sight of the sun. tonight, in an abc news exclusive, bergdahl before the camera for the first time. why he says he should not be called a traitor. here s abc s chief investigative correspondent brian ross tonight. reporter: appearing before a military judge today, sergeant bowe bergdahl pleaded guilty to deserting his platoon, walking off his base in afghanistan and into the hands of the taliban. my name is bowe bergdahl. reporter: bergdahl was held by the taliban for five years. released in this dramatic moment, squinting into the sun after years as a prisoner. u.s. special forces hustled him to a waiting helicopter to begin the journey home. in his first television interview with british filmmaker sean langan, bergdahl says he was held in a cage for most of his captivity, as punishment for trying to escape. it s a cage that was welded together, probably seven-foot long by about six-foot wide. and how long were you in that cage for? second, third, fourth and into the fifth
and describe conditions there right now. well, they were completely whiteout conditions. i ve got palm branches flying everywhere and i think i just experienced a very small tornado that just went by. it moved my car sideways here at the awning i m at. and i saw the winds whip up and spin around briefly and got it on video, so i m going to check back and see what that was, but looked like a small tornado. we d love to see it if you can isolate it. is this your periscope feed we re watching of two windshield wipers? no, i believe that s someone else s. my feed is down. the verizon tower, i believe, is down here on marco island. i m not able to stream any video anymore since the eyewall came in. any sight of the sun? no, not yet. i am still i m probably a mile away from that point.
but at the same time it features tremendous amount about our planet and our place in it. i think the followership on the twitter feed and everything else really reflects that. chris, do you have a favorite photo, a favorite vista, something you ve seen from your perch high above us? when we re in the huge bulging bay window that faces the earth, sometimes even sometimes all three of us jam in there, but often there are two of us in there waiting for something to happen, waiting to come up on a continent, or even maybe what i think is the most special, waiting for a sunrise or a sunset, because that transition, as we race around the earth, and come into sight of the sun or the sun comes into sight of us, the atmosphere blossoms so quickly with all the colors, just a rainbow exploding around the world, and then suddenly the world is bathed in the light of the sun because of our tremendous speed. it is a repeating miracle.