Pat Tillman Was a Hero...

[Nbadan]

...and that likely got him killed....just not by the enemy...

Army medical examiners were su ious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to do ents obtained by The Associated Press.

"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors _ whose names were blacked out _ said that the bullet holes 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.

Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman's comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.

----

In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop "sniveling."

Washington Post

[Nbadan]

Do ents shed light on Tillman’s death - Military Affairs - MSNBC.com

SNIP:

Tillmans mother, Mary Tillman, who has long suggested that her son was deliberately killed by his comrades, said she is still looking for answers and looks forward to the congressional hearings next week.

Nothing is going to bring Pat back. Its about justice for Pat and justice for other soldiers. The nation has been deceived, she said.

Su ions initially squashed

The do ents show that a doctor who autopsied Tillmans body was su ious of the three gunshot wounds to the forehead. The doctor said he took the unusual step of calling the Armys Human Resources Command and was rebuffed. He then asked an official at the Armys Criminal Investigation Division if the CID would consider opening a criminal case.

He said he talked to his higher headquarters and they had said no, the doctor testified.

MSNBC

[Nbadan]

AP: New details on Tillman's death By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - Army medical examiners were su ious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to do ents obtained by The Associated Press.

Among other information contained in the do ents:

• In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop "sniveling."

• Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.

• The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman's death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn't recall details of his actions.

• 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.

Yahoo News

[boutons_]

Hero killed by the enemy? no, a lie, killed by friendly fire.

Friendly fire? no, apparently murderous fire.

3 closely spaced bullet-holes in the forehead? Could a US rifle deliver 3 bullets in a tight pattern to the head, from 30 feet? Wouldn't they have to be delivered in extremely close succession?

What about Tillman lying on his back, sleeping? or already dead, the back of his head against the ground, and shot 3 times in the forehead?

TV said that if the general loses a star, it's $1000/month off his pension.

It's amazing this story isn't closed INSIDE THE ARMY, after this many years.

edit: seems like it's dead with in the Army, but not to the AP.

"The medical examiners' su ions were outlined in 2,300 pages of testimony released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request." AP Report

[Cant_Be_Faded]

You know god is dead and the devil is pulling the strings when truely patriotic men like this get killed and used for political agenda meanwhile college republicans are following in the footsteps of their parents.

[xrayzebra]

What in the has a "political agenda" got to do with, what is
now being called, a murder. It was the military who has been
accused of covering up. If he was murdered it will not be the
first time someone has been killed in a combat situation, or
murdered. It doesn't make it right, but it has happened in the
past and will happen in the future. It is not politics, it is crime.

[clambake]

What is significant is that Pat Tillman was the poster child of American heroism, and they managed to that up, too.

There really is no bottom to this monster mistake pit.

[boutons_]

It's like this that makes military reports on Iraq in general as credible as dubya and head and gonzo.

[clambake]

It's like this that makes military reports on Iraq in general as credible as dubya and head and gonzo.

Exactly. If you don't tow the Bush line, you're fired. There should be a long line of Wrongful Termination suits.

[Yonivore]

So, Democrat Wesley Clark thinks Pat Tillman was murdered because he was about to become an anti-war hero? Judge the lunacy for yourself, his interview starts at about 1:13 in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbQVGcBmyu0

(can we please get YouTube embedding?)

He essentially says that if Tillman was killed deliberately the orders “came from the top” and manages to invoke the idea of a Rovian plot along the way. That Clark, as a former high-ranking member of our armed forces, is even entertaining such fantasies is a disgrace.

This conspiracy mongering comes at the same time of news that the Pentagon will be ending the careers of seven military officers for mishandling the investigation into Tillman’s death, and the news that military doctors who examined Tillman’s corpse were su ious about the proximity of the bullet holes in his body. They were close together, indicating that Tillman was shot from close range.

This is undoubtedly the genesis of a story about the government murdering one of it’s own soldiers that will last us for at least a couple of decades. Much like the idea that 9/11 was a plot to foment war in the middle east and JFK was murdered by the CIA.

But personally, I subscribe to Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. In the case of Tillman, he was killed by his own troops. At the time the war in Iraq was relatively new, and the military didn’t want the public getting disillusioned with a sad story about a celebrity like Tillman who signed up to fight for his country only to be killed tragically by his own troops. So they covered it up and try to claim he was killed by enemy fire. They also subsequently squashed any attempt at a criminal investigation for fear that it would generate sensational headlines and further undermine the war effort (which it would have).

