Bowe Bergdahl in stable condition at Texas military medical center

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed last month after five years in Taliban captivity, is in a stable condition in hospital in Texas, officials have said.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 28, arrived in the US from Germany early on Friday and was taken to a military medical center for the next part of his reintegration.

He “looked good”, was in uniform, and saluted, Maj. Gen. Joseph DiSalvo said.

Bowe Bergdahl has not yet been in contact with his family, which officials described as his own choice.

“He appeared just like any sergeant would when they see a two-star general – a little bit nervous,” Gen. Josepg DiSalvo said.

“But he looked good, saluted, and had good deportment.”

Bowe Bergdahl arrived at about 01:40 local time and was subsequently driven in a three-vehicle convoy to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston.

Army officers also said Bowe Bergdahl had not yet been in contact with his parents, Robert and Jani Bergdahl, who are not in Texas.

“Family support is a critical part of the reintegration process,” Army psychologist Col. Bradley Poppen said.

“Overall, though it is a returnee’s choice to determine when, where and who they want to re-engage with socially, and I believe the family understands that process at this point in time.”

In the near future, Bowe Bergdahl will work with medical staff on reintegration, the progress of which will be driven by the soldier himself.

“There is no set timeline,” Joseph DiSalvo said.

The focus of reintegration will be on re-equipping the soldier, who is staying in a hospital room, with an “appropriate level of mental and physical stability to effectively resume normal activities with minimal physical and emotional complications”, he said.

Col. Bradley Poppen said: “What we are trying to do is get him to recognize that the coping skills he used to survive this long, five-year ordeal may not be healthy and functional now.”

Bowe Bergdahl has not yet been made aware of the media coverage of the circumstances of his disappearance from a military base in Afghanistan in 2009 nor of the controversy over the deal that saw him exchanged for five senior Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“Anything surrounding the controversy of his disappearance is not part of his reintegration,” Gen. Joseph DiSalvo said.

Shortly after Bowe Bergdahl’s release, several commentators and soldiers came forward to brand him a deserter and call for him to be punished.

Critics of the prisoner swap, which include some Democrats, have objected to the fact Congress was not given notice of the deal. They say the Taliban detainees are too dangerous to free.

The Pentagon has concluded he left his post in Paktika province without authorization but it is unclear if he intended to desert. The Army has said it will investigate the circumstances of his capture, leaving open the possibility he could be prosecuted for misconduct.

An Army review of the matter will take place after Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s treatment has finished, officials said.