Pat Tillman

Pat Tillman
November 6, 1976(1976-11-06) – April 22, 2004(2004-04-22) (aged 27)
Pat Tillman
Place of birth	San Jose, California
Place of death	Sperah, Afghanistan
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	2002–2004
Rank	Corporal
Unit	2nd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment
Battles/wars	2003 Invasion of Iraq Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan (OEF-A)
Awards	Silver Star Purple Heart

Patrick Daniel "Pat" Tillman (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004) was an American football player who left his professional sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in June 2002, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. He joined the United States Army Rangers and served multiple tours in combat before he died in the mountains of Afghanistan. Initially, the U.S. government attempted a cover-up, reporting that Tillman had been killed by enemy fire, with Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal approving a Silver Star citation. Later, his actual cause of death by friendly fire was recognized.

A New York Times book review of Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman noted that the book did well to compile the facts and "nauseating" details regarding the cover-up of Tillman's death, stating "After Tillman’s death, Army commanders, aided and abetted by members of the Bush administration, violated many of their own rules, not to mention elementary standards of decency, to turn the killing into a propaganda coup for the American side."^[1]

Early Life

Tillman was born on November 6, 1976, in San Jose, California. The oldest of three sons, Tillman excelled at football in high school. He helped lead Leland High School to the Central Coast Division I Football Championship. Tillman then went to Arizona State University (ASU) on a scholarship.^[2]

Football career

He started his college career as a linebacker for Arizona State University in 1994, when he secured the last remaining scholarship for the team. Tillman excelled as a linebacker at Arizona State, despite being relatively small for the position at five-feet eleven-inches (1.80 m) tall. As a senior, he was voted the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Academically, Tillman majored in marketing and graduated in three and a half years with a 3.84 GPA.

In the 1998 National Football League Draft, Tillman was selected as the 226th pick by the Arizona Cardinals. Tillman moved over to play the safety position in the NFL and started ten of sixteen games in his rookie season.

At one point in his NFL career, Tillman turned down a five-year, $9 million contract offer from the St. Louis Rams out of loyalty to the Cardinals.^[3]

Sports Illustrated football writer Paul Zimmerman (Dr. Z) named Tillman to his 2000 NFL All-Pro team after Tillman finished with 155 tackles (120 solo), 1.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, 9 pass deflections and 1 interception for 30 yards.

Tillman finished his career with totals of 238 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 3 interceptions for 37 yards, 3 forced fumbles, 2 pass deflections, and 3 fumble recoveries in 60 career games. In addition he also had 1 rush attempt for 4 yards and returned 3 kickoffs for 33 yards.^[4]

In May 2002, eight months after the September 11 attacks and after completing the fifteen remaining games of the 2001 season which followed the attacks (at a salary of $512,000 per year),^[5] Tillman turned down a contract offer of $3.6 million over three years from the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army.^[6]

Military career

He enlisted in June 2002, along with his brother Kevin, who gave up the chance of a career in professional baseball. In September 2002, they completed basic training.^[7] The two brothers completed the Ranger Indoctrination Program in late 2002 and were assigned to the second battalion 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Lewis, Washington. Tillman resided in University Place with his wife before being deployed to Iraq. After participating in the initial invasion of Operation Iraqi Freedom, in September 2003, he entered Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and graduated on November 28, 2003.^[8]

Religious and political beliefs

Krakauer described Tillman as "agnostic, perhaps an atheist",^[9] while later news reports state he was an atheist.^{[10][11][12][13]} According to speakers at his funeral, he was very well-read, having read a number of religious texts including the Bible, Qur’an and Book of Mormon as well as transcendentalist authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. However, responding to religious overtones at the funeral, his younger brother Rich stated that "Pat isn't with God. He's fucking dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's fucking dead."^[14] Another article quotes Tillman as having told then-general manager of the Seattle Seahawks Bob Ferguson in December 2003 "you know I'm not religious."^[15]

The September 25, 2005, edition of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported that Tillman held views which were critical of the Iraq war. According to Tillman's mother, a friend of Tillman had arranged a meeting with author Noam Chomsky, a prominent critic of American foreign and military policy, to take place after his return from Afghanistan. Chomsky has confirmed this.^[16]

Death

Tillman was subsequently redeployed to Afghanistan. On April 22, 2004, he was killed by friendly fire. The specific details of his death and its aftermath were investigated by the US Congress.

