Story highlights Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is en route and expected to arrive in Texas 
 
 The Daily Beast publishes letters from the soldier 
 
 Bergdahl has been recovering at a military hospital in Germany 
 
 He was released last month after five years in Taliban captivity 
 
 Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is on a flight from Europe and is scheduled to arrive in San Antonio, Texas, within hours. 
 
 Bergdahl had been in a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, since he was released in Afghanistan after five years of Taliban captivity. 
 
 He is expected to be taken to a military hospital in the Texas city for continued rehabilitation. 
 
 "I can confirm that he is now en route to the United States aboard a U.S. military aircraft, having departed Ramstein Air Base earlier this afternoon," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement Thursday. "He will arrive in San Antonio early tomorrow morning, where he will continue the reintegration process at Brooke Army Medical Center." 
 
 "Our first priority is making sure that Sgt. Bergdahl continues to get the care and support he needs." 
 
 Previously, three U.S. officials had told CNN that the soldier would arrive in Texas at midnight local time (1 a.m. ET). 
 
 Bergdahl was exchanged on May 31 for five Taliban figures detained at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 
 
 The swap sparked a controversy that touches on a range of volatile issues -- ending the Afghanistan war, releasing Guantanamo detainees, accusations by members of Bergdahl's unit that he deserted -- and it comes in an election year that has further widened the partisan divide in Washington. 
 
 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has defended the deal, saying it was Bergdahl's last and best chance to get out. Critics have said the cost of the swap was too high, and that Congress should have been notified in advance. 
 
 Slow recovery 
 
 Bergdahl is "continuing to improve every day," Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said this week. The solider had not spoken with his family. 
 
 The "decision to speak with the family is a decision the returnee has to make when he or she is emotionally in the right place to make the phone call," Warren said. 
 
 Bergdahl went missing on June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan's Paktika province, where he was deployed with the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. 
 
 An Army fact-finding investigation conducted in the months after his disappearance concluded he left his outpost deliberately and of his own free will, according to an official who was briefed on the report. 
 
 The Army has no definitive finding that Bergdahl deserted because that would require knowing his intent -- something officials couldn't learn without talking to the soldier, a U.S. military official told CNN. 
 
 As Bergdahl recovers, details are slowly emerging about the conditions he endured during five years of captivity. 
 
 Citing an American official, The New York Times has reported that Bergdahl told medical staff that the box he was kept in for weeks at a time was pitch black and like a shark cage. 
 
 CNN has reported that Bergdahl has said he was kept in a small box after trying to escape, according to a senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of not being identified. The official also told CNN that Bergdahl suffers from psychological trauma caused by physical abuse. 
 
 In his own words 
 
 The exact conditions of his captivity are not known, and Bergdahl has not spoken publicly since his release. 
 
 But on Thursday, The Daily Beast published two letters the solider reportedly wrote to his family while imprisoned by the Taliban. The website obtained the letters by "sources in contact with the Taliban." It confirmed their authenticity with U.S. and Western officials. 
 
 In the letters -- dated 2012 and 2013 -- Bergdahl discusses his life and partially explains why he disappeared in 2009. 
 
 "To my friends & family, in regards to the circomestance (sic) here, I am as well as can be here," he wrote. "I am given food and drink." 
 
 Bergdahl had harsh words for Army leadership. 
 
 "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 wrote. 
 
 "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)," Bergdahl said. "Please tell D.C. to wait for all evadince (sic) to come in." 
 
 Hagel on Bergdahl deal 
 
 Hagel appeared Wednesday at a House Armed Services Committee hearing to defend the swap, where Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, appeared to strike a nerve when he pressed the defense chief on why it was taking the U.S. military so long to interview Bergdahl. 
 
 Hagel already had fielded lawmakers' accusations that the White House overstepped presidential authority and negotiated with terrorists to gain Bergdahl's freedom. 
 
 Hagel started to explain that doctors treating Bergdahl will decide when he is ready to talk, but Miller cut him off. 
 
