Parents of former POW Bergdahl strained by his silence

O’Neill, whose friendship with Bergdahl’s mother was forged by a rally she helped organize last year in the family’s Idaho hometown, said Jani Bergdahl has sought to put on a brave front.

“She puts on a smile but you can tell she’s suffering in all this,” O’Neill said, without offering an explanation for why Bergdahl had not spoken to his parents. “She doesn’t understand – how could any mother understand? – why her child literally won’t take her phone calls.”

Bergdahl, 28, was freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Critics said the Obama administration paid too high a price and questioned if Bergdahl deserted his combat outpost before being captured.