Military Remains Focused on Finding Missing Soldier

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2012 — The Defense Depart­ment remains focused on efforts to return the only U.S. ser­vice mem­ber known to be in Tal­iban cap­tiv­i­ty to his fam­i­ly, Pen­ta­gon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kir­by said today.

Kir­by told reporters that free­ing Army Sgt. Bowe R. Bergdahl is a con­stant focus for com­man­ders in Afghanistan. 

“Every day … there is time, atten­tion and some­times sub­stan­tial resources applied to try­ing to locate, iden­ti­fy where he is and to con­tin­ue to look at options for how to get him home,” he said. 

Kir­by was asked about Bergdahl dur­ing a reg­u­lar meet­ing with the Pen­ta­gon press corps. The 26-year-old sol­dier was found miss­ing from his duty sta­tion in east­ern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009 and was declared missing/captured three days later. 

Bergdahl, from Hai­ley, Ida­ho, is assigned to the 1st Bat­tal­ion, 501st Infantry Reg­i­ment, 4th Brigade Com­bat Team, 25th Infantry Divi­sion, based at Fort Richard­son, Alaska. 

The Defense Depart­ment is keep­ing the Bergdahl fam­i­ly informed of efforts to find and return their son, Kir­by said. 

“Our thoughts and prayers and our hearts go out to the Bergdahl fam­i­ly and we appre­ci­ate the anguish that they con­tin­ue to endure,” he added. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)