Pat Tillman (person)

“Thanks Pat. (toasting him with a pint of Guinness) I didn't write shit because I'm not a writer. I'm not just going to sit here and break down on you. But thanks for coming. Pat's a fucking champion and always will be. Just make no mistake, he'd want me to say this: He's not with God. He's fucking dead. He's not religious. So, thanks for your thoughts, but he's fucking dead.”

You’d probably expect that quote to come from some anti-war Cindy Sheehan type. You know, some left wing liberal nutcase ala Michael Moore or somebody else with an axe to grind about the current administration and its conduct of the war.

Instead, it came from Pat Tillman’s youngest brother, Richard Tillman. The occasion was a highly public memorial service in which certain mourners such as Senator John McCain and Maria Shriver had heaped religious platitudes upon the deceased. Maybe it was said out of bitterness since at the time, the occasion of Pat Tillman’s death still hadn’t fully set in. Maybe it was an attempt by Richard Tillman to set the record straight about all the hype and hoopla that surrounded his famous brother’s death and how he lived his life.

It’s a shame the same can’t be said of the government. Pat Tillman deserved much better.

When news first broke about the death of Pat Tillman the country was shocked. After all, this man was a poster boy for the American effort to rid the world of terrorism. This is the man who would forgo a huge contract to play in the NFL for the privilege of serving his country in its time of need. The is the man who would inspire others to follow in his footsteps. This is the man that the generals in the Pentagon and the Department of Defense envisioned as a recruiter’s dream come true.

Pat Tillman would have none of it. He turned down requests for interviews, he refused to appear in recruiting commercials or to have his image displayed on any posters. He just wanted be like the many thousands that came before him, to do his time and serve his country. After his training, he was sent off to Afghanistan.

The first reports of Tillman’s death had him heroically engaging the enemy in a firefight. As it turns out, it was a story worthy of Jessica Lynch type treatment. It turns out, Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire and from recent reports, the Army knew of the circumstances of his death almost immediately. There was only one problem though, they didn’t inform his family or the American public about those circumstances for weeks and weeks. It seems the Army had blown up their own poster boy.

One might be tempted to ask why? Friendly fire during wartime, while not common, can and will occur. Given the confusion on the battlefield, the range of the weapons being used and the fear that must overtake a soldier when he sees his comrades dying all around him, mistakes are bound to happen. Why then, didn’t the Army just come clean?

Pat Tillman was killed in the line of duty on April 22, 2004. The news of the Abu Ghraib Prison abuse scandal would come out less than a week later. Was the Army trying to avoid informing the American public of two embarrassing incidents at the same time?

"'I'm disgusted by things that have happened with the Pentagon since my son's death. I don't trust them one bit.” Mary Tillman, Pat Tillman’s mother

"I can understand why Pat Tillman's family, you know, has got significant emotions. A man they loved and respected was killed while he was serving his country." – George W. Bush

So far, there have been seven separate investigations regarding the circumstances of Mr. Tillman’s death. In the latest one, the Pentagon trotted out former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who while acknowledging that some mistakes were made along the way, continue to deny that there was a cover-up. I think the question boils down to the proverbial “What did you know and when did you know it.”