Bowe Bergdahl was held in six-foot box for TWO YEARS

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Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas on Friday
Military officials treating him say that Bergdahl is in good health overall
He will not make any public appearances while the military are treating him
Revealed he was kept in solitary confinement for two years after 2012
He was in captivity with the Taliban for nearly five years after walking off base in Afghanistan in 2009
Bergdahl was released as part of prisoner exchange for five Guantanamo inmates
Two letters leaked in which Bergdahl alludes to being mistreated by his superior officers
His parents say they are overjoyed their son has returned to the United States
They have not seen him yet and are not traveling to see him
Bergdahl must issue the invitation to his parents himself

Published: 15:07 EST, 13 June 2014 | Updated: 21:53 EST, 13 June 2014

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Taliban POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was kept locked in a metal box in solitary confinement for two straight years, senior defense officials with knowledge of his ongoing treatment said on Friday.

The controversial soldier did not see another human being for that entire time - only talking to his captors through the walls of the six-foot-by-six-foot metal box he was kept in.

Indeed, Bergdahl was only able to stand up and stretch his arms in the box and when he was taken out he was covered in a hood.

Officials with knowledge of his 'reintegration process' told Fox News that Bergdahl's solitary captivity started in 2012 - after a failed escape attempt.

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Press conference: The military commanders overseeing the Phase 3 reintegration of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl have said he is healthy and progressing according to his own pace

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl landed on American soil in the early hours of Friday morning after more than five years in captivity spent with the Taliban. Pictured are people as they are greeted on arrival at Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas, early Friday morning

'His mental and physical state match this description -- and we believe him from what we see,' one official told Fox News.

The deeply controversial POW landed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio at 2.35am local time on Friday and was taken to nearby Brooke Army Medical Center. The Idaho native is expected to be reunited there with his family.

And on Friday afternoon the military commanders charged with managing the reintegration process of Bergdahl gave a jargon-heavy press conference in which they said that the POW was in relatively good health.

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They said Bergdahl was a normal person who went through an abnormal event and said that part of his rehabilitation process was readjusting to normal life.

'The skills he used to survive his 5-year ordeal may not be healthy now,' said General Joseph DeSalvo.

Col. Bradley Poppen, an Army psychologist, said during a news conference Friday that a soldier typically determines when to reunite with his or her family. Poppen declined to release further details, citing the family's request for privacy.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl (believed to be the man in the backpack circled) returned to the United States early Friday after his release from five years in captivity in Afghanistan in a controversial prisoner swap with the Taliban

Maj. Gen. Joseph P. DiSalvo said Bergdahl was in stable condition, 'looked good' and showed 'good comportment' after being transported to Texas from an Army medical facility in Germany.

'The reintegration of Sgt. Bergdahl is comprehensive. There is no set timeline,' said DiSalvo, who will be in charge of that process.

Military officials declined to give details on what Bergdahl might remember about his capture or what he knows about the public uproar surrounding his capture and release.

'We want to gradually titrate that exposure to him,' Col. Bradley Poppen said.

Army officials briefed the media at a golf course near Fort Sam Houston and said no reporters would be allowed onto the base or in the hospital.

Officials have kept a lid on details of Bergdahl's condition out of concern that he not be rushed back into the public spotlight.

No media were allowed to witness the former prisoner's return.

He is not scheduled to make any public appearances ahead of what is being referred to as Phase 3 of his reintegration process.

'Our first priority is making sure that Sgt. Bergdahl continues to get the care and support he needs,' said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby on Thursday.

Officials pleased with Bergdhl's physical state

Long journey: Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl landed in Texas on Friday morning after flying in from Germany

Greeted: Bowe Bergdahl is met on the runway. The controversial soldier is currently in Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio after being flown from Ramstein Air Base in Germany

Sgt. Bergdahl landed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio after 1am local time and was taken to nearby Brooke Army Medical Cente

The spokesman said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel 'is confident that the Army will continue to ensure that Sgt. Bergdahl receives the care, time and space he needs to complete his recovery and reintegration.'

A spokesman for the parents of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said they are overjoyed their son has returned to the United States.

Col. Tim Marsano said in a statement emailed Friday that Bob and Jani Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, don't plan to make any travel plans public and are asking for privacy as they concentrate on their son's reintegration.

They have decline to visit their son just yet and are waiting for his invitation to come and see him.

Bergdahl will now spend time with a special team which has been preparing for his return since the U.S. Army first knew that he had been taken captive. The team trained every six months for a week at a time.

