A former soldier was interviewed in Oklahoma as part of research for a Guardian Films profile of Manning. The transcript gives a rare insight into Manning's mental state. The film can be seen here

Reporter: What's the best way to describe you … How long did you spend with Bradley in discharge?

Soldier: Yeah, it was about two to three weeks.

Reporter: And you saw him daily, weekly?

Soldier: It was pretty much 24 hours a day as we were living together in the discharge unit of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Reporter: And when you say living together, how many people were in the discharge unit?

Soldier: The discharge unit [DU] at any given time had about 100+ men. It was basically one big room, it had a group of bunks, bunk-beds and that's where we all lived.

He was being picked on – that was one part of it. Because you know Bradley – everybody said he was crazy or he was faking and the biggest part of it all was when rumours were getting around that he was chapter 15 – you know, homosexual. They'd call him a faggot or call him a chapter 15 – in the military world, being called a chapter 15 is like a civilian being called a faggot to their face on the street

The other part of Bradley's outburst was withdrawing – because there wasn't much of a happy medium. He was either all worked up or totally secluded – he didn't really have very many moments of levity.

The kid was barely 5ft – he was a runt. And by military standards and compared with everyone who was around there – he was a runt. By military standards, "he's a runt so pick on him", or "he's crazy – pick on him", or "he's a faggot – pick on him." The guy took it from every side. He couldn't please anyone. And he tried. He really did. You know what little interaction I had with him personally – it was like he was seeking approval. And he was really good with me but … there were three guys cornering him up front and calling him a chapter 15 – calling him a faggot. There were guys refusing to go in the showers when he was even in the damn latrine. I mean, it was childish and it was hateful and this guy wasn't big enough to just stand up in your face and say: "Knock it off – quit picking on me", and I'll be damned but he tried. You know, there were several times which everyone called "emotional outbursts and tantrums", but what it was was him saying, "Leave me alone."

Reporter: What do you think about the idea that Manning was okay, wasn't unstable? The army breaks people down – wasn't he just as unstable as any other 18-year-old going through that process? Do you agree?

Soldier: No I don't, I don't agree with that at all. He wasn't a soldier – there wasn't anything about him that was a soldier. He has this idea that he was going in and that he was going to be pushing papers and he was gonna be some super smart computer guy and that he was gonna be important, that he was gonna matter to someone and he was gonna matter to something. And he got there and realised that he didn't matter and that none of that was going to happen.

Reporter: Did you get the sense that he was disappointed because it wasn't what he expected it to be?

Soldier: I never once got the feeling that he was disappointed because nobody noticed him. You noticed him. I mean, you could have picked him – within an entire formation of 160 people between the rehab side and the discharge side – in 160 people, you picked Bradley out first. He was the smallest. It wasn't that he wasn't noticed but that he was noticed too much.

Reporter: What's it like to be gay in the DU – in practical terms?

Soldier: For Bradley, it was rough. To say it was rough is an understatement. He was targeted, he was targeted by bullies, by the drill sergeants. Basically, he was targeted by anybody who was within arm's reach of him.

There was a small percentage, I'd say maybe 10-15 guys tops, who didn't care what chapter he was, who just wanted to coexist until they could get out and just get along. But the rest of them – we're talking mentally unfit. Some of them were there for criminal charges. Everyone who was there was getting kicked out. And between being mentally unfit and mentally unstable and being criminal, and then being locked in this room with the guys saying, "Oh, here's this little guy" – it was open season on him. Being gay – being Bradley Manning and being gay in the DU – it was hostile. He was constantly on edge, constantly on guard.

Reporter: Why do you think he wasn't discharged and what was your reaction?

Soldier: I was home for two or three weeks when I got a phone call from one of my friends who was actually still at the DU. He called me from a cell and he was giving me the updates, telling me what was going on and then he said: "Oh, by the way, Bradley is getting recycled."

And I was in shock, I couldn't believe it – there's no way that this guy's getting recycled – it wasn't happening. And he was like, "No, he's going back." And I was like, "How does he feel about it?" and he said, "Oh, he's great – you know, he's happy about it."