 "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Why hasn't he been returned to the United States?" Miller asked, noting that wounded soldiers from battle zones get flown back for treatment within days. "You're trying to tell me that he's being held at Landstuhl, Germany, because of his medical condition?" 
 
 Hagel responded, "Congressman, I hope you're not implying anything other than that," as the two continued to talk over each other. 
 
 "I don't like the implication of the question," Hagel said at one point, and when Miller persisted about injured combat troops coming back to the United States quickly, Hagel raised his voice. 
 
 "This isn't just about a physical situation," he said. "This guy was held for almost five years in God knows what kind of conditions. ... This is not just about can he get on his feet and walk and get to a plane." ||||| Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 WASHINGTON — Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has told medical officials that his captors locked him in a metal cage in total darkness for weeks at a time as punishment for trying to escape, and while military doctors say he now is physically able to travel he is not yet emotionally ready for the pressures of reuniting with his family, according to American officials who have been briefed on his condition. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 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. 
 
 While medical officials are pressing him for details about his time in captivity to help begin repairing his medical and psychological wounds, these specialists have not yet focused on the critical questions about why he left his outpost and how he was captured by insurgents, the officials said — and there is no predetermined schedule for doing so. 
 
 “Physically, he could be put on a plane to the U.S. tomorrow, but there are still a couple of mental criteria to address: the family unification piece and the media exposure piece,” said one American official who has been briefed on the sergeant’s condition. 
 
 From the initial briefings given to senior military and civilian officials in the past week, Sergeant Bergdahl, 28, in some ways seems healthier than expected. He suffers from skin and gum disorders typical of poor hygiene and exposure, but otherwise is physically sound, one official said. He weighs about 160 pounds on a 5-foot-9 frame, and is sleeping about seven hours a night. 
 
 He shows few if any signs of the malnourishment and other ailments that Obama administration officials said he was suffering when they saw a video of him that the Taliban made in December and released a month later — a video so alarming, American officials have said, it made his release an urgent priority. As talks for Sergeant Bergdahl’s release proceeded after that, his captors may have fed him better, allowed him greater movement and even brought him medical care in preparation for his departure, American officials said. 
 
 But Sergeant Bergdahl’s relatively stable health may be cited by those who object to the prisoner swap and have said his condition should not have been grounds for the administration to move rapidly ahead with releasing the Guantánamo detainees without informing Congress. 
 
 Last week, he took a short walk just outside his private room at Landstuhl, an American official said. By midweek, he put on his Army uniform for the first time in five years, and was taking longer strolls through the hospital corridors, still conversing only with the team of specialists assigned to help him. The preliminary reports emerging from his doctors and other specialists in Germany offer the most detailed account so far of Sergeant Bergdahl’s physical and mental condition after a week in recovery from an ordeal whose ending has ignited angry reactions from soldiers in his former unit, members of Congress who accuse President Obama of failing to inform them of the secret talks to free the soldier, and other critics who say liberating the Taliban detainees amounts to bargaining with terrorists. 
 
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 Two American officials, including one senior Defense Department official, who have been briefed on the reports spoke Saturday on the condition of anonymity because of restrictions on the public release of information about Sergeant Bergdahl’s health and an impending investigation into any possible misconduct surrounding the circumstance of his leaving the outpost. 
 
 A statement from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany on Friday said Sergeant Bergdahl was showing “signs of improvement,” was talking with the medical staff, and was “becoming more engaged in his treatment-care plan.” But the statement gave no hint when Sergeant Bergdahl would leave for the next destination in a multistep process: an evaluation at an Army medical center in Texas and a reunion with his family. 
 
 Late Saturday, the F.B.I. said the Bergdahl family in Idaho had received threats. Federal agents, working with state and local law enforcement authorities, were “taking each threat seriously,” an F.B.I. statement said. Officials declined to give other details. 
 
 This week, the doctors have been treating Sergeant Bergdahl for possible abuse at the hands of his captors, first the Taliban and later the Haqqani network, a Taliban-aligned militant group that held him at one or more locations in the mountainous tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan, American intelligence officials have said. 
 
