A Navy SEAL testified Wednesday in Fort Bragg, N.C., that he was shot and badly injured during a heavy firefight while searching for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after Bergdahl walked off his combat outpost in Afghanistan.The military judge, Army Col. Jeffrey Nance, is allowing the testimony of three service members whose injures are considered a direct result of the searches for Bergdahl, who was captured by the Taliban and held for five years. He has pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.The Navy SEAL, Senior Chief Petty Officer James Hatch, was forced to retire from the military after nearly 26 years of service because of the injuries sustained while searching for Bergdahl. He testified that he had had 18 operations in the years that followed.Today, he walked to the witness stand with a heavy limp, accompanied by a black service dog.Hatch said that before Bergdahl went missing, the unit's mission was capturing and killing high-value targets. They got word that they were going to focus on rescuing Bergdahl."Someone is going to get killed or hurt trying to get this kid," Hatch recounted saying.Nine days after Bergdahl's disappearance, Hatch led a team with two helicopters on a mission into Afghanistan's Paktika province. He said that they were taking heavy fire even before they landed.As they began advancing to the position where they believed Bergdahl was held, he said, a trained dog with them lunged after three figures that it later turned out were children.Shortly afterward, the dog was shot in the head and killed, he said. Hatch spoke in formal, controlled language, with his voice only wavering when he spoke about the dog.Hatch himself was then shot in his right leg, just above the knee. He described screaming in pain, and worrying that he was endangering fellow soldiers. "I really thought I was going to die," he said. The Navy SEAL was then airlifted out by helicopter."Everyone on that mission was aware [Bergdahl] walked off," Hatch said. When asked why they went after him, Hatch responded: "Because he's an American."Another witness, Capt. John Billings, was Bergdahl's platoon leader and described the searches immediately after Bergdahl went missing."The next 10 days were just kind of a blur," he said. "Everybody in Afghanistan was looking for Bergdahl."On Monday, the military judge probed whether recent comments by President Trump could challenge the fairness of the legal proceedings. As we reported:
At Bowe Bergdahl's Sentencing, Soldier Describes Being Shot During Search
