--- title: The Significance of Bergdahl’s ‘Washing Out’ of the Coast Guard description: If he couldn’t tend to the coasts, why’d the Army think he could handle the Taliban? canonical: https://time.com/2861963/the-significance-of-bergdahls-washing-out-of-the-coast-guard/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-12T02:09:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:22:07.449Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Significance of Bergdahl’s ‘Washing Out’ of the Coast Guard og:description: If he couldn’t tend to the coasts, why’d the Army think he could handle the Taliban? og:url: https://time.com/2861963/the-significance-of-bergdahls-washing-out-of-the-coast-guard/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e3cb4eaf9e8948c/6986973e3bc99995f71a40a1/896139.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7360 og:image:height: 4140 og:image:alt: This is our office og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Significance of Bergdahl’s ‘Washing Out’ of the Coast Guard twitter:description: If he couldn’t tend to the coasts, why’d the Army think he could handle the Taliban? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e3cb4eaf9e8948c/6986973e3bc99995f71a40a1/896139.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Significance of Bergdahl’s 'Washing Out' of the Coast Guard > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Jun 12, 2014 2:09 AM UTC  Recruits at the Coast Guard's boot camp in Cape May, N.J., do pushups on the beach. Recruits at the Coast Guard's boot camp in Cape May, N.J., do pushups on the beach. Chief Warrant Officer Donnie Brzuska / Coast Guard by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Jun 12, 2014 2:09 AM UTC The U.S. government confirmed Wednesday that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was discharged early from the Coast Guard, after only 26 days in boot camp, two years before he tried to enlist in the Army. The fact raises questions on a third front that has nothing to do with _how_ Bergdahl came to be captured by the Taliban, or _how much_ the Obama Administration did to win his freedom May 31 in an exchange for five senior Taliban leaders: _why_ did the Army let a failed Coast Guardsman join its ranks? Friends of Bergdahl [told](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/bergdahls-writings-reveal-a-fragile-young-man/2014/06/11/fb9349fe-f165-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f%5Fstory.html?hpid=z2) the _Washington Post_ that the Coast Guard discharged him for psychological reasons, but neither the Coast Guard nor the Army has specified why Bergdahl left the Coast Guard’s [boot camp](http://www.uscg.mil/hq/capemay/) in Cape May, N.J., in early 2006\. The Coast Guard described the action as an “uncharacterized discharge,” which is typical for someone who leaves the service without completing basic training. Generally such an event is a red flag that would have required a waiver from the Army before allowing such a prospective recruit to enlist. A wide variety of bars to enlistment—including legal problems and health concerns—require waivers because the Pentagon believes such recruits won’t do as well in uniform as those without such warning signs. In 2008, the year Bergdahl joined the Army, the service granted waivers for about 20% of its recruits, usually for illicit drug use or other legal problems. Such waivers spiked as the popular support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq sagged and it became more difficult to entice young Americans to serve in uniform. Bergdahl’s aborted Coast Guard service is the latest twist in a strange series of events about the case. It began as a joyous Rose Garden celebration at the White House with his parents to announce his freedom. Within days, it soured into bitter comments from fellow soldiers who declared that Bergdahl had deserted his post in a war zone, leading to hunts for him that they say played a role in the combat deaths of at least six U.S. troops (the Pentagon says it has no evidence of direct links between the deaths and the manhunt). Now it has become a darker tale about a seemingly-confused young man whose woes the Army may have been willing to overlook to gain a willing recruit for the war in Afghanistan. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2861963/the-significance-of-bergdahls-washing-out-of-the-coast-guard/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2861963/the-significance-of-bergdahls-washing-out-of-the-coast-guard/"},"headline":"The Significance of Bergdahl’s 'Washing Out' of the Coast Guard","datePublished":"2014-06-12T02:09:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:22:07.449Z","description":"If he couldn’t tend to the coasts, why’d the Army think he could handle the Taliban?","url":"https://time.com/2861963/the-significance-of-bergdahls-washing-out-of-the-coast-guard/","keywords":["Military","Afghanistan","Pentagon"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e3cb4eaf9e8948c/6986973e3bc99995f71a40a1/896139.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e3cb4eaf9e8948c/6986973e3bc99995f71a40a1/896139.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"This is our office","caption":"This is our office","creditText":"Chief Warrant Officer Donnie Brzuska / Coast Guard","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2861963/the-significance-of-bergdahls-washing-out-of-the-coast-guard/","name":"The Significance of Bergdahl’s 'Washing Out' of the Coast Guard"}}]}] ```