 “He’s said that they kept him in a shark cage in total darkness for weeks, possibly months,” said one American official. CNN reported Friday that Sergeant Bergdahl said he was held in a metal box or cage, but the officials on Saturday offered new details. He was kept there apparently as punishment for one or possibly two attempted escapes, as first reported by the Daily Beast website last week and confirmed by an American official. 
 
 “It’s safe to assume” that Sergeant Bergdahl was “held in harsh conditions,” a senior Defense Department official said Saturday. “These are Taliban, not wet nurses.” Details of other mistreatment were not released. 
 
 Continue reading the main story Where Bergdahl Disappeared Sometime after midnight on June 30, 2009, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl disappeared from Outpost Mest Malak in Paktika Province in eastern Afghanistan. Why and how he disappeared and was captured by the Taliban are the subject of speculation and criticism. A former member of his battalion has accused him of desertion. Layout of the Outpost The outpost had a barbed wire perimeter surrounding lean-tos for living quarters, a few Hesco fortification barriers and about five armored transport vehicles used as guard stations, according to members of Bergdahl’s battalion.Full graphic » Dry riverbed Malak On a typical rotation, five soldiers would keep guard in the armored vehicles and one in a post up the hill. Observation post Tower Barriers Outpost Mest Malak 20 miles to Sharana Traffic checkpoint Barbed wire Armored vehicles used as guard stations Mest Accounts by former members of his unit describe an area of about 150 yards by 100 yards along a dry riverbed, with one side relatively open to a small hill where an Afghan National Police unit was. Dry riverbed Malak Observation post Tower Barriers Outpost Mest Malak 20 miles to Sharana Traffic checkpoint Barbed wire Armored vehicles used as guard stations Mest Accounts by former members of his unit describe an area of about 150 yards by 100 yards along a dry riverbed, with one side relatively open to a small hill. Malak Dry riverbed Observation post Tower 20 miles to Sharana Barriers Barbed wire Outpost Checkpoint Armored vehicle guard stations Mest View Graphic » Layout of the Outpost The outpost had a barbed wire perimeter surrounding lean-tos for living quarters, a few Hesco fortification barriers and about five armored transport vehicles used as guard stations, according to members of Bergdahl’s battalion. Dry riverbed Malak On a typical rotation, five soldiers would keep guard in the armored vehicles and one in a post up the hill. Observation post Tower Barriers Outpost Mest Malak 20 miles to Sharana Traffic checkpoint Barbed wire Armored vehicles used as guard stations Mest Accounts by former members of his unit describe an area of about 150 yards by 100 yards along a dry riverbed, with one side relatively open to a small hill where an Afghan National Police unit was. Dry riverbed Malak Observation post Tower Barriers Outpost Mest Malak 20 miles to Sharana Traffic checkpoint Barbed wire Armored vehicles used as guard stations Mest Accounts by former members of his unit describe an area of about 150 yards by 100 yards along a dry riverbed, with one side relatively open to a small hill. Malak Dry riverbed Observation post Tower 20 miles to Sharana Barriers Barbed wire Outpost Checkpoint Armored vehicle guard stations Mest Around the Outpost The outpost was a temporary camp erected in 2009 by Bergdahl’s platoon which was based at the provincial capital, Sharana, about 20 miles northeast. They were usually sent to the outpost for five to six days at a time. Ridge elevation about 500 feet above Mest Immediate Search The platoon set out along this path to search for Bergdahl. 