The Army initially claimed that Tillman and his unit were attacked in an apparent ambush on a road outside of the village of Sperah about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Khost, near the Pakistan border. An Afghan militia soldier was killed, and two other Rangers were injured as well.

The Army Special Operations Command initially claimed that there was an exchange with hostile forces. After a lengthy investigation conducted by Brigadier General Gary M. Jones, the U.S. Department of Defense concluded that both the Afghan militia soldier's and Pat Tillman's deaths were due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight.

An investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command concluded that Tillman and the Afghan militia soldier were killed by friendly fire when one allied group fired upon another in confusion after nearby gunfire was mistakenly believed to be from enemy combatants. The CID Report summary, dated 19 March 2007, stated that: "during their movement through the canyon road, Serial 2 was ambushed and became engaged in a running gun battle with enemy combatants. Serial 1 had just passed through the same canyon without incident and were approximately one thousand meters ahead of Serial 2. Upon hearing explosions, gunfire, and sporadic radio communication from Serial 2, Serial 1 dismounted their vehicles and moved on foot, to a more advantageous position to provide overwatch and fire support for Serial 2's movement out of the ambush."^[17]

Cover-up surrounding Tillman's death

A report described in The Washington Post on May 4, 2005, (prepared at the request of Tillman's family) by Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones revealed that in the days immediately following Tillman's death, Army investigators were aware that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire, shot three times in the head.^[18] Jones reported that senior Army commanders, including Gen. John Abizaid, knew of this fact within days of the shooting but nevertheless approved the awarding of the Silver Star, Purple Heart, and a posthumous promotion.

Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal approved the Silver Star citation on April 28, 2004, which gave a detailed account of Tillman's death including the phrase "in the line of devastating enemy fire," but the next day he sent a P4 (confidential) memo warning senior government members that Tillman might actually have been killed by friendly fire.^[19] Top commanders within the U.S. Central Command, including former Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) General John Abizaid, should have been notified by the P4 memo,^[20] which described Tillman's "highly possible" fratricide, four days before Tillman's nationally televised memorial service during which he was lauded as a war hero for dying while engaging the enemy.^[21][22]

Jones reported that members of Tillman's unit burned his body armor and uniform in an apparent attempt to hide the fact that he was killed by friendly fire.^[23] His notebook, in which – according to author Jon Krakauer – Tillman had recorded some of his thoughts on Afghanistan, was also burned – “a blatant violation of protocol”.^[24] Several soldiers were subsequently punished for their actions by being removed from the United States Army Rangers.^[23] Jones believed that Tillman should retain his medals and promotion, since, according to Jones, he intended to engage the enemy and, in Jones's opinion, behaved heroically.^[23]

Tillman's family was not informed of the finding that he was killed by friendly fire until weeks after his memorial service, although at least some senior Army officers knew of that fact prior to the service.^[23] According to Krakauer in his book Where Men Win Glory, the extensive cover-up that followed his death included the military's order to Tillman's comrades to lie to his family at the funeral.^[24] Tillman's parents have sharply criticized the Army's handling of the incident; Tillman's father charges that the Army "purposely interfered in the investigation" because of the effect it could have on their recruiting efforts, while Tillman's mother charges that "this lie was to cover their image."^[25]

He also blamed high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the family and to the public.^[26]

On March 4, 2006, the U.S. Defense Department Inspector General directed the Army to open a criminal investigation of Tillman's death. The Army's Criminal Investigative Division will determine if Tillman's death was the result of negligent homicide.^[27]

On March 26, 2007, the Pentagon released their report on the events surrounding Tillman's death and coverup. The report reads in part:

On April 24, 2007, his brother Kevin Tillman, testifying at a congressional hearing, stated, "The deception surrounding this case was an insult to the family: but more importantly, its primary purpose was to deceive a whole nation. We say these things with disappointment and sadness for our country. Once again, we have been used as props in a Pentagon public relations exercise."^[29]

After Kevin's testimony Pete Geren, acting secretary of the Army stated to reporters, "We as an Army failed in our duty to the Tillman family, the duty we owe to all the families of our fallen soldiers: Give them the truth, the best we know it, as fast as we can."^[29]

Tillman's diary was never returned to his family, and its whereabouts are not publicly known.^[30]

