Something very telling about the kind of person Bowe Bergdahl is--although he was promoted two times while in captivity, he's still a private first class--the rank he held when he was captured in 2009.
Buried in the NYT's excellent piece about revelations that Bergdahl says he was tortured is the revelation that he doesn't like being addressed as "Sergeant Bergdahl."
Sergeant Bergdahl, who was released last Saturday to American commandos in Afghanistan in exchange for five Taliban detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, remains in a military hospital in Germany without access to news media — and thus is oblivious to the raging criticism from some in Congress about the prisoner swap and even from members of his former platoon who say he deserted them. He has received a letter from his sister but has not yet responded, and objects when hospital staff address him as sergeant instead of private first class, his rank when he was captured nearly five years ago after walking off a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan, the official said.
When staffers call him "sergeant," Bergdahl immediately says, "Don't call me that. I didn't go before the boards. I didn't earn it."
Another official told CNN's Barbara Starr that "in his mind, (Bergdahl) is still a Pfc."
This is the guy that the wingnuts are trying to brand a deserter.