Bad move, not just because they got caught but also because it’s not good to lie to the public. And especially not to the family of a fallen soldier. But now the left - always eager to seize on the smallest bit of innuendo in their drive to undermine the war effort, the military and the Bush administration - is blowing this up into a conspiracy to murder Tillman who was allegedly going to become an anti-war hero (what basis there is for this, or how he’d do that from the middle of a battlefield in Afghanistan, I have no idea).

Because that’s what is convenient for their political agenda.

None of this is new...the deception was uncovered within months of Tillman's death. It's only in the news again because they are beginning to resolve the investigation and those responsible are being punished.

In reality, Tillman’s story is that of a tragic accident. He signed up for the military, and then was killed on the battlefield by an accident before he could fulfill his destiny. Sad, but hardly the fodder for murder plots involving Karl Rove.

Democrats really will throw anything at the wall to see if it sticks.

[George Gervin's Afro]

So, Democrat Wesley Clark thinks Pat Tillman was murdered because he was about to become an anti-war hero? Judge the lunacy for yourself, his interview starts at about 1:13 in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbQVGcBmyu0

(can we please get YouTube embedding?)

He essentially says that if Tillman was killed deliberately the orders “came from the top” and manages to invoke the idea of a Rovian plot along the way. That Clark, as a former high-ranking member of our armed forces, is even entertaining such fantasies is a disgrace.

This conspiracy mongering comes at the same time of news that the Pentagon will be ending the careers of seven military officers for mishandling the investigation into Tillman’s death, and the news that military doctors who examined Tillman’s corpse were su ious about the proximity of the bullet holes in his body. They were close together, indicating that Tillman was shot from close range.

This is undoubtedly the genesis of a story about the government murdering one of it’s own soldiers that will last us for at least a couple of decades. Much like the idea that 9/11 was a plot to foment war in the middle east and JFK was murdered by the CIA.

But personally, I subscribe to Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. In the case of Tillman, he was killed by his own troops. At the time the war in Iraq was relatively new, and the military didn’t want the public getting disillusioned with a sad story about a celebrity like Tillman who signed up to fight for his country only to be killed tragically by his own troops. So they covered it up and try to claim he was killed by enemy fire. They also subsequently squashed any attempt at a criminal investigation for fear that it would generate sensational headlines and further undermine the war effort (which it would have).

Bad move, not just because they got caught but also because it’s not good to lie to the public. And especially not to the family of a fallen soldier. But now the left - always eager to seize on the smallest bit of innuendo in their drive to undermine the war effort, the military and the Bush administration - is blowing this up into a conspiracy to murder Tillman who was allegedly going to become an anti-war hero (what basis there is for this, or how he’d do that from the middle of a battlefield in Afghanistan, I have no idea).

Because that’s what is convenient for their political agenda.

None of this is new...the deception was uncovered within months of Tillman's death. It's only in the news again because they are beginning to resolve the investigation and those responsible are being punished.

In reality, Tillman’s story is that of a tragic accident. He signed up for the military, and then was killed on the battlefield by an accident before he could fulfill his destiny. Sad, but hardly the fodder for murder plots involving Karl Rove.

Democrats really will throw anything at the wall to see if it sticks.

So it's ok to lie to make sure that the war effort is not harmed..I guess the ends justify the means.. sort of like how we got into Iraq..

[Yonivore]

So it's ok to lie to make sure that the war effort is not harmed..I guess the ends justify the means.. sort of like how we got into Iraq..

I guess you missed this:

Bad move, not just because they got caught but also because it’s not good to lie to the public. And especially not to the family of a fallen soldier.

[UV Ray]

What is significant is that Pat Tillman was the poster child of American heroism, and they managed to that up, too.

For Boutons and some others on this thread it seems Pat only became a hero when it was discovered he was killed by friendly fire under cir stances 'apparently' worthy of an agenda. Pat Tillman has always been and will always be a hero to me and no one can take that away... or ' it up' as you posted.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

To clarify, the republicans were wrong for using his death to suit their agenda (though with people stupid enough to buy it, maybe its their brains and the parents who spawned them who are wrong), and the demos who are using this to bite into repubs are wrong as well.

Let the guy rest in peace.
This bickering and disrespect can be better directed towards someone worthless, like jerry fartwell, or someone like that.

[1369]

3 closely spaced bullet-holes in the forehead? Could a US rifle deliver 3 bullets in a tight pattern to the head, from 30 feet? Wouldn't they have to be delivered in extremely close succession?

See burst, three round. Standard equipment on an M-16A2.

[Yonivore]

See burst, three round. Standard equipment on an M-16A2.

C'mon, now your ing up the conspiracy narrative.

[boutons_]

Any close grouping is possible if he was shot in his sleep or after another round already immobilized him.

