Members of Company A, 1-168 General Support Aviation Batallion of the Idaho National Guard were scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan this past weekend, beginning a nearly 10-month deployment to support Operation Enduring Freedom. Approximately 60 soldiers, all from the Treasure Valley, spent the past six weeks in Fort Hood, Texas, training for the mobilization, prior to their deployment.

The soldiers will be operating UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. While in Texas, the batallion simulated ground combat techniques and medical emergency treatment. The unit was previously deployed to southwest Asia in 2000 and to Kuwait and Iraq in 2007.

Top brass at the Pentagon spoke publicly this morning about recent comments from the Hailey family of POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, believed to be held by the Taliban.

Bergdahl's father, Bob, gave extensive interviews to The New York Times and Time Magazine in the past week, saying he was in "regular email contact" with a man he believes was a member of the Taliban.

"Why wouldn’t a father do this? This is my job," Robert Bergdahl told the Times, saying he believed that the Taliban would not harm his son.

The Bergdahl family broke its traditional silence last week, claiming that negotiations to release their son had stalled. The father said he went public to "push the Obama administration to revive talks."

This morning, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon was doing everything possible to secure Bergdahl's release.

"We certainly understand the concerns of the family, and we share the concerns about Bergdahl and the importance of getting him returned,” Panetta said. “And we're doing everything possible to try to see if we can make that happen.”

Dempsey echoed Panetta's sentiments.

“If you go to the [U.S. Central Command] command center conference room, there's [a] four-by-six-foot poster of Bowe Bergdahl sitting in front of the podium to remind them, and therefore us, every day that he remains missing in action,” said Dempsey.

The Idaho family of POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is continuing to grant national media interviews—Monday to The New York Times and today to Time Magazine.

This morning, Time reported that Bergdahl's father, Bob, backed away from any criticism of the U.S. government's efforts to negotiate for his son's release from his Taliban captors.

"We do not want the American people to think we are dissatisfied with the way our government has proceeded," Bob Bergdahl told Time. "This isn't just about our son. This is about national policy."

He explained to Time that negotiations for his son's release were "extremely complex."

"It involves different parties—state actors and nonstate actors," said Bergdahl. "This is going to be difficult to reconcile, which is why we believe diplomacy for the hostages—and Bowe's not the only one, there are other hostages—are the window of opportunity here."

The New York Times reports that Robert Bergdahl "reached out to [Taliban] insurgents" and is now "in regular email contact" with a man he believes is a member of the Taliban concerning the 2009 capture of his son, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, in eastern Afghanistan.

"Why wouldn’t a father do this? This is my job," Robert Bergdahl told the Times, saying he believed that the Taliban would not harm his son.

The Bergdahl family broke its traditional silence last week, claiming that negotiations to release their son had stalled. The father said he went public to "push the Obama administration to revive talks."

Bergdahl told the Times that he remained optimistic that his son's ordeal would end well.

"That's how much confidence we have in Bowe," said Bergdahl. "He's like a cat who always lands on his feet."

A new report reveals increased drug use among U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. The statistics reveal that eight American soldiers died of drug overdoses while the Pentagon is investigating 56 other soldiers on suspicion of using or distributing heroin, morphine or other opiates during deployments to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011.

Additionally, CNN reported that heroin use is on the rise in the Army, with the number of soldiers testing positive for heroin growing from 10 instances in 2002 to 116 in 2010. An investigation found that American soldiers purchased heroin from Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police personnel. Soldiers also bought from Afghan juveniles.

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime reports that Afghanistan is still the greatest producer of illicit opium in the entire world, ahead of Myanmar.

The Pentagon has identified an Idaho man as a victim in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Chris Workman, a 33-year-old native of Rupert and recent resident of Boise, was killed Thursday with three other soldiers when their Black Hawk helicopter, responding to a call to evacuate Afghan police officers, went down in the Gamsir District of Helmand Province. The New York Times reports that four Afghan police officers were killed and seven others wounded in a suicide attack at a police checkpoint, and that the American helicopter was flying to the scene to take the wounded to a nearby hospital.

The exact cause of the crash has not been released, but military officials speculated that weather conditions may have been responsible.

According to the Times, Garmsir had been a troubled district with a heavy Taliban presence that was greatly reduced by the surge. The main town, also called Garmsir, has become safer, but insurgents have never been completely driven from the district’s rural areas.

A year ago, the United States was coping the publication of photos of grisly war crimes depicting American soldiers with body parts of Afghan civilians. One of the soldiers was Pfc. Andrew Holmes of Boise. Holmes was ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison for killing an unarmed 15-year-old Afghan boy in January 2010. Holmes was one of six soldiers accused of being part of a so-called "killed team," slaying Afghan civilians while deployed in Kandahar Province.

This morning, the Los Angeles Times published new photos of other U.S. troops in Afghanistan posing with the bodies of dead Afghan suicide bombers. The photos, taken in 2010, show soldiers posing with dismembered body parts of insurgent corpses.

• Los Angeles Times
• A soldier from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division with the body of an Afghan insurgent killed while trying to plant a roadside bomb. The photo is one of 18 provided to the Times of U.S. soldiers posing with corpses.

U.S. officials strongly condemned the photos and the Pentagon confirmed that it has launched a criminal investigation into the matter.

UPDATE 7:00 p.m.

The United State Air Force identified the victim of an F-15E Strike Eagle air crash as 31-year-old Capt. Francis D. Imlay. Imlay was known to family and friends as Dee.

Officials would not identify to the location of the crash for security reasons, other than to say that the crash occured about 15 miles from a base being suported by the 366th Fighter Wing of Mountain Home.
ORIGINAL POST 9:00 a.m.

The Pentagon is investigating the cause of an air crash in Southwest Asia that claimed the life of a crewmember from Mountain Home Air Force Base. The Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle crashed early Wednesday morning, approximately 15 miles outside of a base. In addition to the fatality, a second crewmember was evacuated to a military medical facility for treatment of minor injuries. The Department of Defense has yet to identify either crew member.

More than 300 Mountain Home AFB airmen are currently deployed in Southwest Asia, delivering combat air power to joint operations.

The war in Afghanistan has claimed another Idaho life.

U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel Brown of Jerome was killed March 24, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Brown served with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Carson, Colo.

The 27-year-old Brown is survived by his wife and 3-month-old twin daughters.

More than 300 Mountain Home Airmen are being deployed to Southwest Asia facing "potential combat operations."

Though the official announcement didn't specifically reference an exact destination, a spokesman for the 366th Fighter Wing said the airmen would conduct "a wide range of tasks to ensure the success of providing critical combat power."

Meanwhile the 366th is playing host for the next 10 days to members of the German Air Force as well as the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, all participating in Mountain roundup, a multinational exercise at Mountain Home Air Force Base.