by Matt Farwell
Mark was an industrial designer: Interview with Mark Farris, November 2017.
“‘Great, you do that’”: Interview with Kyle Koski, August 2016.
Along with Bear Grylls: Interviews with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, July–August 2018.
experiments with self-surgery: Interview with source with firsthand knowledge.
On open mic nights: Interview with Kyle Koski, August 2016.
“Seeing the UPS truck”: Interview with John Shaw, October 2016.
When Shaw met him: Jeff Cordes, “Naval Academy Is First Class for Michael Albrecht,” Idaho Mountain Express, January 12, 2000.
The lone bright spot: Kim Dellacorva sworn statement, August 13, 2014, p. 2.
“He was too good a kid”: Interview with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, April 2012.
Still, he bought: Testimony of Dr. Charles Morgan, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, November 1, 2017.
It was his eyesight: Interview with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, April 2012.
He told his mom: Interviews with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, July–August 2018.
Bowe told him to go away: Interview with John Raffa April 2016.
“I am responsible”: Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15-6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, p. 15.
Should former Seaman Recruit: Dahl Report, p. 02456.
get out of the Coast Guard: Kim Dellacorva sworn statement, August 13, 2014, p. 2.
“You don’t just ‘get out’”: Ibid.
“I never met anybody”: Interview with Matt Larson, October 2016.
“Hey, this is a truck!”: Interview with Walt Femling, April 2016.
“He would just be”: Interview with Mark Farris, December 2016.
He made it as far: Interviews with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, July–August 2018.
CHAPTER FOUR: AN ARMY OF ONE
He never told his parents: Interviews with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, July–August 2018.
But Bowe never complained: Author interview with a former Bergdahl employer, June 2016.
Bowe told his parents: Interview with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, April 2012.
As Iraq burned: Fred Kaplan, “The U.S. Army Lowers Recruitment Standards . . . Again,” Slate, January 24, 2008, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2008/01/dumb_and_dumber.html.
Her parting words: Author interview, December 2016.
On graduation day: Interview with Joseph Coe, September 2016.
“Bowe was good to go”: Interview with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, April 2012.
“There is nothing”: Gabriel Trollinger email to Matt Farwell, 2007.
The Army considered it: Solomon Moore, “G.I. Gets 10-Year Sentence in Killing of Unarmed Iraqi,” New York Times, February 11, 2008, https://nytimes.com/2008/02/11/world/middleeast/11sniper.html.
Strangely, Hensley escaped: Tom Junod, “The Six-Letter Word that Changes Everything,” Esquire, June 2008, https://esquire.com/news-politics/a4753/michael-hensley-0708.
He was crammed into: Interview with Joseph Coe and Gerald Sutton, September 2016.
“I will learn Russian”: Stephanie McCrummen, “Bergdahl’s Writings Reveal a Fragile Young Man,” Washington Post, June 11, 2014.
sat in motionless meditation: Interview with Joseph Coe and Gerald Sutton, September 2016.
“He wasn’t well accepted”: Interview with Joseph Coe, February 2015.
When Bergdahl closed his eyes: Interview with Joseph Coe and Gerald Sutton, September 2016.
the Army ran for $25 million each: “Preparing to Succeed at the National Training Center,” United States Army, www.army.mil/article/128699/preparing_to_succeed_at_the_national_training_center.
But he carried on: Interview with Jason Fry.
Wolfe emphasized that: “5 O’Clock Shadow,” Serial Podcast, https://serialpodcast.org/season-two/6/5-oclock-shadow/transcript.
with his arm red and swollen: Interviews with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, July–August 2018.
“The closer I get”: McCrummen, Washington Post, June 11, 2014.
expected to top one hundred thousand: Amy Belasco, The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11, Congressional Research Service, September 2010.
“Don’t take cross-border lightly”: Afghanistan ROE in-theater briefing notes, 2006.
it grew sevenfold: Nicholas O. Melin, Expanding Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan, United States Army, March 2007, http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a596611.pdf.
“‘Are you serious?’”: Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15-6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, p. 62.
Bergdahl heard gunfire: Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15-6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, p. 97.
