SAN ANTONIO — Prosecutors in the hearing to recommend whether Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl should be court-martialed for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy said Friday that he should be held accountable for what he did, despite his suffering during five years of captivity in Pakistan.

"The military is a profession of arms... obedience matters," said Maj. Margaret Kurz, who claimed Bergdahl changed the mission of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "The tail cannot wag the dog."

But Bergdahl's lawyer, Eugene Fidell, said that the Army had overreached in both charges. Bergdahl could reasonably be charged with being absent without leave for a single day, he said. A conviction on that charge would carry a far lighter punishment.

The misbehavior before the enemy charge, which he said is nearly as obscure in military law as "the provision about dueling" and carries a potential life sentence, should never have been brought. "I think it's a grave abuse... to ratchet up my client’s exposure," he said.

These closing statements were the finale in a two-day hearing in a basement conference room at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio that brought to light the grueling, extensive search for Bergdahl conducted by thousands of troops after he disappeared from his austere post in Paktika province in June 2009 and was captured by the Taliban only hours later.

It also challenged common misperceptions about Bergdahl, what his plans were when he left the post, how he behaved and was treated in captivity and the consequences of his actions.

No one died looking for him, two officers testified. He was not planning to join with the Taliban or walk to India, according to testimony. He was trying to expose what he saw as command misconduct that put troops at risk.

Bergdahl was portrayed by Army officers and sergeants as an exceptionally proficient soldier but also a loner and a young man with unrealistic ideals that lead repeatedly to disappointment, and ultimately, to the charges against him.

Bergdahl for five years suffered "torture, abuse, neglect" and the worst conditions of any American held in captivity since those held in the jungle camps of Vietnam, a head Defense Department debriefer testified Friday, yet Bergdahl resisted, survived and served his country honorably.

"Nobody knows Bowe Bergdahl's story," said Terrence Russell, senior program manager for the Joint Personnel Recovery Center's Defense Department office at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Wash., who interviewed Bergdahl with a team of three others for weeks about his years in captivity. "They don't know what the facts are."

Reports that Bergdahl was a traitor or a coward were "crazy" and "outrageous," Russell said.

The former Air Force survival instructor, who has done 125 debriefings with former hostages and POWs from the Gulf War on, choked up twice during his testimony Friday as he described Bergdahl's ordeal and his courage and will "all alone against the enemy."

Captured about 12 hours after leaving his combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009, Bergdahl told Russell he was beaten with hoses and cables, chained spread-eagled to a bed, starved, humiliated and finally kept in a metal cage before his release last year in a controversial prisoner swap.

Bergdahl provided no intelligence or help to his captors, Russell testified, contrary to Haqqani militant group propaganda about how the soldier was playing games with Afghan children and teaching fighters infantry techniques and tactics.

In fact, he said he was never asked about such things.

"The Haqqani held the U.S. soldier in absolute contempt," Russell said. "There was nothing they could learn from the U.S. soldier because they had no respect for them."

Russell said that he and the other debriefers, including an FBI agent, found Bergdahl to be truthful and helpful. "Everybody remarked on the quality of the information he was providing," he said. He was always trying to escape, Russell said, and managed it briefly twice, once eating grass to survive.

"You do your best; that's all you can do. I think Sgt. Bergdahl did that, and I respect him for it," Russell said.

The major general charged with an exhaustive investigation into Bergdahl’s disappearance also testified Friday, saying that the soldier left his post believing that his absence would force authorities at nearby FOB Sharana to listen to his concern that his command was incompetent and was putting his unit in danger.

With that as his motive, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl said that sending Bergdahl to jail, if he were court-martialed on desertion and misbehavior charges and convicted, would be wrong.

"I think it would be inappropriate," he testified.

When Bergdahl arrived at the larger base, Dahl said, he planned to say, "I’m the guy you’re looking for, but I’m not saying anything until I talk to the general."

"He knew the bells and whistles would go off," Dahl said. "He wanted to create this PR event."

Dahl said he interviewed Bergdahl for a day and a half after his release from five years in captivity. He said he found him to be earnest, sincere and truthful -- and said the soldier believed his perceptions of command misconduct were true. "And I also believe he was wrong," Dahl said, under questioning from Fidell. "That’s the sad irony."

Dahl said the sergeant, who was home-schooled "on the edge of the grid," was an unrealistic idealist. He believed — like Samurai warriors and Ayn Rand protagonist John Galt — that if he perceived a moral wrong, he had to take action, without worrying about repercussions to himself or the outcome. He also had an unrealistic view of his own abilities, Dahl said.

Bergdahl was often disillusioned with people, Dahl said, most of whom failed to measure up to the soldier’s fantastic ideals. In basic training, Bergdahl found everyone wanting except for the drill sergeant, Dahl said. At his first posting at Fort Richardson, Alaska, he was disgusted that soldiers were instructed to lock their wall lockers, wondering why anyone would have to worry that men going to war together would steal from one another.

Bergdahl said his time at the National Training Center before deployment was "lame," Dahl said. "He was expecting more along the lines of our special operations units. I asked him, ‘Wasn’t there anyone who measured up?’ He said no."

Dahl also testified that, based on his investigation, "There were no soldiers killed in searching for Sgt. Bergdahl."

Dahl reiterated assessments of Bergdahl as a superior soldier, always squared away, the unit’s best saw gunner who often volunteered for extra duty and who wanted to take the fight to the Taliban, not drink tea with the locals.

Bergdahl’s squad leader in Paktika province, former Sgt. Greg Leatherman, shared that view. But in earlier testimony, Leatherman noted Bergdahl’s difficulty in assimilating with other soldiers. He said he was concerned enough to bring it up with the company’s top sergeant when the two shared a vehicle on one patrol. When he mentioned it, he was rebuked for speaking up.

"I suggested that Sgt. Bergdahl should chat with someone," Leatherman testified, like a chaplain or the company commander.

Defense lawyer Lt. Col. Franklin Rosenblatt asked what the response was from the first sergeant, who in the Army is supposed to be the caretaker of the enlisted soldiers.

"He said, ‘(Expletive) off,’ " Leatherman said. " ‘No one wants to hear what a (expletive) E-5 has to say about my company.’ The first sergeant said he didn’t want someone to tell him what was wrong with his company."

After five years in captivity in Pakistan, Bergdahl, 29, suffers from nerve damage in both legs, back pain and reduced mobility in his left shoulder, according to his medical care manager, who also testified Friday.

"During captivity, he was held in a crouched position," said Curtis Aberle, a nurse practitioner at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and the hospital’s expert on injuries and their impact on duty status.

Bergdahl, Aberle said, can’t do a push-up or walk two miles without his legs swelling, and he has post-traumatic stress disorder. Aberle recommended that Bergdahl be medically retired from the Army and receive Veterans Affairs benefits for significant permanent disability.

The probable cause hearing will result in a report that will be used to decide whether the case is strong enough to proceed to court-martial or should be resolved in another manner.

montgomery.nancy@stripes.com