Local group honors Idaho POW

SANDPOINT — Monday marked a sober reflection on the reality that there is still an American solider held overseas and far away from home.

Bonner County and Sandpoint officials teamed up with members of Sandpoint Patriots to honor Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an Idaho native and the last remaining American prisoner of war.

In an event that was organized by Christian Schwab and Pam Stout, members of Sandpoint Patriots, city and county officials dedicated a newly-planted tree to Bergdahl and tied a yellow ribbon onto it.

“When we found out we had a POW from Idaho, I just knew we had to do something,” Stout said.

Born in Sun Valley, Bergdahl joined the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan, where he went missing June 30, 2009. The Taliban later released a video displaying the captured Bergdahl. Sunday marked the fourth year of his captivity overseas. According to Stout, planners of the tree dedication ceremony wanted to hit as close to the anniversary of his capture as possible.

Schwab handled much of the work in organizing the event. For one thing, he collaborated with city to arrange the dedication.

“It was great working with the city on this,” he said. “In fact, I’d say this is the one project we’ve worked on together where we’ve totally seen eye to eye on everything.”

 Schwab also contacted the family to receive their approval. Although Bergdahl’s parents are in Washington, D.C., and couldn’t attend the ceremony, they were grateful for the thought and gave their blessing.

“I basically got one text back from them, and they said ‘Great job!’” Schwab said.

When event organizers inquired about the possibility of planting a tree somewhere in the city, they learned that a candidate just right for the job was ready to go outside City Hall. City officials agreed to offer up the tree for dedication, and Councilwoman Carrie Logan spoke a few words at the dedication ceremony as a show of support. Sandpoint Patriots member John Mackey sang the national anthem as well.

Four years into Bergdahl’s captivity, it is still unclear whether or not the federal government will do anything to secure Bergdahl’s release. The Taliban most recently offered to trade him for five detainees in Guantanamo Bay military prison. However, nothing has been authorized as of yet.

“We just need to get the word out and ask for prayers,” Stout said. “We also need to give calls to our representatives in Congress and tell them to do something about this.”

While Schwab said honoring a captured serviceman was definitely the right thing to do, it still wasn’t enough.

“I think we’ve got to do more about this,” he said.