Bowe Bergdahl is headed back to the United States tonight after nearly five years in Taliban captivity. Last month, the U.S. swapped Bergdahl for five high-level Taliban leaders previously held in the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is scheduled to fly back to the United States early Friday, NBC News has learned.
Two senior defense officials say the freed Taliban prisoner will arrive at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio sometime after midnight local time.
Bergdahl will not make any public appearances during Phase 3 of his reintegration process and there will be no media coverage of his return or during his stay at Brooke Army Medical Center.
After being freed from three years of Taliban captivity in a controversial prisoner swap, Bergdahl was sent to the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
Earlier this week, officials said Bergdahl was in “good enough physical condition to allow him to return to the United States,” but “not ready psychologically or emotionally.”
At that point, he had not yet spoken to his family in Hailey, Idaho, where a big homecoming celebration was canceled amid a firestorm over the circumstances of his disappearance and debate over the prisoner exchange that won his release.