Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was released by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in May 2014,
as part of a prisoner swap with the United States.
He’d been captive for 5 years.
Now he’s facing charges of desertion - which could see imprisoned for life in a US military jail.
In the days before he went missing, the Guardian’s Sean Smith spent a short time filming at Bowe
Bergdahl’s observation post in eastern Afghanistan.
We don’t hear much from Bergdahl himself, but it’s clear that among his unit there
are doubts about the mission.
At the time, the US was implementing COIN, a counterinsurgency strategy based on working
closely with the village elders and the Afghan military.
I've brushed my teeth and I washed my balls. That's pretty much it.
How about dropping a little Coin? That guy waved to me.
The guy in that car waved.
They do that every now and then.
Yeah, he's making fun of Coin.
This culture is very... if you're not part of the family you're a stranger.
Strangers treat you courteously but they're somewhat standoffish.
Hopefully we'll be able to build a rapport with the local ANA and ANP. The national forces.
So that they can start working with the people more to stabilise their own country.
And we can get the hell out.
Eventually.
No, that's a lie, because they all hate us here anyway.
On his rounds of the camp, an officer walks up to the hilltop observation post where Bergdahl
- seen here crouching - and his fellow soldiers are on watch.
I mean, it's not going to be pretty when they come up here and they get pissed off at us
for desecrating their graveyard.
This is a good spot. We'll be able to rotate you all because we've got some work down there.
I'm doing my rounds, walking around, talking to different people.
Bergdahl: Roger that, sir.
This is the suite right here, this is the Hilton. This is the fucking Afghan Hilton.
Watch out for that man!
Five days living with dead people.
Does this look good on me, or what? Is this the 80s?
Is this the 90s right here, or what?
The local population are wary of the Americans - who have been test firing from the outpost.
My home is over there.
Bergdahl is seen here, involved in this exchange with a local man.
It's here, in this area. Just behind the cemetery. Where your security post is.
Where is your wheat field? Tell the foreigner who is standing in front of you.
Do you want me to tell him where my home is?
Without a Pashtu-speaker on the hilltop, communications with the local man have to
be through an interpreter over the radio.
Thank you.
Can I have your hat?
See that dude up there?
I'm gonna wing a rock at him.
OK, give him a couple.
Here's another kid.
Now we've got an Indian trader here.
Next time we catch the Taliban putting in a bomb, we're going to cut their faces off.
Food?
We can't give you any food, man.
Just waiting for those dogs down there to start humping.
Where?
I've been following that little white female. I think it's a female.
These people just want to be left alone. They got dicked with from the Russians for 17 years.
And then now we're here.
They just want to be left alone, man. Same thing in Iraq, when I was there.
These people just want to be left alone. They have their crops, weddings, stuff like that.
That's it, man.
I'll gladly leave them alone.
As the shift changes, this is the last footage of Bowe Bergdahl on duty in Afghanistan, days
before he was taken prisoner.