When Bowe Bergdahl went to enlist in the army in 2008, he had to explain a previous discharge from the Coast Guard and get a waiver. This graphic shows the number of waivers approved from 2001 to the present.
Jason Dempsey on the counterinsurgency—COIN—mission and the end game in Afghanistan. Dempsey, who was an officer at the battalion and brigade level, did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has served as a combat advisor to the Afghans and has taught at West Point. He was in Afghanistan when Bowe Bergdahl was captured and went back again in 2012 and 2014.
From the soldier to the brigade, here’s how the command structure typically works.
Blackfoot Company at OP Mest. Bergdahl is on the right.
In May 2009, Sean Smith, a photographer and filmmaker from the Guardian, embedded with the U.S. Army in eastern Afghanistan. Ken Wolfe, command sergeant major of the First Battalion of the 501st Infantry, told Sarah that he dropped Smith off at OP Mest and then continued south to a command center in Kushamond. A while later, Wolfe’s first sergeant pulled Smith’s photos up on the Guardian’s website. Wolfe says that when he saw the photos he lost his mind. ... Read More
