Army Clears Bergdahl of Any Misconduct During Captivity

[MADem]

57. NO....he was captured BEFORE he could legally be -- or was -- declared a deserter.

It's usually a thirty day threshold; there has to be demonstrable proof--not the word of assholes from his unit who got general discharges for misconduct--that he left the unit intending NEVER to return.

Practically, the Services wait a month at least, usually, to figure that someone isn't coming back.

He had no opportunity to "change his mind," and that is assuming he was on his way outta the theater, that the balance of his mind wasn't disturbed, and/or that he was just going walkabout for a bit and intended to come back to base.

He was, at worst, AWOL when captured. And once captured, he can't be called a deserter--his life was not in his hands, he had no control over where he went and what he did. So if he was even AWOL--and given how fucked up his unit was, that's debatable, too--that's usually handled by non-judicial punishment, and it doesn't result in loss of five years' worth of pay. It's usually a percentage of pay for a max of three months...and that's assuming that the commanding officer would be inclined to impose a fine at all. Even loss of rank is usually suspended pending good behavior.