One investigation of the autopsy report and photographs by two forensic pathologists in November 2006, concluded that Tillman was most likely killed as a result of fire from a M249 light machine gun, previously designated the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). The M249 uses the same ammunition as the M16 but is capable of a substantially higher rate of fire. The higher rate of fire would have allowed for a competent user to place three bullets within a several-inch target from forty or fifty yards away, even from a moving vehicle.^[31]

On July 26, 2007, Chris Matthews reported on Hardball that Tillman's death may have been a case of fragging - specifically that the bullet holes were tight and neat, suggesting a shot at close range. Matthews based his speculation on a report from the doctors who examined Tillman's body. The following day the Associated Press reported that a doctor who examined Tillman's body after his death wrote, "The medical evidence did not match up with the scenario as described,"^[32] also noting that the wound entrances appeared as though he had been shot with an M16 rifle from fewer than 10 yards (9 m) away. A possible motive, however, has never been identified. According to one of his fellow soldiers, Tillman "was popular among his fellow soldiers and had no enemies."^[33]

In addition:^[32]

• There has never been evidence of enemy fire found on the scene, and no members of Tillman's group had been hit by enemy fire.
• The three-star general, who withheld details of Tillman's death from his parents for a number of months, told investigators that he (the general) had a bad memory, and could not recall details of his actions on more than 70 occasions.
• Army attorneys congratulated each other in emails for impeding criminal investigation as they concluded Tillman's death was the result of friendly fire, and that only administrative, or non-criminal, punishment was indicated.
• Army doctors told the investigators that these wounds suggested murder and urged them to launch a criminal investigation.^[34]
• It has been revealed that there were never-before-mentioned US snipers in the second group that had encountered Tillman's squad.^[34]

Congressional inquiries

On April 24, 2007, Spc. Bryan O'Neal, the last soldier to see Pat Tillman alive, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he was warned by superiors not to divulge information that a fellow soldier killed Tillman, especially to the Tillman family. Later, Pat Tillman's brother Kevin Tillman, who was also in the convoy traveling behind his brother at the time of the 2004 incident in Afghanistan but did not witness it, testified that the military tried to spin his brother's death to deflect attention from emerging failings in the Afghan war.^[35]

On August 13, 2007, Sports Illustrated reported that twenty U.S. military veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan asked the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, to help secure the release of all documents relating to the death of Pat Tillman.^[36]

On July 14, 2008, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a proposed report titled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield: The Tillman and Lynch Episodes".^[37][38] The committee stated that its "investigation was frustrated by a near universal lack of recall" among "senior officials at the White House" and the military. It concluded:

The pervasive lack of recollection and absence of specific information makes it impossible for the Committee to assign responsibility for the misinformation in Corporal Tillman’s and Private Lynch’s cases. It is clear, however, that the Defense Department did not meet its most basic obligations in sharing accurate information with the families and with the American public.

Reactions to Tillman's death

Memorials and tributes

Tillman's portrait - Faces of the Fallen gallery - Arlington National Cemetery.

After his death, the Pat Tillman Foundation was established to carry forward its view of Tillman's legacy by inspiring and supporting those striving for positive change in themselves and the world.

A highway bypass around the Hoover Dam will have a bridge bearing Tillman's name. When completed in September 2010, the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge will span the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona.

Lincoln Law School of San Jose has established the Pat Tillman Scholarship in honor of Tillman. Tillman's father, Patrick Kevin Tillman, earned his Juris Doctor from Lincoln in 1983.

On Sunday, September 19, 2004, all teams of the NFL wore a memorial decal on their helmets in honor of Pat Tillman. The Arizona Cardinals continued to wear this decal throughout the 2004 season. Former Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer requested to also wear the decal for the entire season but the NFL turned him down saying his helmet would not be uniform with the rest of the Denver Broncos. Plummer later grew a full beard and his hair long in honor of Tillman, who had such a style in the NFL before cutting his hair and shaving his beard off to fit military uniform guidelines. Plummer, now retired from the NFL, has since gone back to cutting his hair short but maintains the beard.

A memorial to Pat Tillman was created at Sun Devil Stadium, where he played football for the Sun Devils and the Cardinals.

In 2005, Mike Ricci of the Phoenix Coyotes switched his uniform number to 40 in honor of Tillman.

