WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously supported the Obama administration’s exchange of five Taliban leaders for an Army sergeant held prisoner in Afghanistan for five years.

In letters to the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the nation’s seven top military leaders insisted that the United States has a sacred commitment to men and women who serve that it will never leave anyone behind on the battlefield. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the swap in May was “likely our last, best opportunity” to free Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

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