20 miles to Sharana Outpost Mest Malak Dry riverbed Khazan Regular Patrols Foot patrols into Mest would usually go no farther than this point, about one third of a mile from the outpost. Malak Shamali Zanki Mest Reported Sighting An Afghan boy said he saw a man crawling through the grass in this area on the morning Bergdahl disappeared. Immediate Search The platoon set out along this path to search for Bergdahl. Outpost Mest Malak Khazan Malak Mest Reported Sighting An Afghan boy said he saw a man crawling through the grass in this area on the morning Bergdahl disappeared. Regular Patrols Foot patrols into Mest would usually go no farther than this point, about one third of a mile from the outpost. Ridge elevation about 500 feet above Mest Immediate Search The platoon set out along this path to search for Bergdahl. Outpost Mest Malak 20 miles to Sharana Khazan Dry riverbed Malak Regular Patrols Foot patrols into Mest would usually go no farther than this point, about one third of a mile from the outpost. Shamali Zanki Mest Reported Sighting An Afghan boy said he saw a man crawling through the grass in this area on the morning Bergdahl disappeared. Immediate Search The platoon set out along this path to search for Bergdahl. Outpost Mest Malak Khazan Malak Mest Reported Sighting An Afghan boy said he saw a man crawling through the grass in this area on the morning Bergdahl disappeared. Regular Patrols Foot patrols into Mest would usually go no farther than this point, about one third of a mile from the outpost. The Search After Bergdahl was reported missing from his outpost, the Army launched an intensive search. Secret military dispatches provided details on the first eight days of the military’s pursuit. Areas of reported search operations in the first eight days. Afghan. Locations where intelligence indicated Bergdahl was being held. Area of detail Ghazni About 20 mi. Moqor Mest Sharana Babu Khel June 30, 2009 Bergdahl was reported missing after he did not show up for morning roll call. July 4, 2009 A military report said that Bergdahl was last seen here, his head covered with a bag. He was in a black Toyota Corolla escorted by motorcycles. June 30, 2009 Bergdahl was reported missing after he did not show up for morning roll call. July 4, 2009 A military report said that Bergdahl was last seen here, his head covered with a bag. He was in a black Toyota Corolla escorted by motorcycles. Kabul Afghan. Area of detail Kandahar Paktika Province Ghazni About 20 mi. Moqor Sharana Yahya Khel Mest Zarghun Shahr Babu Khel Areas of reported search operations in the first eight days. Locations where intelligence indicated Bergdahl was being held. June 30, 2009 Bergdahl was reported missing after he did not show up for morning roll call. July 4, 2009 A military report said that Bergdahl was last seen here, his head covered with a bag. He was in a black Toyota Corolla escorted by motorcycles. Kabul Afghan. Area of detail Ghazni Kandahar Paktika Province About 20 mi. Moqor Sharana Mest Yahya Khel Zarghun Shahr Babu Khel Areas of reported search operations in the first eight days. Locations where intelligence indicated Bergdahl was being held. Areas of reported search operations in the first eight days. Kabul Locations where intelligence indicated Bergdahl was being held. Afghan. Area of detail Kandahar Paktika Province Ghazni About 20 mi. Moqor Mest Sharana Babu Khel June 30, 2009 Bergdahl was reported missing after he did not show up for morning roll call. July 4, 2009 A military report said that Bergdahl was last seen here, his head covered with a bag. He was in a black Toyota Corolla escorted by motorcycles. 
 
