Taliban video of captive hits home in Idaho

For several weeks, word slowly spread through the tiny city of Hailey, Idaho, that one of their own could be the U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan.

Then on Sunday, the face of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, 23, was splashed on TV screens across the country in excerpts of a Taliban prisoner video. Pentagon officials confirmed that the soldier in the 28-minute video was Bergdahl.

"It didn't hit a lot of people until (Sunday)," said Don Keirn, a 20-year resident of Hailey who went to college with Bergdahl's grandfather and knows the soldier's father. "You just hope to God he gets back alive and in good shape. You hope something can be worked out."

Bergdahl was serving with an Alaska-based infantry regiment at a base near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold. Bergdahl said in the video — where he's wearing a gray outfit and has a shaved head — that he was lagging behind a patrol when he was captured, which conflicts with earlier military accounts that indicated he left the base with three Afghans.

It wasn't clear who initially captured Bergdahl, but the U.S. command in Afghanistan said he was being held by the Taliban.

"I'm glad to see he appears unharmed, but again, this is a Taliban propaganda video," spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker said. "They are exploiting the soldier in violation of international law."

Bergdahl entered the Army in June 2008, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Allen. He arrived in Afghanistan in February.

His family lives 6 miles west of Hailey in a small home on a remote gravel county road. The family has chained and locked the front gate, and a small cardboard sign says, "No visitors."

"We hope and pray for our son's safe return to his comrades and then to our family, and we appreciate all the support and expressions of sympathy shown to us by our family members, our friends and others across the nation," read a statement from the family released through the Department of Defense. "Thank you, and please continue to keep Bowe in your thoughts and prayers."

Bergdahl is the first U.S. solider captured in Afghanistan since fighting began there in 2001. In Iraq, one soldier — Army Spc. Ahmed Altaie — remains missing after he was kidnapped on his way to visit family in Baghdad, according to the Pentagon.

Before enlisting, Bergdahl worked at a coffee shop in Hailey, Zaney's River Street Coffee House, where a sign on the counter encouraged customers to keep Bergdahl in their thoughts and prayers.

"Join all of us at Zaney's holding light for our friend Bowe Bergdahl," it said.

In the video, Bergdahl said he was scared: "Scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner."

He choked up when discussing his family and his hope to marry his girlfriend. "I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America," he said. "And I miss them every day."