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Pat Tillman

1976-2004

The father pointed at the little dash that separated the dates and said, "Son, do you see that little dash there?" "Yes, father," he answered.
"In that little dash, which will also be on your gravestone one day, is everything that composed that person's life: How he will be remembered, what he did for his family, whom he loved and who followed him; his accomplishments and his life; and what he did for his community, his fellow men and his country. His whole life, as will yours and mine, will be summed up in that one little dash. Live your life to make your dash just as good as his dash. Do you understand?" "I think so, father," the son answered. – A piece on the Internet

Patrick Daniel Tillman is an American hero. He is the kind of man we want our sons to be and our daughters to marry. The best of America. In an age of selfishness and greed, he gave up millions of dollars as a professional football player to serve his country and died a controversial death in the mountains of Afghanistan. The only thing that surprises me is that a biopic of his life has not been made yet.

You would really have to be living under a rock, not to know who Pat Tillman is. He was an All Pac-10 linebacker for Arizona State University, and later, a safety for the Arizona Cardinals. Smart, he left college with 3.84 gpa. At 5’11” he was considered by some to be a little slow and undersized to be playing professional football, but he worked his tail off and started ten of the Cardinals’ sixteen games his rookie season in 1998. In a profession that is all about the money, Tillman showed his loyalty to the team that drafted him by staying in Arizona even though the St. Louis Rams offered him a five-year, $9 million contract. Many of his teammates thought he was crazy for staying with the Cardinals for only $512,000 per year, but he showed even greater loyalty in May 2002 by turning down a three year, $3.6 million contract the Cardinals offered him and instead joined the U.S. Army, along with his brother Kevin, for $18,000 a year. Tillman’s decision made little sense to some of his teammates and others in the NFL. Most kept their opinions to themselves, but others, like Simeon Rice, tried to downplay what he was doing by stating on the Jim Rome Show, that Pat "wasn't that good, not really. He was good enough to play in Arizona, [but] that's just like the XFL." So, his giving up an NFL career was no big deal. In 60 professional games, Tillman had 238 tackles.

By far the most famous enlistee in the post-9/11 army, even though he was critical of the Iraq War, Pat Tillman became a Ranger and was deployed to Afghanistan. On April 22, 2004, Tillman was killed outside of a small mountain village named Sperah. It was a simple broken part on a HumVee that led to the chaos surrounding Pat’s death. Tillman’s regiment was supposed to raid the town of Mana in order to find enemy combatants. When the Hum Vee broke down, the regiment was ordered to split in two, with one half towing the vehicle through a nearby canyon and the other half moving to higher ground in order to reach Mana. When the group in the canyon was ambushed by a mortar attack, or what they thought was one, the Rangers opened fire. Hearing gunfire, those on high ground rushed to help their comrades and provide cover fire. Two other soldiers and Pat, perched behind a large boulder, were mistaken for enemy in the confusion and fired upon. Even though they were less than ten yards away, had signaled that they were Americans and laying down their guns, and screamed out their own names to identify themselves, his fellow Rangers continued to fire on him later claiming they could not hear anything over the sounds of the gunfire. For over fifteen minutes, heavy artillery opened up on the three, trapped soldiers until one of the gunners fired three bullets into Tillman’s head.

Within days, the army claimed that he had died a hero, a victim of an ambush attack near the Pakistan border. One little problem, it was not true. Tillman was killed, by his own men, and the army knew it. He was killed in the confusion of war. The Army tried to cover up their actions by burning Pat’s uniform, his body armor, and personal possessions, including a notebook that he had specifically asked, if anything happened to him, to be sent back to his family. Instead, Pat was sent home as naked as the day he was born. Even though the command structure knew the truth, the military quickly approved Tillman for a posthumous promotion, a Purple Heart, and a Silver Star. Several of Pat’s comrades were ordered to lie about the circumstances of his death at the funeral. It was not until weeks later, after the funeral and press coverage had died down that the Tillman family learned that Pat had died due to friendly fire. Not from the military but from a newspaper article. As his father noted, “After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this. They purposely interfered with the investigation; they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a hand basket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy.”

The resulting outrage led to several investigations. What exactly happened on April 22^nd is still not clear. Some have even suggested that Tillman was murdered, fragged by his own men, because the medical evidence did not match the official scenario of what happened. The M16 wounds appeared neat and tight as if they had been fired from less than 10 feet away. The army doctors who preformed the autopsy on Tillman listed his cause of death as murder and urged a criminal investigation to be launched. If Tillman was murdered, a cause has never come to light as he was extremely popular among his men. As facts came to light, the White House stonewalled Congressional inquiries, refusing to release documents and information they felt was sensitive.

Pat Tillman received a hero’s tribute. The Cardinals retired his number 40 and Arizona State University did the same with number 42 which he wore there. Both institutions further honored the fallen Ranger, the Cards by renaming the area surrounding their stadium in Glendale, Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza and having a bronze statue made of him and ASU renamed the entryway to Sun Devil Stadium, Pat Tillman Memorial Tunnel. Arizona state officials showed their respect for his sacrifice by naming the bridge that will bypass Hoover Dam, the Mike O’Callahaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. In personal tributes, several former teammates including Jake Plummer grew beards or their hair long in the style that Tillman wore during his playing days. The Bagram Air Base USO building in Afghanistan bears his name.

Yet, although some soldiers involved in the firefight were demoted, no one went to jail and none of the Central Command involved in the cover-up received any punishment. Not even a letter in their official files. Even White House officials who were involved in promoting the cover-up enjoyed four more years in the Oval Office. Pat Tillman died senselessly in his first firefight, a hero. Dishonored by his government. The least you could do is watch this documentary.

Verdict: A Must View