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00000176-d8fc-dce8-adff-faff728f0003Bowe Bergdahl was born on March 28, 1986 to Bob and Jani Bergdahl in Sun Valley, Idaho. Bowe was raised in neighboring Hailey, Idaho, where his parents still live.On June 30, 2009, then 23-year-old Bowe Bergdahl is widely reported to have walked off his Army base in Afghanistan. Less than a month later, the Washington Post reports, Bergdahl appeared in the first of several Taliban-affiliated videos. In it, Bergdahl "says he was captured after lagging behind during a patrol," writes the Post.Here's a timeline of events.May 2008: Bergdahl enlists in the U.S. ArmyJune 30, 2009: Bergdahl reported missingJuly 2, 2009: CNN reports a U.S. military official says Bergdahl is being held by the clan of warlord Siraj Haqqani.July 18, 2009: The Taliban posts a video of Bergdahl.Dec. 25, 2009: Bergdahl's captor's release a second video of the solider.April 7, 2010: The Washington Post reports that the Taliban "posts a video showing Bergdahl pleading to be sent home and saying the war in Afghanistan is not worth the human cost."June 2010: The U.S. Army promotes Bergdahl to specialist.Dec. 7, 2010: CNN reports Bergdahl's captors release a 45-minute video showing a thinner soldier.Feb. 2011: Bergdahl's captors release another video.May 6, 2011: Bergdahl's father, Bob, posts a YouTube video asking for his son's release.June 16, 2011: The U.S. Army promotes Bergdahl to sergeant.May 9, 2012: Bob and Jani Bergdahl give an interview to the New York Times. The Bergdahls say the U.S. government is engaged in secret negotiations with the Taliban over a possible prisoner swap.June 6, 2013: Bergdahl’s family announces that “through the International Committee of the Red Cross, we recently received a letter we’re confident was written to us by our son.”Jan. 15, 2014: Bergdahl's captors release a proof-of-life video. Still unreleased publicly, the video reportedly shows Bergdahl in declining health.Feb. 23, 2014: The Taliban says it suspended prisoner-swap talks with the United States government.April 24, 2014: The U.S. government says prisoner-swap talks aren't disorganized. May 31, 2014: The U.S. government announces Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released by his captors in exchange for five U.S. detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.March 25, 2015: Following a U.S. Military investigation, the Army announced Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will be charged with desertion, avoiding military service, and misbehavior before the enemy.This information was compiled from various media reports including The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, The Associated Press, Northwest News Network.

Bergdahl Spared From Prison; Trump Calls Sentence 'Disgrace'

AP Photo/Gerry Broome
Bowe Bergdahl, center, leaves the Fort Bragg courtroom facility following sentencing at Fort Bragg, N.C., Friday, Nov. 3, 2017. The former Sergeant was spared any prison time and received a dishonorable discharge from the Army.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his post in Afghanistan and triggered a search that left some of his comrades severely wounded, was spared a prison sentence by a military judge Friday in what President Donald Trump blasted as a "complete and total disgrace."

The politically divisive case centered on a decision by one soldier that affected many other lives. Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and held for five years, until President Barack Obama traded Taliban prisoners to bring him back.

As a presidential candidate, Trump called for Bergdahl to face stiff punishment. He could have received up to life in prison.

The judge also gave Bergdahl a dishonorable discharge, reduced his rank from sergeant to private and ordered him to forfeit pay equal to $1,000 per month for 10 months.

The judge gave no explanation of how he arrived at his decision, but he reviewed evidence including Bergdahl's time spent in captivity and the wounds suffered by troops who searched for him.

In court, Bergdahl appeared tense, grimaced and clenched his jaw. His attorneys put their arms around him and one patted him on the back. One defense attorney cried after the sentence was announced.

Defense lawyer Eugene Fidell told reporters that his client had "looked forward to today for a long time."

Bergdahl "is grateful to everyone who searched for him in 2009, especially those who heroically sustained injuries," Fidell added.

Trump's statement came in a tweet about 90 minutes after the sentence was announced. "The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military," the president wrote.

Bergdahl pleaded guilty last month to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The judge had wide leeway in deciding the sentence because Bergdahl made no deal with prosecutors to limit his punishment.

Prosecutors had sought a stiff penalty because of wounds suffered by service members who searched for Bergdahl after he disappeared in 2009.

The defense sought to counter that evidence with testimony about Bergdahl's suffering as a captive, his contributions to military intelligence and survival training and his mental health problems.

The argument for leniency also cited Trump's harsh campaign-trail criticism.

The dishonorable discharge threatens to deprive Bergdahl of most or all his veterans' benefits, but it also triggers an automatic appeal to a higher military court.

Before that, a general who can lower, but not increase, the sentence will also review it.

Fidell told reporters that he looks forward to the appeals court review of Trump's campaign statements, which the president appeared to reaffirm on the day Bergdahl pleaded guilty last month.

As a candidate, Trump "made really extraordinary reprehensible comments targeted directly at our client," Fidell told reporters Friday, calling the situation "one of the most preposterous states of affairs" in American legal history. He said the defense team sees "an extremely strong basis for dismissal of the case."

During the multiday sentencing hearing, Bergdahl testified that he was sorry for the wounds suffered by searchers.

He also described brutal beatings by his captors, illness brought on by squalid conditions and maddening periods of isolation.

A psychiatrist testified that his decision to leave his post was influenced by a schizophrenia-like condition called schizotypal personality disorder that made it hard to understand the consequences of his actions, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder brought on partly by a difficult childhood.

Prosecutors, who had asked for a sentence of 14 years in prison, did not speak to reporters.

But one of them, Maj. Justin Oshana, said during closing arguments Thursday that Bergdahl "does not have a monopoly on suffering as a result of his choices."

Scores of troops joined in an all-out search for Bergdahl in the weeks after he abandoned his remote post near the Afghan town of Mest.

Prosecutors cited two missions that resulted in wounds, including a soldier whose hand was shattered by a rocket-propelled grenade and another who suffered a head wound that put him in a wheelchair and rendered him unable to speak.

A Navy SEAL suffered a career-ending leg wound, and a military dog was killed by an insurgent firing an AK-47.

The judge ruled that those firefights with insurgents would not have happened if not for Bergdahl.

One of the wounded soldiers, Jonathan Morita of California, called the lack of prison time for Bergdahl "unacceptable." Morita, who testified during sentencing, still does not have full use of his dominant hand after he was hit by the RPG, which did not explode.

"The dishonorable discharge means he can't receive any of these services like I can. He'll pay the fine like people get fined for illegal fishing. Ok, whoop-de-doo," Morita said in a phone interview.

Referring to the lack of prison time, he said: "That's the one that's completely unacceptable. It should have maybe not been the life sentence, but it should have been something."

Without confinement hanging over him, Bergdahl already has a job offer from an animal sanctuary, and a military official who helps design survival training said he would like to use Bergdahl as a part of lectures to service members on how to survive captivity.

The 31-year-old soldier from Hailey, Idaho, was brought home by Obama in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. He has been stationed at a military installation in San Antonio.

At the time of Bergdahl's release, Obama said the U.S. does not leave service members on the battlefield. Republicans roundly criticized Obama, and Trump went further while campaigning for president, repeatedly calling Bergdahl a traitor who deserved serious punishment.

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