"Oh no, here we go again, another poor fellow over there sitting on the floor as Nick was, not knowing what his fate would be," Berg said.
Five years ago in May, Michael Berg's own son, 26-year-old Nick Berg, a freelance telecommunications contractor from West Chester, was kidnapped by Islamic militants in Iraq. He was to become the first American citizen that was beheaded in response to U.S. abuse of Iraqi captives at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. His death, in essence, became a public execution with the video distributed over the internet.
Now, as Nick's father watches in dismay the plight of Bowe Bergdahl, he replays the anguish he felt in the days before his son was killed.
"There's frustration, there's kind of a manic kind of feeling of trying to do everything you possibly can do and realizing that there isn't anything that you can do. It's been five years since Nick was killed and I've gone through it in my mind a million times, what could I have done differently, what would I do now, given what I know now?" Berg said. "And sometimes, I say to myself, 'Boy, maybe if I had just gone over there myself, I could've done something, but what could I have done?'"
Michael Berg fast forwards his mind to July 2009 and he worries for Bowe Bergdahl.
"You know, there are a lot of similarities. I hope it doesn't end the same way," Berg said.
Michael Berg's thoughts then turn to Bergahl's family.
"My heart goes out to the family of the soldier and that my greatest hopes are with them and their son," Berg said.
