inexplicable manner.”

An Army veteran who served alongside Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan said Wednesday that the long-captive soldier was deeply frustrated with the mission and had lodged false allegations that their unit had carried out atrocities. Bergdahl “didn’t understand why we were doing more humanitarian aid drops, setting up clinics, and helping the populous instead of hunting the Taliban,” former Spec. Cody Full told lawmakers during a hearing on the exchange of Bergdahl for five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “He wanted to hunt and kill.” (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The Taliban released Bergdahl to U.S. Special Operations forces May 31 after he had...

At a tense congressional hearing, retired Army Spc. Cody Full called the former Taliban prisoner’s decision to walk off his post ‘the ultimate betrayal.’Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s actions in Afghanistan constituted the “ultimate betrayal”—and he deserves to be charged with desertion, his former Army roommate told a charged congressional panel Wednesday. “Bowe Bergdahl needs to be charged with desertion,” said retired Spc. Cody Full, who served in Bergdahl’s unit, listing off a series of violations he said the sergeant should be investigated for. “Countless people looked for him when he went missing, putting their own lives on the line for him…Knowing...

As the political firestorm concerning Sergeant Bowe Berghdahl continues, I am hearing people state as fact that enlistment standards dropped far too low after 9/11, allowing either hardened criminals or, as they claim in Bergdahl's case, men with serious mental issues into the Army. It is a recurring notion that I've read often, and it is an idea that, I believe, is a red herring hiding a profounder and harder reality. After commanding an intelligence company in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, I volunteered for recruiting duty to, hopefully, spend more time with my family. I had no idea what...

Local military veterans – like veterans and other citizens across the country – have varying opinions about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, but their views are generally negative. “I think a firing squad is too good for him,” said Tim Gresham of Newnan, who served three years in the Army. Gresham referred to Bergdahl as “that traitor.” Bergdahl returned to the United States early Friday after his release from five years in captivity in Afghanistan. There is controversy about the Obama administration swapping five senior Taliban officials – who had been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – for Bergdahl’s release, without...

Link only, due to copyright issues: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/06/bob-bergdahl-good-father.html

The Ministry of Defence admits it does not label food as halal or kosher in its UK or overseas bases, with only soldiers who request these meals told what they are eatingSoldiers are unwittingly being fed halal meat in military bases , the Ministry of Defence has admitted. The MoD has confirmed that only troops who request specific meals are told the source of the meat they are eating. Food served in MoD canteens in both UK and permanent bases abroad is not routinely labelled to indicate it has been slaughtered using religious methods to ensure it is halal or...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is back in America, but it will be months before his future takes shape, according to both experts in the military's legal system and people familiar with the treatment of long-term captives. After nearly five years in the hands of the Taliban and Haqqani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the American soldier was exchanged for five top Taliban operatives, underwent medical and psychological treatment at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and, Friday morning, landed at a military base in San Antonio. There he will undergo treatment to reintegrate back into society -- or possibly military...