US Army deserter Bergdahl suffers nerve damage after captivity-witness

Larsen described the damage as akin to that seen in US soldiers held as Japanese prisoners of war during World War Two. He said Bergdahl will likely continue to feel some pain in his feet for the rest of his life.

“I think his pain is as good as it’s going to get, and it’s going to remain that way,” Larsen said by telephone from Afghanistan.

Bergdahl’s lawyers are due to call three more witnesses on Wednesday. After their testimony concludes, the judge in the case, Army Colonel Jeffery Nance, will
begin deliberating his sentence.

Bergdahl was released in a 2014 Taliban prisoner swap brokered by Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration.

During last year’s presidential campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump called Bergdahl “a no-good traitor who should have been executed.” Nance has ruled that the comments by Trump, now president and commander in chief, had not affected the fairness of the court proceeding, but said he will consider them a mitigating factor.

Prosecutors last week called multiple witnesses, including service members who described the hazards they faced in multiple hastily organized missions to rescue Bergdahl. Several were badly injured, including Master Sergeant Mark Allen, who was shot in the head, leaving him unable to speak or walk.