‘It's a very gradual, phased approach in trying to re-acclimate the person back to society, back to freedom,’ Marc Gonsalves told CBS News.

Gonsalves knows what it's like to go through ‘reintegration’ at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC).

He and two other American civilians were brought to BAMC after being held captive for five years by Colombian rebels after their plane crashed while working on a U.S. drug interdiction mission.

‘Coming back from that is not as easy as you would think. Especially when we're held in isolation that long. Especially when you're living under the threat of being killed at the moment.

Bowe Bergdahl back in the US after his release by the Taliban

Bergdahl was taken directly to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio

'So it's not as simple as “hey, I'm free. Now I can go to McDonald's (and) drive cars.” There's a lot more to it than that,’ Gonsalves said.

Phase 3 of Bergdahl’s re-integration plan will include medical care, as well as psychological and legal support. He will also slowly be reunited with his family.

‘The first visit with my family was only about 45 minutes long, but by the time those 45 minutes were over, I was anxious, I was sweating, I had a migraine headache. I was overwhelmed by all these different kinds of emotions,' Gonsalves said.

According to the military, there's no telling how long Phase 3 of Bergdahl's reintegration will last and how long he will be in San Antonio.

Since his prisoner exchange for five Taliban prisoners held in Guantanamo, Bergdahl has been recuperating under supervision in the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.

Indeed, according to NBC News, Bergdahl was in sufficiently 'good enough physical condition' to return to the United States before today, but was 'not ready psychologically or emotionally'.

Before he left: Bowe Bergdahl (left) was a member of Blackfoot Company, 1st Battalion 501st infantry Regiment (Airborne) 25th Infantry Division

According to the military, there's no telling how long Phase 3 of Bergdahl's reintegration will last and how long he will be in San Antonio

Furthermore, he has still not spoken to his family back in Hailey, Idaho, who canceled a homecoming party for the captured soldier after huge question marks about his desertion and wisdom of the exchange raged.

His fellow soldiers have painted a picture of a comrade who walked away from his post in eastern Afghanistan and the Taliban has alleged that it did not kidnap him - rather they found him wandering aimlessly along a road.

The Pentagon has promised that they will be exhaustive in discovering why he was held for the best part of five years by the Taliban and the Obama administration has defended the decision to free him.

Bergdahl was released from Taliban captivity on May 31 and has been at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany since June 1. He was deployed in eastern Afghanistan when he disappeared in June 2009.

His return to the U.S. coincides with a pair of letters he wrote being leaked to The Daily Beast.

Bergdahl writes from a Taliban 'prison', urging his family and the government to postpone judgement regarding the circumstances of his desertion.

'He's not a hero': former Bergdahl comrades speak out

Exchange: Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, stands with a Taliban fighter in eastern Afghanistan as he prepares to be freed in a swap in which the U.S. swapped five Taliban detainees, a diplomatic victory for the insurgent group

First leg of the journey home: Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, in white, heads towards a helicopter in eastern Afghanistan as he prepares to leave Afghanistan

He then goes onto explain, in small amounts of detail why he walked away from his base in 2009.

'Leadership was lacking, if not non-existent. The conditions were bad and looked to be getting worse for the men that where actuly (sic) the ones risking thier (sic) lives from attack,' he writes in a letter dated March 23, 2013.

It is one of two letters sent by Bergdahl to his parents and obtained by The Daily Beast.

'If this letter makes it to the U.S.A., tell those involved in the investigation that there are more sides to the cittuwation (sic),' he adds. 'Please tell D.C. to wait for all evadince (sic) to come in.'

The Daily Beast said they obtained the letters from sources in contact with the Taliban. They have been confirmed to be the same letters delivered by the International Red Cross to Bergdahl's family.

They are the first personal response from Bergdahl himself on the circumstances surrounding his captivity. The Pentagon has declined to comment on the letters or why the soldier left his base.

Taliban Dream Team: Abdul Waq-Hasiq, top left and suspected war criminal Mohammad Fazi, top right, Khirullah Khairkhwa, bottom left, and Mohammed Nabi, center, and Norullah Nori, bottom right, were released under the deal brokered with the Taliban and the Qataris

It said that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has 'already made clear that the Army is going to review the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and captivity,' adding that 'we need to reserve judgment until that process is complete.'

