Bowe Bergdahl may be getting only a slap on the wrist, but his cowardly actions in Afghanistan forever changed the lives of several of the servicemen who risked their lives trying to find him.
Some of them, like Jimmy Hatch, had their bodies shattered and careers ended during firefights while they searched for the derelict Bergdahl.
Others lost close companions. While Navy SEAL Mike Toussaint was on a mission to find Bergdahl after he walked away from his post, his military service dog Remco was shot and killed.
While that tragic death is not as dramatic as if a human soldier had died, Remco was still considered part of the team — and his loss deeply affected Toussaint.
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“Nine days after Bergdahl’s desertion, SEAL team members Toussaint and Remco were sent on a hostage rescue operation in southeastern Afghanistan to search for the missing private,” explained the Washington Free Beacon.
Toussaint and fellow SEAL Jimmy Hatch had a pretty good idea that Bergdahl was a deserter, but they resolved to find him anyway.
“We all agreed we were going to go get him — he’s an American, that’s our job — but we all wanted to have a talk with him,” Toussaint said.
The mission began with a helicopter insertion, but right away there was trouble.
“His unit came under heavy fire even before their two helicopters landed, leaving the team surrounded while they disembarked,” reported the Free Beacon.
“As the unit advanced to the position where they believed Bergdahl was being held, Toussaint, Hatch, Remco, and a third shooter peeled off to pursue two men wearing traditional Afghan dress,” the report continued.
The SEALs were worried that one of the unidentified men might be the missing Bergdahl wearing local garb. They didn’t directly engage the targets out of concern for the private’s safety.
Those traditionally dressed men disappeared into a field. As he was trained to do, the military working dog Remco went ahead to locate them. It was the last thing the dog would ever do.
“It all happened real quick,” Toussaint said. “I remember seeing Remco get within a couple feet of their location and then he got shot in the head and came flying back out, I mean literally flying out.”
“Right about that time … because it all got chaotic real quick … Jimmy who was right to my right, got shot. I remember hearing him, I could tell he was in pain, and then all I remember was kind of like a fireworks show,” he recalled.
That SEAL, Senior Chief Petty Officer James Hatch, took a bullet in his right leg. It instantly shattered his femur. He survived, but his career as a Navy SEAL was over, and Hatch would have to undergo 18 surgeries over the next two years.
After just seeing his four-legged partner be killed, Toussaint charged through gunfire to take out the two enemy shooters using grenades. Later, he would receive a Silver Star for that action… and Remco would, as well.
He desperately tried to revive Remco as other soldiers worked on Hatch, but it was too late for the dog.
“We knowingly went out in hazardous situations, it’s just part of the job,” Toussaint admitted. “It’s not like I didn’t accept the reality of any of us not coming home on any given night, that’s just the realistic truth to it.”
With that said, Toussaint does put a significant amount of blame on Bowe Bergdahl, the private who deserted his post and ended up in enemy hands.
“[T]o have that night take place only because — solely because — we had a selfish American that walked off a base, it just makes it harder to swallow,” said Toussaint.
Bergdahl may now be free, but his conscience should not be clear. If he has any shred of decency or honor left, he ought to spend every day of his life thinking about the Americans who put their lives on the line to bring him home.
H/T Sarah Palin
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via Conservative Tribune
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