IN THE KILL ZONE : Managing Facts. Army Spun Tale Around Ill-Fated Mission.
I was upset about it, but I thought, ‘Well, accidents happen.’ Then when I found out that it was because of huge negligence at places along the way — you have time to process that and you really get annoyed.
- Mary Tillman
The story- now the legend- of Pat Tillman is one that just about any American who has been paying attention is familiar with. Tillman gave up untold riches and an NFL career to enlist in the US Army, where he became one of the elite Rangers. He was deployed to Afghanistan, where he was killed in action while fighting Taliban troops and hunting for al-Qaeda. Or was he?
We’d all like to believe that Tillman died a heroic death that meant something. As it turns out, he may have died a heroic death, but the honest truth is that he was killed by an American bullet- and the US Army has been painfully, perhaps deliberately slow in disclosing the truth surrounding Tillman’s death.
Smoke drifted from a signal grenade Tillman had detonated minutes before in a desperate bid to show his platoon members they were shooting the wrong men. The firing had stopped. Tillman had stood up, chattering in relief. Then the machine gun bursts erupted again.
“I could hear the pain in his voice,” recalled the young Ranger days later to Army investigators. Tillman kept calling out that he was a friendly, and he shouted, “I am Pat [expletive] Tillman, damn it!” His comrade recalled: “He said this over and over again until he stopped.”
Myths shaped Pat Tillman’s reputation, and mystery shrouded his death. A long-haired, fierce-hitting defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League, he turned away a $3.6 million contract after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to volunteer for the war on terrorism, ultimately giving his life in combat in Taliban-infested southeastern Afghanistan.
Of course, the Bush Administration and the Army initially both had a large stake in the “Pat Tillman as hero” story. They needed him to be a hero, both for recruiting and policy purposes. After Tillman’s death, the US government used Tillman as the poster boy for the war against terrorism. Who better than a star athlete who sacrificed a multi-million dollar career in order to serve his country in the wake of 9.11 and made “The Ultimate Sacrifice”?
Friendly fire is not something the military easily or openly discusses, nor does the media devote much attention to it. It runs counter to the military’s self-image of control and superiority. The unfortunate effect of this unspoken and unwritten policy is that Americans have come to view war as something of a heroic and noble endeavor, instead of the messy, chaotic, and bowel-emptying maelstrom that it is. Yes, our servicemen and women are doing yeoman’s work in Iraq and Afghanistan, but “the fog of war” is referred to as such for a reason. Combat is a noisy, disorganized, and ever-changing environment- particularly at night. Events happen so quickly that there is often no quick, easy, or safe way to determine whom is shooting at whom. Tillman and his comrades, through a combination of poor planning, poor decision-making, and being in an unfamiliar place, found themselves shooting at each other. In war, very bad things can- and do- happen.
Just days after Pat Tillman died from friendly fire on a desolate ridge in southeastern Afghanistan, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command released a brief account of his last moments.
The April 30, 2004, statement awarded Tillman a posthumous Silver Star for combat valor and described how a section of his Ranger platoon came under attack.
“He ordered his team to dismount and then maneuvered the Rangers up a hill near the enemy’s location,” the release said. “As they crested the hill, Tillman directed his team into firing positions and personally provided suppressive fire… . Tillman’s voice was heard issuing commands to take the fight to the enemy forces.”
“It was a stirring tale and fitting eulogy for the Army’s most famous volunteer in the war on terrorism, a charismatic former pro football star whose reticence, courage and handsome beret-draped face captured for many Americans the best aspects of the country’s post-Sept. 11 character.
And it didn’t happen- at least not in the way the Army would have us believe that it did. At this point, the Army saw an opportunity for a public relations coup, so they created their own reality. We all bought it. Pat Tillman died a hero, battling the forces of terror and tyranny to his last, dying breath, leading the fight against an enemy that would destroy our freedoms and Our Way of Life. If only that were the way it actually went down.
It was also a distorted and incomplete narrative, according to dozens of internal Army documents obtained by The Washington Post that describe Tillman’s death by fratricide after a chain of botched communications, a misguided order to divide his platoon over the objection of its leader and undisciplined firing by fellow Rangers.
The Army’s public release made no mention of friendly fire, even though at the time it was issued, investigators in Afghanistan had already taken at least 14 sworn statements from Tillman’s platoon members that made clear the true causes of his death. The statements included a searing account from the Ranger nearest Tillman during the firefight, who quoted him as shouting “Cease fire! Friendlies!” with his last breaths.
Army records show Tillman fought bravely during his final battle. He followed orders, never wavered and at one stage proposed discarding his heavy body armor, apparently because he wanted to charge a distant ridge occupied by the enemy, an idea his immediate superior rejected, witness statements show.
But the Army’s published account not only withheld all evidence of fratricide, but also exaggerated Tillman’s role and stripped his actions of their context. Tillman was not one of the senior commanders on the scene — he directed only himself, one other Ranger and an Afghan militiaman, under supervision from others. And witness statements in the Army’s files at the time of the news release describe Tillman’s voice ringing out on the battlefield mainly in a desperate effort, joined by other Rangers on his ridge, to warn comrades to stop shooting at their own men.
The Army’s April 30 news release was just one episode in a broader Army effort to manage the uncomfortable facts of Pat Tillman’s death, according to internal records and interviews.
None of this changes the reality. Pat Tillman is still dead, and he can rightly be considered a hero. It would be nice to be able to say that his sacrifice accomplished something meaningful- other than feeding the Army’s propaganda machine. Tillman deserved better from the country he loved and gave his life for, and his family certainly deserves better. How would you feel, knowing that the tragic and senseless death of one of your sons had been turned into a propaganda event in order to boost recruiting? Were I to be in Mary Tillman’s shoes, I would be raising all sorts of hell until I got the answers that should have been provided long ago. Pat Tillman’s mother deserves nothing less.
If we cannot trust our own military to provide us with honest and truthful after-action reports, then what in the hell are we sacrificing our sons and daughters for? What, exactly, have all of our young men and women died for?