CHAPTER FIVE: OP MEST
Task Force Yukon was commanded: James Russell, “Innovation in War: Military Operations in Afghanistan and Iraq,” CENTCOM briefing, April 2010.
Howard seemed to see all: Interview with Nate Bethea, 2012.
shit between the graves: Interview with Joseph Coe and Gerald Sutton, September 2016.
no different from the child rapists: Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15–6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, p. 55.
“This is a graveyard!”: Interview with Gerald Sutton and Joseph Coe, September 2016.
“Actions may become . . .”: McCrummen, “Bergdahl’s Writings Reveal a Fragile Young Man,” Washington Post, June 11, 2014.
“I plan better than that”: Dahl Report, p. 02470.
email to Kayla: Ibid.
a Kindle to Kim: Ibid.
His parents were immediately worried: Michael Hastings, “The Last American Prisoner of War,” Rolling Stone, June 21, 2012.
Conceited soldiers from: Dahl Report, p. 02472.
“‘Whatever, you’re full of shit’”: Interview with Joseph Coe, February 2015.
leave Cross’s 9mm: Dahl interview, p.183.
Bonding with them could prevent: Dahl interview, p. 189.
known as the Q Course: Dahl Report, p. 0229.
“mark of a man”: Nat White, illustrator, Army recruiting poster, June 29, 1951.
afghanis and U.S. dollars: Dahl interview with Bergdahl, p. E0110.
he knew from books and movies: Ibid., p. E0177.
village and the Taliban fighters: Lt. Col. Clint Baker Article 32 testimony.
asked his sergeant what DUSTWUN meant: Dahl interview with Bergdahl, p. E0172.
“until I see a general”: Ibid., p. E0123.
Deserters run away: Ibid., pp. E0129, E0125.
“I am done compromising”: “Bergdahl in Email 3 Days Before Walking Off Base: ‘I Am Done Compromising,’” CBS DC, June 12, 2014, https://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/06/12/bergdahl-in-email-3-days-before-walking-off-base-i-am-done-compromising.
CHAPTER SIX: DUSTWUN
The men were always within: Interview with Joseph Coe and Gerald Sutton, September 2016.
There were Full and Gerleve: Interviews with soldiers in the platoon; Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15-6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, p. 36.
It was a basic function: Author experience with perstat reports as company RTO for D Co 2–87 Infantry.
Tools: knives and his compass: Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15-6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, p. 154.
He sent a team: “Record of Preliminary Hearing Under Article 32 for Sergeant Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl,” Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, September 17–18, 2015, p. 64.
Six months earlier: Text message to author from Joseph Coe, August 2018.
He was quiet: “Record of Preliminary Hearing Under Article 32 for Sergeant Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl,” Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, September 17–18, 2015, pp. 56, 107.
“Go ahead and send it”: Ibid., p. 66.
The Eclipse Group:
Separate interviews with Dewey Clarridge and Michael Furlong, both 2016.
The first official Taliban: Mail Foreign Service, “Taliban Captures ‘Drunk’ U.S. Soldier in Afghanistan and Sells Him to Militant Clan,” Daily Mail, July 2, 2009.
He walked over: Dahl Report, p. 02476.
He saw their flashlight: Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15-6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, pp. 155-156, 160.
He started down: Ibid., pp. 160, 348.
He thought about other soldiers: Ibid., p. 129.
“Stupid actions. Stupid”: Ibid., p. 130.
It was close to noon: Ibid., pp. 152, 163-64, 349.
Captain Silvino Silvino was: “Record of Preliminary Hearing Under Article 32 for Sergeant Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl,” Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, September 17–18, 2015, p. 137.
He took the job: Interview with Joseph Coe and Gerald Sutton, September 2016.
Baker decided to accompany: “Record of Preliminary Hearing Under Article 32 for Sergeant Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl,” Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, September 17–18, 2015, p. 204.
“Sir, it is. Unfortunately”: Ibid., p. 147.
It wouldn’t be much: This account of the hasty patrol is drawn from Billings’s Article 32 testimony and interviews with Joseph Coe, John Mohammad (interpreter), Josh Cornelison, and Gerald Sutton.