I don't know how that happened, I don't know when that happened because he didn't want to be there and they didn't want him there – he was going home. And then all of the sudden, I'm gone and I've gotta start hearing about how he's going back. I was shocked and I was angry – I mean, not angry mad, but angry like frustrated and disappointed. You know, because the system failed, they let him down: he should never have been recycled.

Reporter: Why not? Would he not have a made a good soldier in the end?

Soldier: Bradley was not a soldier. Bradley was never a soldier. Bradley is never going to be a soldier. People who become soldiers are protectors, there's a minddset to it. You know, Bradley wasn't somebody (in my personal opinion and experience) who protects people, he's not somebody who should be protecting people. He is somebody who needs protecting.

He's not a soldier, he's one of those guys that you watch out for and you take care of him. He's not somebody I'd want next to me when I kick in a door. Bradley Manning was not one of those guys who you wanted next to you in a life or death situation. He wasn't then and I don't think he is now. I just keep seeing these pictures on the news and all these pictures on his Facebook, where they show him all smiles or with a slight smirk or he's serious. All I ever keep seeing is this red-faced kid with bloodshot eyes just gritting his teeth and yelling and sweating. All I keep seeing is this scared kid. So it's tough to describe…

They have all these beds and bunks that are all lined up and at the front there's a common area. It's not much of a common area but there's a desk and doors, bathroom, storage room and then the entrance to this place. And there were three guys who had him cornered up front, and they were picking on him and he was yelling and screaming back.

And we got up there – it was me and a couple of other guys who went up there to start breaking it up – and I'm yelling, "Get the hell out of there, back off." And I started pulling Manning off him while the other guys were taking care of the ones who were picking on him. And I got Manning off to the side and, yeah, he pissed himself – you know. That wasn't the only time he did that, but that was the time I remember. It happened a few other times, I know a couple of guys who could tell you the same story, just different circumstances.

There were two occasions. One was when Manning was escorted to hospital for psych evaluation. They have what they call battle buddies. When you are on basic training you cannot go anywhere by yourself: you have to have someone with you at all times. One person. So, if you go anywhere you have to have someone with you.

When a chapter 15 has to go to see the jag [judge advocate general] and have their teeth checked. When anybody goes anywhere in the entire discharge process, they have to have another soldier with them, a battle buddy. Nobody wanted to be Manning's battle buddy. Nobody would escort Manning anywhere.

Why he was there in the first place in the DU, none of us know. They don't tell the privates in the DU who is coming in today and here's why they are coming in. It's just, here's new meat for the grinder for the most part. But the rumours were that Bradley was there because he was crazy. He was mentally unfit. I believe it was called chapter 17.

Reporter: Do you think his commanders should have kicked him out of the army? Should his commanders have spotted he wasn't suitable and gone ahead with the discharge?

Soldier: They should have gotten rid of him. I do not understand the justification or what excuses they had to keep him around. He was a wreck, he was a complete wreck.

Reporter: Every single soldier at the end of basic training is supposed to be a wreck, are they not? Why was Manning different

Soldier: The general concept of basic training is to take the citizen or take the boy, or the man, or the woman – take the person and break them down emotionally and rebuild them in the army's image. I mean that's basic training. There's the mental break. Manning was not your typical mental break. It wasn't a matter of I'm homesick or I'm a baby boy and I miss my Mummy. This was trauma. And the worst part about is that the moment that anybody senses or sees weakness, it is like being in the water for sharks. I mean, they just dive all over it and compound it. You either bounce back from that or you don't.

He was in the DU. That means he was not bouncing back. He was going home. You don't just accidentally end up in a Discharge Unit one day. You have somebody saying, "You know what, he is no good - let's get him out of here. There are a lot of steps to go to before you even hit a DU let alone before you from a DU to a bus or plane home. He wasn't broken in the conventional sense, he was traumatised

Reporter: Why was it so traumatic for Bradley?