[1369]

Anything close grouping is possible if he was shot in his sleep or after another round already immobilized him.

Careful, you could pull a tricep with that reach.

[Yonivore]

Careful, you could pull a tricep with that reach.

You mean you understood that drivel?

[UV Ray]

Anything close grouping is possible if he was shot in his sleep or after another round already immobilized him.

You should string for Pravda.

[boutons_]

The Army medical examiners suspect something very stinky. Trash them for reaching.

[judaspriestess]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/ope...dmin_order.htm

"The report also states that "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."

The article also reveals that "Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments."

So there was no evidence whatsoever of friendly fire, but the ballistics data clearly indicated that the three head shots had been fired from just 10 yards away and then the Army tried to concoct a hoax friendly fire story and sent gloating back-slapping e mails congratulating each other on their success while preventing the doctors from exploring the possibility of murder. How can any sane and rational individual weigh this evidence and not come to the conclusion that Tillman was deliberately gunned down in cold blood?

The evidence points directly to it and the motivation is clear - Tillman abandoned a lucrative career in pro-football immediately after 9/11 because he felt a rampaging patriotic urge to defend his country, and became a poster child for the war on terror as a result. But when he discovered that the invasion of Iraq was based on a mountain of lies and deceit and had nothing to do with defending America, he became infuriated and was ready to return home to become an anti-war hero.

As far back as March 2003, immediately after the invasion, Tillman famously told his comrade Spc. Russell Baer, "You know, this war is so ing illegal," and urged his entire platoon to vote against Bush in the 2004 election. Far from the gung-ho gruff stereotype attributed to him, Tillman was actually a fiercely intellectual man with the courage of his convictions firmly in place.Tillman had even begun to arrange meetings with anti-war icons like Noam Chomsky upon his return to America before his death cut short any aspirations of becoming a focal point for anti-war

see also
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072602025.html

[AFBlue]

It's like this that makes military reports on Iraq in general as credible as dubya and head and gonzo.

Don't paint the military as a bunch of coverup artists just because some ing General decided he wanted to make a 4th star so he wanted this to disappear.

There are ambitious people (see Enron) who make alot of horrible decisions, but that shouldn't give you pause as to the validity of other reports about Iraq.

If anything, it's the politicians that spin the reports not the military officials.

[boutons_]

"some ing General"

bull . ass-covering and career-salvaging, pension-protecting is the highest priority for many of the brass. A lot of the better ones who couldn't stomach the Iraq and Rummy bull retired, or were fired for speaking against the bull (Shinskeki).

Abu Graib was not only a low-level disaster totally detached from the chain of command. Nor was the bull and lies around Private Lynch.

There are plenty of wonderful people in the military, but it's bull that there is a only handful of rotten field-grade apples.

[UV Ray]

This is old news but seems relevant in the wake of a recent report
by the Washington Post of a differing account of Tillman's last moments. My question: Is the atheism card now being played against Tillman?

*A portion of the Washington Post follows this article:

__




Playing the Atheism Card Against Pat Tillman’s Family



http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060728_worm_dirt/

Posted on Jul 28, 2006

AP /Gene Lower

By Stan Goff

Editor’s note: The author of this essay, Stan Goff, is a retired veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces. During an active-duty career that spanned 1970 to 1996, he served with the elite Delta Force and Rangers, and in Vietnam, Guatemala, Grenada, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, Somalia and Haiti.

He is a veteran of the Jungle Operations Training Center in Panama and also taught military science at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Goff is the author of the books “Hideous Dream—A Soldier’s Memoir of the U.S. Invasion of Haiti,” “Full Spectrum Disorder—The Military in the New American Century” and “Sex & War.”

In this article Goff writes on the events surrounding the fratricidal death of Army Ranger and former NFL player Pat Tillman, and the possible military coverup that ensued.

Goff argues that Tillman’s commanding officer, in a recent ESPN magazine interview, made a series of shockingly callous statements about the Tillman family’s search for the truth because the officer was trying to divert attention from the role he may have played in the alleged coverup.

Goff’s previously published articles on this subject can be found at the online publication From the Wilderness.

His research for those articles included a detailed review of more than 2,500 pages of official briefings and do ents from three investigations, in addition to extensive interviews with Tillman family members and some of the soldiers in Tillman’s unit.

