How long will this administration put our young in harm's way, lie to their loved ones when they are killed? How could the micro-managed White House have let this story out!!!
I had an opportunity to meet Pat Tillman once. He was a nice guy, and I proudly wear an ASU jersey with his name and number 42.
He chose to go to war. But that doesn't make him the poster boy for the this administration's foolish wars.
he volunteered to go in harms way. He recognized that we are fighting an enemy worse than the Nazis, an enemy that hates everything we stand for.
Yes, the Pentagon screwed up by covering up the facts of his death, but don't piss on his grave by denigrating the cause he died for.
Speaking as someone who has “been there, done that” a couple of times, I find this appalling. The officer in charge of Tillman’s unit made a tactical decision, based on the situation and all of the information he had, to split the unit. From everything I have read, I believe it was the correct decision. Tillman was with the second half of the unit, about 2 kilometers behind the first. They came under fire in a mountainous canyon. Tillman and two other soldiers went to high ground to spot and engage the enemy. The leading half of the unit heard the gunfire, mounted the ridgeline and returned to aid their friends. They spotted what they believed to be a group of insurgents firing at their comrades in the ravine below and gave a friendly recognition signal. Three times. Not receiving the recognition signal, and fearing to delay any longer, they engaged with two M-4 rifles and one M-249 machine gun (all 5.56 mm). Later, after searching the area, they discovered the identity of the soldiers they had fired upon.
If you have never had the opportunity to look down the sights of an M-4 rifle or M-249 machine gun, please make an effort to do so. Have your best friend go out to 200 meters and try to hear what they are saying over the noise of gunfire and explosions. Don’t forget to have your best friend dress all in camouflage so they blend into the terrain.
The Army DID conduct forensic analysis of the rounds which killed Tillman and chose, rightly, not to identify the specific soldier who fired the fatal rounds. The fact that Tillman had three bullet holes in his forehead is what convinced me that this was indeed a friendly fire incident. That tells me that the soldier who put those bullets there had no reason to think he was firing on Americans. I can put three rounds into a person’s forehead at 200 meters. I have trained my soldiers to do that. It is a critical task for a soldier, especially a Ranger.
War is indeed hell. I have, luckily, lived through it several times. The fact that the Army has tried to avoid releasing information that would reveal which soldier shot Tillman is NOT appalling, it is commendable. If you do not agree with the current state of the US’s involvement in the world, then either vote for someone else or write a letter to your congress people. Had Tillman not been killed, he most likely would have gone up to the soldiers who fired on him and said “Hey, sorry guys, I’m a dumbass for not responding to you. I own you each a case of beer.” And that would have been it. This whole issue needs to go away.
Furthermore, your conclusions are based on the few facts that have been made public. You have not examined the body, you have not spoken to any of the parties involved, nor have you read the 2,300 pages of testimony.
Simply having a military background doesn't put you in a better postion to be an arbiter of the truth than those people who are directly involved in the investigation. In fact, I believe your analysis is essentially Monday morning quarterbacking. You may have "been there and done that," but in this instance, your view of the facts and evidence is limited by the fact that you were were really were NOT there.
Your conclusions appear to be fueled more by ethnocentricity and anger than by a careful first-hand examination of all the facts.
-- Modified on 7/28/2007 1:10:46 AM
The latest report from the Army says there was no evidence of enemy fire in the area.
If you had read the linked article you would have read about the Army's findings in documents reviewed by the AP reporters as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request:
"No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene - no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck."
Friendly fire. Three bullets to the forehead. Doesn't sound too friendly to me.
Tillman Comrade Recalls Final Moments
Jul 29, 12:50 AM (ET)
By MARTHA MENDOZA - AP News
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - As bullets flew above their heads, the young soldier at Pat Tillman's side started praying. "I thought I was praying to myself, but I guess he heard me," Sgt. Bryan O'Neal recalled in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press. "He said something like, 'Hey, O'Neal, why are you praying? God can't help us now.'"
Tillman's intent, O'Neal said, was to "more or less put my mind straight about what was going on at the moment."
"He said, 'I've got an idea to help get us out of this,'" said O'Neal, who was an 18-year-old Army Ranger in Tillman's unit when the former NFL player was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004.
O'Neal said Tillman, a corporal, threw a smoke grenade to identify themselves to fellow soldiers who were firing at them. Tillman was waving his arms shouting "Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" again and again when he was killed, O'Neal said.
A chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman's death later described this exchange to investigators conducting a criminal probe of the incident. But O'Neal strongly disputes portions of the chaplain's testimony, outlined in some 2,300 pages of transcripts released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The chaplain told investigators that O'Neal said Tillman was harsh in his last moments, snapping, 'Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."
"He never would have called me 'sniveling,'" O'Neal said. "I don't remember ever speaking to this chaplain, and I find this characterization of Pat really upsetting. He never once degraded me. He's the only person I ever worked for who didn't degrade anyone. He wasn't that sort of person."
The chaplain's name is blacked out in the documents.
Tillman gave up a multimillion-dollar football contract to enlist with his brother in the Army after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The military initially told the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by enemy fire. It was only weeks later, when the truth was about to be published, did the Pentagon acknowledge that he was gunned down by fellow Rangers.
The Pentagon conducted a criminal investigation and ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.
Congress is preparing for another hearing this week, while the Pentagon is separately preparing a new round of punishments.
Soldiers and commanders who worked with Tillman have repeatedly testified that he was respected, admired and well-liked.
In the same testimony, medical examiners said the bullet holes in Tillman's head were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.
O'Neal said the shooters were "close, close enough for me to recognize them, but they sure weren't 10 yards away. They were further than that. I've thought about this plenty of times. They wouldn't have been more than 50 yards away."
Another key issue raised in the transcripts involved never-before-mentioned snipers who were apparently there when the firing broke out, got out of their vehicle and walked alongside the convoy, cutting up the canyon firing.
O'Neal said Saturday that he knew there were snipers in the convoy that fired at them, but that he can't remember their names. Were they fired at by the snipers? "Not that I know of," O'Neal told the AP.
His recollections of the snipers reflected other testimony in the transcripts, including answers given by Capt. Richard Scott, who conducted the first, immediate investigation:
Q: Are you aware whether or not any U.S. forces snipers were at the scene?
Scott: They were in serial two.
Q: And, and do you know whose GMV (ground mobility vehicle) they were traveling in?
Scott: I don't think they were in a GMV. I think they were in a cargo Humvee.
Q: Okay. Do you know if the snipers fired any rounds during this incident involving CPL Tillman?
Scott: I do not, no.