The Cardinals retired his number 40, and Arizona State did the same for the number 42 he wore with the Sun Devils. The Cardinals have named the plaza surrounding their University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza. Later, on November 12, 2006, during a Cardinals game versus the Cowboys, a bronze statue was revealed in his honor. ASU also named the entryway to Sun Devil Stadium the "Pat Tillman Memorial Tunnel" and made a "PT-42" patch that they place on the neck of their uniforms a permanent feature.

Pat Tillman's high school, Leland High School in San Jose, renamed its football field after him.

In 2004, the NFL donated $250,000 to the United Service Organizations to build a USO center in memory of Tillman. The Pat Tillman USO Center, the first USO center in Afghanistan, opened on Bagram Air Base on April 1, 2005.^[39]

Forward Operating Base Tillman is close to the Pakistan border, near the village of Lwara in Paktia Province, Afghanistan.^[40]

On Saturday, April 15, 2006, more than 10,000 participants turned out for Pat's Run in Tempe, Arizona. The racers traveled along the 4.2-mile (6.8 km) course around Tempe Town Lake to the finish line, on the 42-yard (38 m) line of Sun Devil Stadium in order to commemorate the number which he wore as a Sun Devil and which was later retired in his honor. A second race took place in San Jose. Sponsored by the Pat Tillman Foundation, a total of 14,000 runners took part. In 2005, about 6,000 took part in a single race in Tempe. Since then, Pat's Run has continued to grow every year, with more than 28,000 attendees in April 2010.

Just south of San Jose, in the small community of New Almaden where Pat Tillman grew up, a memorial was constructed near the Almaden Quicksilver County Park. This memorial was dedicated in September 2007 during the annual New Almaden Day celebration.^[41]

The skateboarding bulldog featured on YouTube and in an Apple iPhone commercial was named after Tillman.^[42]

Two books about Tillman were published in 2009. Jon Krakauer, best-selling author of Into Thin Air and Into the Wild, chronicles Tillman's story in Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, published by Doubleday on September 15. Meanwhile, Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, also wrote a book about her son, Boots on the Ground by Dusk, which was released in April 2008.

Following Tillman's death, the Ohio State Linebackers Corp consisting of A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Schlegel, as well as center Nick Mangold grew their hair in tribute to Tillman, imitating Tillman's trademark locks.^[43]

In September 2008, Rory Fanning, a fellow Army Ranger who was stationed with Tillman in Fort Lewis, Washington, began his "Walk for Pat" — a walk across the United States in an effort to raise money and awareness for the Pat Tillman Foundation. The stated fundraising goal is $3.6 million — the value of the contract Tillman turned down when he decided to enlist in the military.

The Pacific-10 Conference football defensive player of the year is named in his honor.^[44]

Controversial criticisms

After reports of Tillman's anti-war views became public, Ted Rall who had previously written a comic calling Tillman a "fool" and "idiot," said that he was wrong to have assumed Tillman to be a "right wing poster child" when Tillman regarded the invasion of Iraq as illegal.^[45][46]

Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich, Regimental Executive Officer at Forward Operating Base Salerno on Khowst, Afghanistan, under which Tillman was serving at the time of his death, and who led the second investigation into Tillman's death, made controversial statements about the Tillman family’s search for the truth based on Tillman's atheism. In comments to ESPN, Kauzlarich said: "These people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs" and "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don’t believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing and now he is no more... I do not know how an atheist thinks, I can only imagine that would be pretty tough."^[47]

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich conducted the second investigation into Tillman's death which lasted a week, from May 8 to May 15, 2004.^[48] Brigadier General Rodney Johnson, the Commanding General of the United States Army Criminal Investigations Command, testified before Congress that he found these statements "totally unacceptable." Acting Department of Defense Inspector General Thomas Gimble also testified that he was "shocked" that Lt. Col. Kauzlarich would make these statements.^[49] According to AP analysis, Kauzlarich may be one of three lower level officers expected to be punished whose names have not yet been released by the military. Tillman's mother continues to reject the Pentagon's characterization of the officers' offenses as "errors" in reporting Tillman's death, because several officers have said they made conscious decisions not to tell the Tillman family that friendly fire was suspected.^[50]

Documentary film

A documentary film The Tillman Story was shown at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2010, and was released in August 2010.^[51]

Essay by Kevin Tillman

On October 19, 2006, Tillman's brother Kevin broke his silence about his brother's death, lashing out at the Iraq War in a 660-word essay published on Truthdig, an online journal of news and opinion. The essay was widely distributed and was cited in The New York Times and Associated Press.

