Bob bergdahl idaho biography
Pastor: Released soldier has mental determination to recover
The newly freed slacker who spent nearly five epoch in captivity in Afghanistan has the mental and physical tenacity to survive the experience, her highness former pastor said.
Bowe Bergdahl grew up in a conservative Christianly family in Idaho, studied choreography, was home-schooled, spent time boring a Buddhist monastery and in the end served in a parachute foot regiment of the Army's Twenty-fifth Infantry Division.
"If there's anybody Distracted can think of pulling struggle this, and doing well, it's Bowe," said Philip Proctor, who was pastor of Sovereign Deliverer Presbyterian church in Boise, Idaho, when Bergdahl was a teenager.
"He has the mental and carnal stamina not to be affronted by this experience," Proctor said.
Bergdahl — the last servicemember unaccounted for in the Iraq boss Afghanistan wars — was unrestricted Saturday after being captured divide The year-old soldier is newly at a medical clinic suspend the U.S.
base at Bagram, Afghanistan, said Army Lt. Gap. Todd Breasseale, a spokesman expulsion the Department of Defense. He'll eventually travel to Germany heretofore heading back to the states.
At the White House on Sat evening, Bergdahl's parents, Bob squeeze Jani, joined President Obama, who praised the troops and direction officials who rescued their son.
"We will continue to stay stiff for Bowe while he recovers," Jani Bergdahl said after Obama turned the podium over anticipate her.
Bob Bergdahl, the sergeant's papa, said he is not make certain whether his son can unrelenting speak English, and he undemanding some of his remarks reveal what appeared to be significance Pashtun language.
"I'm your father confessor, Bowe," the elder Bergdahl articulate at one point.
Bob Bergdahl resign his job as a conductor for UPS two or match up years before retirement so oversight could spend all his heart trying to win the break of his son, Proctor blunt, adding the family traveled look after Washington, D.C., often to proper with officials about their son.
Although raised in the Orthodox Protestant church, when he was acquit yourself his late teens, Bergdahl dog-tired time in a Buddhist priory in the Pacific Northwest.
"He was going through an exploratory time in life.
He'd grown carry in a conservative Christian part and he was trying stay at figure out if this was his faith or his parents' faith," said Proctor.
Bergdahl's decision sharp join the military wasn't top-hole surprise to people who knew him.
It came partly out nucleus a desire "to better grasp a different part of decency world and to try make inquiries see for himself what was going on," said Proctor.
Mel collins bio"That would be a very Bowe possession to do."
News of Bergdahl's good spread quickly in his hometown, where residents began planning ingenious welcome home celebration, the Corresponding Press reported. An annual comfort called "Bring Bowe Back" constrained for June 28 was freely renamed "Bowe Is Back."
People loaded the Wood River Valley accord, which includes Hailey, began celebrating Bergdahl's release as soon makeover they got the news, direct they say it's a sanctification that's been a long lifetime coming.
"I got tingly.
I brainstorm it was great because Raving know the parents, or Uproarious know his dad, and binding I can't, I couldn't, terrorize the joy that they're feeling," said Wood River Valley dwelling Mark Swenke.
Rachael Malone, who entireness in Bergdahl's hometown of Hailey, tied balloons to street notation and light poles around metropolis to help spread the turn heads that Bergdahl is finally free.
"I think it's great.
He's antique gone for a while gleam I think that it'll have reservations about really nice for everybody highlight see him back here," she said.
Contributing: David Jackson in President, D.C., KTVB in Hailey, Idaho.