The Tillman Story, A Cover-Up Revisited

I remember well when NFL football hero Pat Tillman was killed while serving as a Ranger overseas. The reason I remember is because the night before the story broke, I was working late and had a problem occur on my laptop that I tried to resolve without calling a technical expert. Instead I tried to play tech medic and accidentally wiped clean my hard drive. I was devastated and in a state of shock.

The very next day the news broke regarding the death of Pat Tillman, killed during a sniper attack in a remote ravine in Afghanistan. The news of his death put my own loss in perspective. I hadn't lost a son like his parents had. 

The event made an impression though and years later I wrote about it here. I also remember that several weeks later news broke that he had been killed by "friendly fire." In other words, he died at the hands of a fellow soldier. This seemed doubly painful.

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This week while looking through documentaries at the library I came across The Tillman Story. Because of my experience I felt I had a special connection to this unfortunate event and was interested in seeing why someone had gone through the trouble of doing a full-length documentary on it. It quickly became apparent that this was a disturbing story that needed to be told. Here's a re-cap.

What interests me most, and why I share it here, is how it dovetails with a recurring theme that I've observed and sometimes written about: the lengths people in power go to control a narrative. It's nearly always about spin. This is why many people are suspicious of nearly everything told by those in power.

The Tillman Narrative vs. the Reality

What's agreed upon is that Pat Tillman was a professional NFL football player who was making a name for himself with the Arizona Cardinals. After 9/11, he and his brother Kevin were moved to make a decision to enlist in the armed forces. They first served in the Iraqi Freedom conflict after which they returned to the U.S. and completed Ranger training. They were re-deployed in Afghanistan where Tillman was ultimately shot and killed. 

First Narrative. Pat Tillman, a poster boy for serving his country in the army, was a hero who led his men to take out Taliban snipers. He was shot and killed by the enemy.

That is the "official story" that the Pentagon fed the media initially. For this he was awarded a Silver Star for heroism. The government attempted to have him buried at Arlington Cemetery with full military honors, but his family objected because this was not what Pat Tillman would have wanted. Pat, in advance, had signed papers saying he did not want that, did not want to be used for PR purposes. 

Second Narrative. There were problems with that first narrative because there were people there who saw it and it didn't correspond to the truth. Five or so weeks later, a new story was released that Pat was "killed by an errant U.S. bullet during a chaotic ambush." That is, it was an unfortunate accident.

There were a number of things that didn't add up. For example, why did the military give him a Silver Star if there had been no encounter with the Taliban?

Pat's widow Marie: "It felt like the world had stopped, yet everything goes on like normal." She also described the indignities one is subjected to in these situations. "The day after he was killed there were cameras on my front lawn, which was bizarre."

The documentary went into a little of how Pat and his brothers were raised. They did not watch television. His father was an attorney. They boys were quite active and he became a star football player despite his size. (He was not as large as you'd expect for someone who tackled so hard and was so fast and strong.) 

While in Iraq Tillman had seen things that disturbed him. One of these was the rescue of Jessica Lynch.* Lynch was in a convoy that had been ambushed during the Battle of Nasiriyah in Iraq. Tillman was part of a special unit call on to perform a rescue mission. Supposedly Lynch had fired her weapon until it was out of ammo, was captured and now being tortured. 

Just as Tillman and company prepared to go in, the mission was inexplicably delayed. When it resumed, Tillman saw that the delay was for the purpose of getting a camera crew present for the media sound bytes. As it turns out she never fired her weapon nor was she tortured. The whole thing was a film production. It seemed to him that the army had a narrative to project and the media was complicit. "Everything gets turned into a morality play."

When Pat and Kevin came back from Iraq they said, "This is just 100% bulls%@t." It was a war they no longer believed in.

The Tillman brothers did a lot of thinking and comparing notes while in the States. They completed Ranger training and began a 2nd tour of duty in April 2004 when they were sent to Afghanistan.

April 22 his unit was out on patrol in some narrow passes with high rock walls. One of the HumVees broke down and a decision was made to split the platoon, which some thought was quite unusual. Because of steep canyon walls, the two groups lost contact with one another. Tillman was in the lead group, Serial 1.

The Army later reported that the Rangers were attacked by 20 enemy Taliban. No one who was there actually saw any people attacking them. There were there any bullet holes in any equipment.

Some kind of explosion was heard by the second group, Serial 2, and they fully discharged their firepower in the direction of the noise. (Trivia: A 50 caliber gun can shoot 900 rounds a minute.)

The story they told was that Pat was shot from 200-300 yards away, that the second unit was just firing wildly while they were driving.

The reality is that they were much closer, 30 to 40 yards away, the distance of a medium-length pass by Aaron Rodgers. 

Pat Tillman was looking at them as they approached. They were not driving, they were stopped. They took aim and blew his head away.

His brother Kevin arrived on the scene 10 minutes later. The rest of the team was ordered not to tell Kevin what happened.

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After Pat's death, his mother Dannie was initially moved at how they military came and comforted them. Then, as she learned how much they lied to promote the war, and concealed the facts of his shooting, she felt a need to know what really went on.

The five soldiers who fired at Pat never gave an explanation for their actions. When the facts emerged, it became apparent that the deception went much higher than the soldiers on the ground. 

The army destroyed Pat's clothes, his body armor, his diary.... every piece of evidence that could be used to explain what happened. 

Pat Sr. wrote a very direct letter to the military expressing what he felt. Because he was an attorney, the army considered the wording of his letter to be "a formal accusation of criminal misconduct." This led to another investigation by the inspector general. 

In a press conference, the retired General Kensinger was blamed for what happened and stripped of his third star. The Army believed this would settle the matter and ought to satisfy the family. It was as if this general had ordered the cover up of the fratricide on his own.

Well, two days later, a secret memo was forwarded to the Associated Press that showed how high up the chain of command this really went. With the identity redacted, the memo stated that the president should be aware of what happened in case the circumstances of Pat's death become public. While the public was being told about Pat Tillman's valor, this memo showed that the entire chain of command was aware of its falsehood, and its implications.

As a result of this new information a 2007 Congressional hearing was conducted. The first witness was Pat's brother Kevin. The defense team then had a long list of generals give their stories. Though but a blip in time, The Tillman Story has been assembled to ensure that its lessons not be forgotten. 

*Initial official reports on Lynch's capture and rescue in Iraq were incorrect. On April 24, 2007, she testified in front of Congress that she had never fired her weapon (her M16 rifle having jammed), and that she had been knocked unconscious when her vehicle crashed. Lynch has been outspoken in her criticism of the original stories reported regarding her combat experience. When asked about her heroine status, she stated "That wasn't me. I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do ... I'm just a survivor." --Wikipedia, Jessica Lynch

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Related Links
Pat Tillman Foundation
Veteran Recalls Death By Friendly Fire
Recovering from a System Crash on Your Mac Laptop