“A soldier went out for milk”: Interview with John Mohammad.
the exact time: 0602: Billings recalled an approximate time of 8:06 in his Article 32 testimony, but the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command Memorandum 2015/05/06, Subject: Law Enforcement report, SIR (Category 1)/1ST Final Supplemental—00152–2009-CID369–065293–5K2, page 10, says 0602 was compiled based on interviews and reports from Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) agents who interviewed the platoon directly after the DUSTWUN.
Command’s eyes were: Times derived from the timestamps on WikiLeaks Afghan War Logs KIDNAPPING REPORT B Co 1–501 PIR 30 June 2009 Ref # AFG20090630n1790. Those times are reported as Zulu time (Greenwich Mean Time) in the WikiLeaks reports, but have been converted to the local time, which is +4 hours and 30 minutes.
M drones were: “Hellfire Family of Missiles,” United States Army Acquisition Support Center, http://asc.army.mil/web/portfolio-item/hellfire-family-of-missiles.
The man was a pathfinder: “Record of Preliminary Hearing Under Article 32 for Sergeant Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl,” Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, September 17–18, 2015, p. 72.
The pathfinders were: U.S. v. Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl, Third Defense Motion to Compel (UCI), June 30, 2016, p. 24.
If he knew about: “New U.S. Commander Aims to Turn Afghan Tide,” NBCNews.com, June 15, 2009, https://nbcnews.com/id/31363630/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/t/new-us-commander-aims-turn-afghan-tide.
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE LOST PUPPY
“I spend 80 percent”: Michael Hastings, The Operators (New York: Blue Rider Press, 2012), p. 281.
President Obama had tapped McChrystal: Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker, “Commander’s Ouster Is Tied to Shift in Afghan War,” New York Times, May 11, 2009.
Flynn, who’d been: Michael T. Flynn and Michael Arthur Ledeen, The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017), pp. 23–26.
Flynn was a good officer: Interview with Mario Caraballo, who was an 82nd Airborne NCO in Flynn’s unit at the time.
The role that McChrystal: Elizabeth Bumiller and Mark Mazzetti, “A General Steps From the Shadows,” New York Times, May 12, 2009, https://nytimes.com/2009/05/13/world/asia/13commander.html.
McChrystal had a reputation: Interview with Jeff Hayes, June 2016.
It was the same CIA: William J Broad, David E Sanger, and Raymond Bonner, “A Tale of Nuclear Proliferation: How Pakistani Built His Network,” New York Times, February 12, 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/12/world/a-tale-of-nuclear-proliferation-how-pakistani-built-his-network.html.
Furlong had ideas: Interview with Michael Furlong, May 2016.
It was one of the Alaska: Ibid.
Where Flynn was all confidence: Hastings, The Operators, p. 27.
McKiernan had called him: Mark Mazzetti, The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth (New York: Penguin Books, 2014), p. 194
named part of Fort Irwin: Ibid., p. 177.
From there, he helped: Jeff Gerth, “Pentagon Linking Secret Army Unit to Contra Money,” New York Times, April 22, 1987, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/22/world/pentagon-linking-secret-army-unit-to-contra-money.html.
He then worked: William Arkin, “Phreaking Hacktivists,” Washington Post, January 18, 1999, https://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dotmil/arkin011899.htm.
He returned to the regular Army: “6th PSYOP Battalion Commanding Officers,” USAPOVA, https://usapova.com/commanders-of-the-6th-psychological-operations-battalion.
An information security: “Student Guide, Personnel Security: Diplomatic Security Service,” United States Department of State, http://dss.mil/multimedia/shorts/jpas-4-6/includes/JPAS_Levels_4-6_SG.pdf [inactive].
He told Furlong: Interview with Michael Furlong, May 2016.
While he was a CIA officer: Clarridge gives an entertaining account of his career in the CIA in his memoir. Duane R. Clarridge and Digby Diehl, A Spy for All Seasons: My Life in the CIA (New York: Scribner, 1997).
Clarridge was the first: United States of America, Appellant v. Fawaz Yunis, 867 F.2d617 (D.C. Cir. 1989).
