|
(Continued from page 28)
Returned captives are put through orchestrated steps meant to 'reintegrate' them into society
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Once released from captivity, a soldier like Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl enters a series of debriefings and counseling sessions, all carefully orchestrated by the U.S. military, to ease the soldier back into normal life.
• In military parlance, it's known as "reintegration," and Bergdahl, who spent five years as a captive of the Taliban under circumstances now hotly debated, is working his way through its early stages at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
• A look, in question and answer form, at how this process typically plays out:
• Q. When does Bergdahl get to go home?
• A. The short answer is, no one knows. Bergdahl has not even placed a phone call to his family, Pentagon officials say. Typically, a returned captive would spend from five days to three weeks in the phase of reintegration in which Bergdahl now finds himself at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, according to a Pentagon psychologist who is an expert in dealing with military members who have been released from captivity. The psychologist spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.
• ___
Veterans, world leaders honor D-Day's fallen, 70 years after pivotal invasion of Normandy
• COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) -- Men who stormed Normandy's shore 70 years ago joined world leaders Friday in paying tribute to the 150,000 Allied troops who risked and lost their lives in the D-Day landings in Nazi-occupied France, in a day of international commemorations of history's biggest amphibious invasion.
• They are honoring the troops and civilians who fell in mighty battles that helped bring Europe peace and unity -- just as bloodshed in Ukraine is posing new challenges to European security and threatening a new East-West divide.
• As the sun rose Friday over a gusty Omaha Beach, flags flew at half-staff. A U.S. military band played Taps, while D-Day veterans from the 29th Infantry Division and serving soldiers stood at attention at exactly 6:30 a.m., the moment on June 6, 1944, when Allied troops first waded ashore.
• "Twenty-nine, let's go!" they shouted, then downed shots of Calvados, Normandy apple brandy.
(Continued on page 30)
|
|
