A Blog Post From 2009 About Bowe Bergdahl

Courtesy of Kayla HarrisonBowe Bergdahl

The following post is from 2009. It shows a little "history" this Bergdahl character and it also corroborates a series of tweets from a fellow soldier who served with Bergdahl and knew he had deserted.

Taken from:  http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/2009/07/bowe_bergdahl_captured_in_afgh.html

I had some sad duty Sunday, reporting and writing a story that I've known for the last couple of weeks would break. (It's also posted at OregonLive's Breaking News blog.)

Bowe Bergdahl, who is now a Taliban captive, has strong ties to Portland. Here's the story:

Army Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the young soldier from Idaho who is a captive of the Taliban in Afghanistan, is a man who should have been born in another century, says the family with whom he lived during his late teens and early 20s.

"He was very chivalrous in an unchivalrous age," said Shane Harrison of Portland.

He and Bergdahl, 23, belonged to a fencing club in Ketchum, Idaho, and also played sword fighters at Renaissance fairs and historical reenactments.

Bergdahl was especially protective of children, recalled Harrison's mother, Kim Harrison Dellacorva, who moved from Idaho last fall and lives in the Pearl District of Northwest Portland. She is listed on military documents as Bergdahl's godmother. She ran the extracurricular performing arts school in Ketchum that Bergdahl attended.

A military casualty assistance officer knocked on Dellacorva's door June 30, after Bergdahl was reporting missing from his company's outpost in Afghanistan's Paktika province. At the time, nobody knew where he was or what happened to him. The military declined to release his name to the public, although his disappearance was an open secret in Hailey, the Idaho town near Ketchum where Bergdahl's parents live in a remote canyon.

But over the weekend, his Taliban captors posted a 28-minute video that shows Bergdahl answering questions and eating.

Kim, Shane and Shane's sister, Kayla Harrison, were relieved to see that Bergdahl is alive. But they say that parts of the video they have seen don't sound like the Bowe they know.

"The only part that sounded like Bowe was when he said, 'It's very unnerving to be a prisoner,'" Kayla Harrison said.

A lot of the other stuff, about relatives and having a girlfriend back home he hoped to marry, sounded completely unnatural, the Harrisons say. Bergdahl doesn't have a serious girlfriend, they say.

"I'm trying not to think about it," Dellacorva said. "I know he's stressed out."

Kayla Harrison said: "He's kicking himself." He's saying, "How did I let this happen?"

In Hailey, many of the city's 6,000 residents knew about Bergdahl's capture before his identification went global Sunday.

But the outpouring of support was more a whisper than a yell in the city located about 10 miles south of the famous Sun Valley Resort.

Sue Martin, owner of Zaney's River Street Coffee House, says Bergdahl once worked as a barista there. A sign in her window reads: "Join all of us at Zaney's holding light for our friend Bowe Bergdahl. Bowe has been captured in Afghanistan." A candle and lamp inside stay lighted to honor him.

People "are just kind of waiting to see what is acceptable or appropriate," Martin said. "It's just beginning now that the word is out."

Martin couldn't say enough nice things about her former employee. "He is very responsible and intelligent, a very nice man. He has a big heart and is very kind."

On the coffee shop's Facebook page, about 50 people posted messages Sunday.

"Shining a light in New Jersey for an Infantry brother. Stay strong," one wrote.

Dellacorva has been in touch with military officials but has been frustrated that they haven't told her much more than has been reported publicly.

She contacted a friend with Interpol, the international police organization, who is seeking permission from the Defense Department to list Bergdahl in the organization's database of missing persons. Such an effort may make it easier to involve police in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Dellacorva believes.

She has been in touch with the office of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., which got a classified briefing on Bergdahl's status Sunday. "He told me they said they're doing everything they can," Dellacorva said.

Her situation is somewhat unusual for the military. While she is listed as godmother and Bergdahl assigned her authority to handle his effects if he were to be killed, he and she are not blood relatives, nor did she adopt him.
Goes on adventures

Bergdahl was home-schooled. From his middle teens he clicked with the Harrison family, with whom he spent most of his time. As he got older, they say, he would leave periodically to embark on personal adventures -- becoming a crew member on a salmon boat in Alaska, setting off on a bicycle trip down the California coast, or traveling.

He was a voracious reader, they say, spending hours in Powell's Books when he visited the family in Portland.

The last time Bergdahl was in Portland was just before his battalion shipped to Afghanistan in February. But he stayed behind at Fort Richardson, Alaska, suffering from a slow-healing staph infection. He later joined his unit, the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team in Afghanistan and was photographed with his comrades by a visiting photographer from The Guardian newspaper, based in Britain, in May.

Bergdahl was fascinated by weaponry, although he didn't hunt. He took martial arts classes and worked at the Sun Valley Gun Club, Dellacorva says.
"Warrior world"

He joined the Army to her dismay. But, says Shane Harrison, "He saw himself as part of that warrior world."

It wasn't clear who initially captured Bergdahl, but the U.S. command in Afghanistan said he was being held by the Taliban and condemned the video.

"I'm glad to see he appears unharmed, but again, this is a Taliban propaganda video," spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker said. "They are exploiting the soldier in violation of international law."

Afghans in contact with the Taliban told The Associated Press that the soldier was held by a Taliban group led by a commander called Maulvi Sangin. They said the fighters decided to move him north into Taliban-controlled areas of Ghazni province.

The Afghans spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest or reprisal. It was impossible to independently confirm their information.

In the video, Bergdahl says he was captured when he lagged behind on patrol. In the days following his abduction, however, U.S. military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was believed to have simply walked away from his base.

Asked by his captors whether he had a message for his countrymen, Bergdahl offered a seemingly scripted reply: "To my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here who know what it's like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home."

The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.

-- Mike Francis, mikefrancis@news.oregonian.com;

-- Melissa Navas, melissanavas@news.oregonian.com