Sometime after midnight on June 30, 2009, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl walked away from a remote Army outpost in eastern Afghanistan. Within a day, he was captured by the Taliban and held prisoner for five years, setting off a furious search and high-level diplomatic negotiations, and ending with his exit on May 31, 2014, aboard a helicopter flown by American commandos.

On Dec. 14, Gen. Robert B. Abrams, head of Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., ordered that Sergeant Bergdahl — he was promoted while in captivity — face a court-martial on charges of desertion and endangering troops. As a result, Sergeant Bergdahl, 29, faces a possible life sentence, a far more serious penalty than had been recommended by the Army’s own investigating officer.