Bergdahl left to expose problems in unit, investigator says

SAN ANTONIO — The officer who led the investigation of Bowe Bergdahl’s disappearance and capture in Afghanistan six years ago testified Friday that the Army sergeant said he walked away from his post as part of a plan to spark a search and get the attention of a general so that he could express his concerns about his unit’s leadership.

Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl told the packed courtroom at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio that Bergdahl felt the problems were so severe that they put his platoon in danger, but that Bergdahl’s perceptions were “completely off the mark.”

Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban after leaving his post on June 30, 2009, and held until last year, when he was exchanged for five Taliban commanders being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Terrence Russell, a Department of Defense worker who helped debrief Bergdahl after the exchange, testified that Bergdahl was subjected to worse conditions than any American prisoner of war since the Vietnam War and was “skin over bones” near the end of his captivity.