PRISONER: Here's how you can help

Four years, seven months, three weeks and five days. That is how long 27-year-old Sgt. Bowe R. Bergdahl, of Ketchum, has been a Prisoner of War!

Sgt. Bergdahl was serving in Afghanistan with the United States Army’s 25th Infantry Division when he was taken prisoner at a remote U.S. fire base near Pakistan in June 2009. He has been classified by the Department of Defense as being, and is officially considered, “missing-captured.”

Last week, the Defense Department confirmed that the Afghan Taliban had circulated a new video showing imagery of Sgt. Bergdahl, and a Pentagon spokesperson indicated that the video confirmed that Sgt. Bergdahl was still alive, although in failing health. He is believed held by the Haqqani network, which heads the Afghan Taliban but is based in Miran Shah, Pakistan.

What can you do to help this young Idaho serviceman and his family? Contact Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch. Contact Congressmen Raul Labrador and Mike Simpson. Remind them that every effort needs to be made to recover this young man. Contact them EVERY month until the Sgt. is released and returned to Idaho.

We owe those we send into harm’s way the absolute assurance that if they are lost in battle or taken prisoner that they will not be forgotten, and that none of them will EVER be left behind. Would you ask for a lesser commitment from your countrymen for your son or daughter?

LEN CROSBY

Post Falls