While the handwriting in the letters, one from 2013 and one from 2012 is different, officials who have seen the letters have deemed them to be from the pen of Sgt. Bergdahl.

The first letter is dated, November 27 and is addressed in care of 'Geneve Red Cross' and claims the sender is 'POW Bowe Bergdahl, US Army Afghanistan War Prison.

The letter is addressed to 'Father Robert Bergdahl, USA'.

'To my friends & family, in regards to the circomestance (sic) here, I am as well as can be here,' he writes. 'I am given food and drink.'

Bergdahl mentions recent rain in Afghanistan and muses about spring back home in Idaho.

Day of joy: President Barack Obama looks to Jani Bergdahl and Bob Bergdahl, the parents of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Saturday, May 31, 2014, as Bob Bergdahl speaks about the release of their son

Too soon: A sign celebrating the release from captivity of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl stands on a street in the soldier's hometown of Hailey, Idaho, Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - a celebration in the town in his honor was canceled soon after

Some of the letter is redacted and he continues, 'I pray everyone is well. I think about you all every day. And all the things that happened in my life. I miss you all, but as papa says, God’s will be done. All things happen for a reason.'

He then discusses religion and philosophy, saying, 'All things happen for a reason. Mathematics is full evidence of this. Just because we cannot understand the master equation does not mean it is not there,' he writes.

'Math is God’s code for this Universe and beyond. I miss you all.'

According to sources familiar with the POW's captivity, Bergdahl was held in a cage for weeks at a time by the Taliban, with a hood over his head after two escape attempts in 2011 and 2012.

Bergdahl ends the 2012 letter. 'I pray that you are all safe.' He then adds a drawing of an animal paw—something officials say his family pointed to as a code sign it was him.

In the 2013 letter, Bergdahl acknowledges he knows he is suspected of being a deserter and tries to explain.

Minority: Supporters of freed prisoner of war US Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl rally in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 10

'The cercomstance from the begaining of my time in Afghanistan from immedet top to bottom (sic for all errors), where bad for troopers espeshly in my PLT. (Platoon.)

'Orders showed a high disconcer for safty of troopers in the field, and lacking clear minded, logical and commonsense thinking and understanding from the topsides,' he writes.

'The cercomstance showed signs of going from bad into a nightmare for the men in the field. Unexeptable conditions for the men working and risking life every moment outside the wire,' Bergdahl adds.

'There are some risks that are forced to be taken, however it was made clear more than once that clear minded understanding from leadership was lacking, if not non-existent.

'The conditions were bad and looked to be getting worse for the men that where actuly the ones risking thier lives from attack as well as Afghan ellements.'

Debate: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel listens to a question as he testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 11, 2014. The committee is investigating the deal that secured the end of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's five-year captivity

Many have criticized the Obama administration for agreeing to release five Taliban prisoners from detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for Bergdahl.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/13/bergdahl-held-in-solitary-confinement-for-2-years-officials-say/?cmpid=cmty_twitter_fn

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Steve, St Cloud, United States, 8 hours ago

.i forgot in the USA it's guilty until proven innocent , Shame on you all , shame on you,

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Steve, St Cloud, United States, 8 hours ago

The American people are hypocrites and haters , They have insulted this soldier and his family in every way possible I for one wish him we'll , and will offer him the respect he deserves until the day someone proves he has done something wrong !

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Rip_frannie, Pittsburgh, United States, 9 hours ago

Allegedly

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Marshall Folsh, Los Gatos, United States, 9 hours ago

If I was him I wouldn't want to reunite with his wacko Dad either.

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spectrum19, Minneapolis, United States, 9 hours ago

And people whine about Guantanamo, it's a resort!

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Heisenberg, DC, United States, 9 hours ago

Give him a break, he was in hell that would make our prisons look like a holiday - for 5 years. Why aren't we willing to forgive one error when he's paid dearly. If his fellow soldiers felt he was a traitor, why did they hunt for him? Because he was a US soldier and even if he screwed up big time, we don't leave them behind. We are better than that.

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Wise Pellican, Elon, USA, 9 hours ago

Is anyone at all glad he is home? - Cenzored Comments, Dallas, United States, 6/14/14 1:33 Not me.

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Breezie Pond, Auburn WASH, United States, 9 hours ago

What a crock.

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Carmella716, Orlando, United States, 10 hours ago

I still can't figure out why he enlisted. I feel bad for him, which surprises me, but it sounds like he was someone who was looking for a place to fit in and made a bad decision.