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 Stefanie O'Neill, who is in regular contact with Bergdahl's
mother, said the U.S. soldier's parents were strained both by their
son's silence since his May 31 release and because of death threats
being investigated by the FBI.
“Bob and Jani are under more strain than ever, but they are trying
to be patient,” O'Neill said of the couple, who continuously pressed
their son's case with the Obama administration.
O'Neill, whose friendship with Bergdahl's mother was forged by a
rally she helped organize last year in the family's Idaho hometown,
said Jani Bergdahl has sought to put on a brave front.
“She puts on a smile but you can tell she's suffering in all this,”
O'Neill said, without offering an explanation for why Bergdahl had
not spoken to his parents. “She doesn't understand – how could any
mother understand? – why her child literally won't take her phone
calls.”
Bergdahl, 28, was freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held
at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Critics said
the Obama administration paid too high a price and questioned if
Bergdahl deserted his combat outpost before being captured.
 This week, Bergdahl was assigned to a desk job at a Texas military
base after completing counseling and a reintegration program and as
the Army investigates the circumstances that led to five years of
captivity.
A friend of the younger Bergdahl, whom he first met in Idaho 14
years ago, said she visited him in Texas and had arranged for a
civilian attorney to represent him amid the Army probe, but that he
had not reached out to his parents.
The Bergdahls did not respond to a request for comment. A senior
Army official confirmed Bergdahl had not spoken with his parents
during his reintegration program, but said his contacts were no
longer being tracked since his return to regular duty on Monday.
[to top of second column] |
Jeffrey Moore, executive director of the Robert E. Mitchell Center
for Prisoner of War Studies, a U.S. Defense Department program, said
a minority of American servicemen taken prisoner during the Vietnam
War chose not to contact their families after release in
circumstances possibly stemming from estrangement preceding capture.
He said he could not speak to Bergdahl's experiences since he has
not met him. But he said long-term studies of 660 Americans taken
captive in Vietnam showed most were at some point told lies about
their families, fellow soldiers and their nation to force them to
sign statements admitting to war crimes.
Servicemen whose relationships were troubled before capture found
them complicated when they returned home, and Moore said odds were
not high of finding sour milk had turned sweet over time.
“Absence does not always make the heart grow fonder,” he said.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)
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