'I met Bowe Bergdahl before he went missing. He was a thoughtful guy'

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/i-met-bowe-bergdahl-before-he-went-missing-afghanistan

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I met Bowe just before he went missing, in May 2009. I’d been embedded with the 501st for about a month in all, and I was in Paktika province, where there was an Afghan police station being built by the main road between Kabul and Kandahar. It was an important route and they wanted to secure it.

It was on the edge of a town, Malakh, and behind where they were building the base there was a big hill. I was with some other soldiers there for a few days when they said, ‘There’s these guys at the top of the hill.’

It was Bowe and four or five others, who were keeping watch on the rear of the position from the hill. I went up and met them. I think they were quite happy for me to be there, so long as you were prepared to do what they did and put up with the conditions.

They’d built a dugout, with a gun position at the front which had a very wide view of the road. The land was very flat, so it have them a big arc of fire, and they had mortars. They were still constructing it when I was there, so they were digging, and then sleeping at night in the back, in a foxhole, which could only fit three or four people at a time.

At that point they’d been up there a week or so and it had been a bit vulnerable, so there was quite a tight bond between the soldiers. Everyone seemed to be getting on well. It was all very small, just a hole really, the part with the machine guns and where they slept. Even over a few days you could tell everyone got on. All those guys were happy to be up there. There was one attached to them who was doing the mortars, but apart from that they were all 501st.

Bowe was a softly spoken, intelligent and thoughtful guy. On one of the nights – we weren’t really supposed to – but we walked over to the Afghan National Army position on the top of the hill. They had their own tent a bit away from us. We ate some lamb with them. He and the others were interested in the Afghans. One of the others was the son of a missionary, and he’d lived in different bits of South America.

There was a certain amount of questioning why they were there, not particularly among them, but with lots of the soldiers. Quite a few people had done two or three tours by then, and you’re talking about a year at a time, with no break apart from when they went home. It’s pretty relentless. People didn’t mind that so much but there was a little bit of confusion about what they were supposed to be doing and who they were supposed to be helping.

They were all quite reflective. Bowe was particularly thoughtful. It’s a long time to be in that situation, and though I didn’t get to know him very well I’d think if anyone was equipped to deal with it, he was probably one of them. He wasn’t the sort who saw everyone as good guys or bad guys.

<em>Interview by Peter Walker</em>

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