Gordon Belray
The Return of the Prodigal Son - Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
2016
167" x 55"
Archival print
At 7pm AFT1 on May 31, 2014, Bowe Bergdahl, a United States Army sergent held captive since June 2009, was handed over by 18 Taliban members to a special Delta Force operations team in eastern Afghanistan, near Khost on the Pakistani border. The circumstances under which Bergdahl went missing and how he was captured by the Taliban have since become subjects of intense media scrutiny.
Created from over 150 manipulated stills from a released Taliban video documenting the event, the image depicts the release in four stages from right to left: Bergdahl’s arrival in a Taliban Toyota pickup truck, his escorted walk, the exchange between Taliban prinicpals and U.S. Delta operators, and the final boarding and departure of the special operations Blackhawk helicopter. The scene shows the sequence of landing and take-off, secondary Blackhawk and two reconaissance aircraft and armed Taliban in the surrounding hills.
1Afghanistan Time
The exchange, Special Forces pat Bergdahl down and lead him to the awaiting helicopter.
Bergdahl is led, sometimes by the hand, carrying a plastic bag of possessions (discarded before entering the chopper), to meet the Special Forces unit.
Taliban fighters, some 18 in total, in strategic positions on hilltops with RPG weapons.
Bergdahl sits squinting in the back of a Toyota Hilux pickup truck with raised hood, surrounded by Taliban fighters armed with AK-47s and RPGs awaiting the U.S. Delta Force helicopter.
More armed Taliban fighters in the hills.
A young Taliban man holds the white flag as pre-arranged signal.
