Free Republic

Attention, all troops peeved with your platoon sergeant, bored with your field rations, or who just want a little private time: It’s okay to desert your post in a combat zone. It’s fine for you to trigger the deaths and grave woundings of better men than you. A military judge just set a precedent: Deserters in wartime walk free. You’ll probably get a book deal, too, and be portrayed as a hero in a big-budget film. The US Army colonel and judge who decided Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s fate has some explaining to do. How is it that a confessed...

At a sentencing that took only minutes, the military judge, Col. Jeffery R. Nance of the Army, also reduced Sergeant Bergdahl’s rank to private and required him to forfeit $1,000 a month of his pay for 10 months. Prosecutors had sought 14 years in a military prison. President Trump, who has labeled Sergeant Bergdahl a “dirty rotten traitor,” quickly criticized Friday’s sentence, calling it “a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.”

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his Army base in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held captive by the Taliban for five years, was ordered to be dishonorably discharged from the Army by a military judge on Friday, but received no prison time for desertion or endangering troops. At a sentencing that took only minutes, the military judge, Col. Jeffery R. Nance of the Army, also reduced Sergeant Bergdahl’s rank to private and required him to forfeit $1,000 a month of his pay for 10 months. Prosecutors had sought 14 years in a military prison. President Trump, who has labeled...

<p>A military judge has found that Bowe Bergdahl should serve no prison time for endangering his comrades by walking off his Afghanistan post.</p> <p>The judge also gave Bergdahl a dishonorable discharge, reduced his rank to private and said he must forfeit pay equal to $1,000 per month for 10 months. The judge made no other comments.</p>

Stuart Varney: Bergdahl gets no prison time

Late Friday morningArmy Judge Col. Jeffery R. Nance ruled Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl will not face prison time for walking off his base eight years ago and abandoning his platoon mates. Bergdahl's defense argued he has been punished enough by being held captive by the Taliban, which radio traffic showed he purposely sought out, and shouldn't be subjected to further captivity. Nance bought it and Bergdahl will simply face a dishonorable discharge, have his rank stripped and will pay $10,000. Good men died searching for Bergdahl. Here are their names.  Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, 29, of San Antonio, TX Died looking for...

Bowe Bergdahl will not serve more time behind bars, a military judge has decided eight years after he deserted his platoon in Afghanistan. His desertion, to which he pleaded guilty, and the subsequent search for him that led to the deaths of six soldiers did not result in the 14-year sentence prosecutors requested in the case. The judge also ruled that Bergdahl be dishonorably discharged, that his rank be reduced from sergeant to private, and that he be required to pay a $1,000 fine from his salary for the next ten months, CNN reported. “As everyone knows, he was a...