As to whether Bergdahl’s desertion caused any deaths, at the time he deserted Fire Base Keating along with several other vulnerable and poorly sited American bases was in the process of being shut down. The helicopters (cargo, utility and escort) borrowed for that dismantling were taken back and allocated to the search operations, leaving Keating with nothing beyond subsistence level aviation assets (there was no operable road into Keating.) On October 3, more than a month after it should have been dismantled and abandoned, Keating was struck by a massive, well-planned, and very well equipped attack by an estimated three hundred Taliban and foreign jihadi fighters. The attack overran and completely destroyed the base, although the American survivors managed to take back the base with fire support from Apaches and fixed wing drones, bombers, and fighter-bombers. Eight Americans were killed, and virtually all of the rest of the thirty-odd combat tasked soldiers were wounded.
Before people like MajinCry begin celebrating, eight of the Afghan troops (none of which fought) died, fifteen more went missing and are assumed dead, and roughly half the Taliban fighters were killed. Not to mention the Taliban massacred most inhabitants of the nearby village to obtain an assault line.
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