See also

• Don Holleder – College football player, and soldier killed in action during the Vietnam War
• Tim James – Former NBA player who left his professional sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in September 12, 2008
• Bob Kalsu – Former AFL player killed in action during the Vietnam War
• Jessica Lynch
• Don Steinbrunner – Retired NFL player killed in action during the Vietnam War
• News propaganda
• Propaganda in the United States

References

Books

• Krakauer, Jon (2009). Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. Doubleday (September 15, 2009). ISBN 978-0385522267. 
• Tillman, Mary; Narda Zacchino (2008). Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman. Modern Times. ISBN 1594868808. 
• Tillman, Mary; Narda Zacchino (2010). Boots On The Ground By Dusk: Searching for Answers in the Death of Pat Tillman. Blurb, Inc.. 

External links

• We Salute the NFL's war dead, Sports Illustrated's list of 26 other NFL players who died in war.
• Pat Tillman Foundation
• Tillman's sports page
• A Cover-Up At The Highest Levels
• "New Documents Shed Light on Pat Tillman's Death"
• "Kiss the Sun (A Song for Pat Tillman)", a song written by Ellis Paul.
• Gwen Knapp (May 4, 2004). "True hero athlete  — Day's theme: Challenge yourself". San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate.com). http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/04/SPG5K6FD091.DTL. Retrieved 2006-11-23. 
• Mike Mount (May 4, 2005). "Report: Evidence destroyed after Tillman's death". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/04/tillman.death/index.html. Retrieved 2007-07-31. 
• Mike Fish (Spring 2006). "Pat Tillman Timeline". http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=tillmantimeline. Retrieved 2007-07-31. 
• Mike Fish. "An Un-American Tragedy". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=tillmanpart1. Retrieved 2007-07-18. 
• Joe Strupp. "ESPN.com Tillman Coverage Wins Top Military Reporters Prize". Editor and Publisher. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003627404. Retrieved 2007-07-18. 
• Gary Smith (September 5, 2006). "Remember His Name". Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/magazine/09/05/tillman0911/. Retrieved 2008-12-04. 
• Scott Lindlaw and Martha Mendoza (Associated Press) (November 9, 2006). "Startling findings in Tillman probe". Yahoo News. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061109/ap_on_re_us/inquest_for_a_warrior. Retrieved 2006-11-09. 
• SI.com (April 20, 2007). "Lawmakers question Army's information lockdown". CNN. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/nfl/04/20/tillman/index.html. Retrieved 2007-07-31. 
• Justin Raimondo (July 30, 2007). "Who Killed Pat Tillman? And why?". AntiWar.com. http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11367. Retrieved 2007-07-30. 
• "Information regarding the death of Pat Tillman". Office of the US Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs). July 31, 2007. http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4018. Retrieved 2007-08-01. 
• "Text of letter censuring general in Tillman case". Pete Geren, Under Secretary of the US Army. July 31, 2007. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/31/tillman.friendly.fire.letter.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText. Retrieved 2007-08-02. 
• Jon Krakauer (October 14, 2009). "Gen. McChrystal's Credibility Problem". http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-14/gen-mcchrystals-credibility-problem/?cid=hp:mainpromo3. 
• Robert Collier (San Francisco Chronicle) (August 1, 2007). "New questions raised over timing of Army's disclosure of killing by friendly fire". SFGate.com. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/11/MNGAVP6GKF1.DTL. Retrieved 2007-08-01. 
• Associated Press (August 1, 2007). "Key events in the weeks following Pat Tillman's friendly fire death". Mercury News. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6523534?source=rss. Retrieved 2007-08-02. 
• "The Tillman Fratricide: Investigation Chronology". US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. August 2, 2007. http://oversight.house.gov/investigations.asp?ID=256. Retrieved 2007-08-10. 
• Associated Press (August 10, 2007). "Mild reprimands in Tillman case won’t be in officers’ records". Kansas City Star. http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/227548.html. Retrieved 2007-08-11. 
• Monica Rhor (Associated Press) (2007-09-12). "2 Soldiers Who Wrote Op-Ed Died in Iraq". Federal News Radio. http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=80&sid=1246450.  Deaths of Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance T. Gray
• Inside Pat Tillman's Life, and the Bush Administration's Cover-Up of His Death
• Tillman Story movie web site