 When the medical specialists deem Sergeant Bergdahl ready, his next step will be longer-term therapy and counseling at a military medical center in San Antonio before a carefully managed homecoming in Hailey, Idaho. At some point, he will speak by phone with his family, and be reunited with them. 
 
 Officials would not disclose if Sergeant Bergdahl has made any special requests. One thing, however, that does rub him wrong is when hospital staff call him “sergeant,” the result of two automatic promotions while a captive. 
 
 “He says, ‘Don’t call me that,' ” said one American official. “ ‘I didn’t go before the boards. I didn’t earn it.’ ” ||||| 3 years ago 
 
 (CNN) – White House national security adviser Susan Rice defended the Obama administration's decision to exchange Guantanamo detainees for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, amid criticism that the United States negotiated with terrorists in the process. 
 
 She also said the “acute urgency” of Bergdahl’s health condition justified President Obama’s not notifying Congress beforehand that Bergdahl was being swapped for five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay. 
 
 "What we did was ensure that, as always, the United States doesn't leave a man or a woman on the battlefield," Rice said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." 
 
 "If we got into a situation where we said, 'Because of who has captured an American soldier on the battlefield we will leave that person behind,' we would be in a whole new ear for the safety of our personnel and for the nature of our commitment to our men and women in uniform," she continued. "Because it was the Taliban that had him did not mean that we had any less of an obligation to bring him back." 
 
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 Bergdahl, who was held for five years by Afghan militants, arrived Sunday morning at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany as part of his return to the United States. 
 
 Hagel: U.S. acted fast to save Bowe Bergdahl's life 
 
 U.S. special operations forces recovered Bergdahl without incident early Saturday local time at a pickup point in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. American officials said the government of Qatar brokered the deal. 
 
 Multiple Republican members of Congress expressed joy at the return of Bergdahl, but deep concern about what it meant for U.S. service members' safety and the country's policy of not negotiating with terrorists. 
 
 "These particular individuals are hardened terrorists who have the blood of Americans and countless Afghans on their hands," Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said in a statement. He added that he's "eager to learn" what steps are being taken to ensure that these "violent Taliban extremists" won't cause any harm to the United States in the future. 
 
 CNN learned that the detainees will be under a travel ban for one year, and Rice added that "there are restrictions on their movement and behavior" in Qatar, but said she was not at liberty to go into further detail. 
 
 "Suffice it to say that we are satisfied that it substantially mitigates the risk to the United States and to our national security, and we feel confident that the assurances given to us will be upheld," she told CNN's chief political correspondent Candy Crowley. 
 
 Some critics were perturbed by the lack of communication with Congress about the negotiations. The Obama administration is required by law to notify Congress 30 days before any terrorists are transferred from Guantanamo Bay. 
 
 Rice said the administration began telling members of Congress once Bergdahl had been recovered and before the prisoners left the Guantanamo Bay facility. 
 
 "This was held closely within the administration. We could not take any risk with ... losing the opportunity to bring him back safely," she said, adding the Department of Defense had consulted with the Department of Justice before making the decision. 
 
 “Given the acute urgency of the health condition of Sgt. Bergdahl, and given the President’s constitutional responsibilities, it was determined that it was necessary and appropriate not to adhere to the 30-day notification requirement, because it would have potentially meant that the opportunity to get Sgt. Bergdahl would have been lost.” 
 
 Pressed further on concerns that the deal violated U.S. policy against negotiating with terrorists, Rice said Obama's hopes to close Guantanamo Bay will help prevent similar situations in the future. 
 
 "I think the terrorists are intent on doing what they're going to do, but … we have a commitment to close Guantanamo Bay," she said. "The existence of Guantanamo Bay is itself a detriment to our national security, which is why the President has prioritized closing it and why we intend to get that done." 
 
 CNN's Conor Finnegan and Ted Barrett contributed to this report. 
 
 Watch State of the Union with Candy Crowley Sundays at 9am ET. For the latest from State of the Union click here.
– Bowe Bergdahl will be back in the US late tonight. Both AP and CNN quote defense officials as saying he will be transferred overnight from a military base in Germany to the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. The reports offer no more details on Bergdahl's recuperation after being held five years by the Taliban. The issue of his return came up publicly yesterday when defense chief Chuck Hagel testified before Congress, and Republican Jeff Miller pressed him on why Bergdahl was still in Germany, notes the Idaho Statesman. “Why hasn’t he been returned to the United States?" asked Miller, who seemed to be suggesting that the Pentagon was keeping Bergdahl overseas to shield him from questions. "We have seriously wounded soldiers that have returned to the United States almost immediately after they are stabilized. ... You’re trying to tell me that he’s being held in Landstuhl, Germany because of his medical condition?” Hagel: “Congressman, I hope you’re not implying anything other than that. The fact— Miller: "I'm just asking the question." Hagel: “I’m gonna give you an answer too. I don’t like the implication of the question. He’s being held there because our medical professionals don’t believe he’s ready ... to take the next step to rehabilitation.”