Soldier: He was small, he was gay and he was a gay in hiding. You don't get into the military if you are gay. If you are gay and in the military, you lied to the military to get in. The recruiter told you, "Oh, don't say that," or someone coerced you and you ended up hiding that part of yourself. He was already a mess of a child to start with. Then you get him in there and expose him to sleep deprivation. When you are already unstable. When you are already incapable of having that mindset of suck it up and adapt and overcome. A soldier in basic training doesn't know that they are a soldier – they just know they have seen one too many war movies, played one too many war video games or listened to Toby Keith too much.

Here's the reality: basic training is, we build you down then we break you up – or we break you down and we build you up. Manning was not coming back up.

Reporter: You were just explaining to us the fact that you went through an experience that left you in the discharge bay as well, and that you are not mad at the army or the US government but you think there is something seriously wrong with a system that redeploys unfit soldiers. Could you just run that by me again?

Soldier: It's not the redeployment, it is the recycling. There is something wrong with the system. First off, I was in the DU for a month and in that entire month not one person was recycled from the DU. When I got out, I went home and I was getting periodic phone calls from the guys. Bradley was the only one who got recycled. And like I said, for the life of me I still don't understand how and why.

Anybody can figure out that this kid should not have been there. He didn't have the mind or the mindset for it. A lot of hands were involved when it came to the decision of keeping him in. He was actually glad about the fact that he was going back.

Somebody managed to convince him or tell him the right story, or something so that he managed to end up being glad to be getting back in the system. I don't know what happened. I don't know what the trigger was. There are a lot of steps and people you have to talk to and things to sign and go through just to get from the barracks to a DU, let alone from the packet building in the DU to actually going home.

I think I am saying what is wrong with the system. Why was the US army in such a mess that they were recycling the likes of Bradley Manning?

I know for a fact that in 2007 recruiting numbers were the lowest they had ever been. They were lowering recruitment standards like crazy. I mean, facial tattoos, too tall, too short, too fat, criminal record – it didn't matter. They even upped the age limit. You could be 42 years old and still enlist for basic training. It was take everybody you could get. Keep hold of everybody you can get. Bradley Manning should never have cleared any of those hurdles to even get into the military. And then he is in and it is a colossal failure and everyone knows it. And they say, right let's get the ball rolling, file the paperwork and get him to a DU.

Discharge in the US army means fired. AWOL means "I quit" and the military would much rather have a higher number of people discharged than gone AWOL. Because with discharge they can say, "Oh well, they weren't good enough so we got rid of them," and the money keeps flowing in. Bradley should have been discharged, he was in the DU to be discharged. He was going home but they kept him in. Why did they keep him in, who thought that was a rational decision?

It went to the first sergeant and company captain. They signed off on it and the whole packet began. Physical doctors and mental health professionals failed on him. Then you have the cadres, the drill sergeants in the DU: they failed on on him. The first sergeant and the company captain at the DU failed him. The judge advocate group that everyone in discharge had to go through, they failed him. That is a lot of people in a lot of offices and this is for a boy who is pissing his pants and curled up in a foetal position on his bunk and constantly screaming or in terror. There are a lot of people and a lot of steps that got missed. That's what I am talking about with the system, or my frustration with the system and how all this happened.

And yet he was in a DU and the army almost got rid of him. You know, they have no one to blame for everything that's going on except themselves. That's the only reason I'm saying anything. I can't help Bradley out. I tried to help him out then. A few others of us did but I can't do anything to help him. I'm not doing anything to attack the army or the government or the system or anything. I'm just saying a lot of people let him down. He is not the first one they let down and he is not the last one. That shit is going on right now at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. It is going on at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and it is going on everywhere there is a training facility. I appreciate you guys taking the time.

You can't get mad at the bull for wrecking the china shop when you have trapped the bull inside it. Bradley should never have been there. They had the opportunity to get rid of him and they didn't. That was October and November 2007. It is now 2011 and all we are hearing about is Bradley, Wikileaks, and he is the bad guy.

But the reality is that he should have never have been there. There are a lot of steps and a lot of people who let him down. Me and a few others in the DU tried to help him wherever we could. I'm not doing this because I am lashing out or I'm angry with the government or the system or anything else. I'm disappointed about the fact that no one has said anything to this day about how he was in a DU and that the army was going to fire him, they were going to get rid of him.