He was investigated: George Lardner Jr., “Iran-Contra Prosecutors to Drop 2 Charges Against Ex-CIA Official,” Washington Post, December 11, 1992.
payments to arms-dealing middlemen: Lawrence E. Walsh, Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up (New York: Norton, 1998).
Bush, a former CIA man: George Bush, “Proclamation 6518—Grant of Executive Clemency,” December 24, 1992, The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, http://presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=20265 [inactive].
There was a plastic surgeon: Aram Roston, “The Trump Administration Is Mulling A Pitch For A Private ‘Rendition’ And Spy Network,” BuzzFeed, November 30, 2017, https://buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/trump-administration-mulls-private-rendition.
Eclipse also used: Interviews with Michael Furlong, Tim Lynch, and Dewey Clarridge, December 2015–May 2016.
Furlong recalled how easy: Interview with Michael Furlong, May 2016.
There were five motorcycles: Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15-6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, p. 233.
Through the cracks: Ibid., p. 236.
One struck him: Ibid., p. 238.
they used a cell phone: Ibid., p. 242.
first proof-of-life video: Linda Robinson, One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare (New York: Public Affairs, 2013), p. 18.
“If you move”: Bowe Bergdahl sworn statement, U.S. Army 15-6 Investigation, August 6, 2014, p. 239.
The American operations officer: The operations officer is identified throughout by the pseudonym Ron Wilson. This passage is taken from multiple interviews with the officer between March 2015 and September 2017.
goat fat and hashish: Interview with Ron Wilson, September 2016.
“If an American was kidnapped”: Interview with Ron Wilson, March 2015.
According to one U.S. officer: Interview with U.S. military official, March 2015.
MICE was the mnemonic: Randy Burkett, “An Alternative Framework to Agent Recruitment,” Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Extracts, March 2013).
“We figured it would be”: Interview with Ron Wilson, March 2015.
CHAPTER EIGHT: RIVER CITY
Colonel Mike Howard punched: WikiLeaks, “(CRIMINAL EVENT) KIDNAPPING RPT B CO 1-501 PIR: 0 INJ/DAM,” Afghan War Diary.<
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The troops were accustomed: “‘River City’ and the Importance of the Military Death Notification Process,” The Funeral Law Blog, https://funerallaw.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/river-city-and-the-importance-of-the-military-death-notification-process.html.
the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower: CVN-69 Locations, www.gonavy.jp/CVLocation69.html.
UIM INDICATES THAT: WikiLeaks Afghan War Diary.
At 8:13 p.m., the Americans: Ibid.
The Taliban told the ANP: Interviews with John Mohammad, December 2015; Joseph Coe and Gerald Sutton, September 2016.
One CIA case officer: Interview with CIA Case Officer “John Smith,” June 2016.
interpreter “body shops”: L3 company profile, https://www.l3t.com/about-l3/company-profile; Mission Essential Personnel, http://www.missionessential.com/about-us/locations/.
“I didn’t go to spread democracy”: Author interview with former interpreter, May 2016.
Afghan Special Immigrant Visa: Based on multiple interviews with Special Immigrant Visa applicants; one example is interpreter Nabi Mohammad, who was assigned to Farwell’s platoon in 2006 and went to Fort Worth on a Special Immigrant Visa after three years in the queue. Farwell spent many hours on the phone with the women employees in New Hampshire.
If he were ever caught: Interviews with John Mohammad, December 2015.
“HE CAN GO [LOL]”: The military’s transcripts express audible laughter using the abbreviation LOL.
The Taliban who held Bergdahl: WikiLeaks Afghan War Diary.
Crapo’s superiors told him: “Record of Preliminary Hearing Under Article 32 for Sergeant Robert Bowdrie Bergdahl,” Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, September 17–18, 2015.
“It doesn’t sound like much”: Interview with former senior Pentagon official, October 2015.
living on orange soda: Interviews with Gerald Sutton.
“We’re looking for Bergdahl”: Interview with Joseph Coe and Gerald Sutton, September 2016.
In reality, Coe figured: Interview with Joseph Coe, February 2015.
For the ninety minutes back: Interview with former Army soldier, November 2017.
design and print single-page leaflets: Interview with former Blackfoot Company officer, March 2016.