Editor’s note #2

Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich, was originally described as the Cross-Commander at Forward Operating Base Salerno on Khowst, Afghanistan. That was incorrect. The Cross Functional Team Commander ("Cross-Commander") under which Pat Tillman’s unit was working at the time of his death was a Major Hodney. Kauzlarich was one step above Major Hodney, as his Regimental Executive Officer. The Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan was under the operational control (OPCON) to a highly secretive joint command, which accounts for much of the difficulty in clarifying both the cir stances of Pat Tillman’s death and the subsequent actions taken at several levels of command to conceal and spin the cir stances surrounding his death.

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich has taken Christ into his heart, or so he says. Like my old colleague, Lt. Gen. William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin, he has also carried the organically entrapped messiah onto the heathen-infested battlegrounds of Southwest Asia. Kauzlarich is the subject of my exposition today, but Boykin is his context.

You all remember Jerry Boykin—the general who, as part of the Bush 2003 civil relations effort in Iraq, called Muslims idol worshippers.

Back in the Reagan days, Boykin and I were simultaneously assigned to the allegedly super-secret Delta Force. He was a major then, and he would organize prayer breakfasts for the unit, driving many of us out of the building to purchase sausage-biscuits. His evangelical lunacy was already under siege then. Special Operations is a motley fraternity, in which operators are as likely to worship Odin or an oak tree as they are to attend Sunday services.


Boykin’s recent rise is symptomatic of War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s fascination with Special Operations—in spite of its generally dismal record. Kauzlarich was on the same career fast track when he was the 75th Ranger Regiment’s executive officer* (see editor’s note #2 above) at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Khoust, Afghanistan, in 2004.

Bishop Boykin, shooting from the lip, asserted in 2003 that the U.S. military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq involved “an Army of God” squaring off against Satan.

Beelzebub himself! Can’t say Jerry lacks ambition. Of course, the Satanists in this case were the very Muslims that the administration was trying to recruit as political puppets in the oil patch.

For this subtle bit of international relations, Boykin was punished by promotion to the position of deputy undersecretary of defense for… intelligence. Yes, the pun is nearly unbearable.

And so Boykin ascended. As the Haitian proverb says: The higher the monkey climbs, the more you see his ass.

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, on the other hand, is not exactly being placed center-stage at the Pentagon. More than any other single person below the rank of general, he is probably most responsible for the Pentagon’s embarrassment when NFL-player-turned-Army-Ranger Pat Tillman was killed on April 22, 2004, by his own comrades.

Kauzlarich has been energetically avoiding responsibility for the fratricidal incident ever since.

“When you die,” [Tillman’s commanding officer] Kauzlarich said, “I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don’t believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt.”

It appears from reading the do ents in the incident that he and others in the military may have violated multiple laws—including obstruction of justice, evidence tampering and conspiracy.

Kauzlarich may have conspired with others to award an inappropriate Silver Star, complete with a phony account of the events surrounding Tillman’s death. Members of Tillman’s chain of command attended Tillman’s memorial service without breathing a word to the family about what really happened, and it appears, again from the do ents, that Kauzlarich deep-sixed the original investigation, which he then had redone under his personal supervision.

The Army’s criminal investigation division and the Pentagon’s Inspector General are currently investigating Tillman’s death and the events that ensued.

Kauzlarich now looks to Nov. 7, 2006, with a gnawing disquiet. Only a thin congressional majority that stand between a nemesis like Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee. Subpoena authority might transform a mere gavel into a mighty political weapon.

But in the meantime, a recent ESPN.com exposé by Mike Fish aired an interview with Kauzlarich, who was the “cross commander” of the Rangers in Khoust, Afghanistan, in April 2004. Kauzlarich, in a stunning display of Christian empathy, blamed the family for continuing to ask questions about the cir stances of Pat’s death, and suggested that the reason they’d found no closure was that infidels such as themselves (the Tillmans did not belong to a church), when they die, are only “worm dirt.”

A choice of words worthy of Bishop Boykin, who is surely beaming with pride at this officer’s devout diction.

“His parents continue to ask for it to be looked at,” Kauzlarich told Fish petulantly. “And that is really their prerogative. And if they have the right backing, the right powerful people in our government to continue to let it happen, then that is the case.”

Playing the victim. A broadly effective tactic in the case of international military aggression, domestic battery (she made me do it) and politically motivated coverups.

In fact, powerful people in government have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the case by the dogged persistence of Pat’s family. So far the government’s efforts have been to assign aides to do enough to get the family off its back, and submit queries to the military that are answered with the same contradictions and equivocations that provoked the family’s su ion in the first place.

“But there [have] been numerous unfortunate cases of fratricide,” Kauzlarich told ESPN, “and the parents have basically said, ‘OK, it was an unfortunate accident.’ And they let it go. So this is—I don’t know, these people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs.”

Nothing to do with the fact that the Department of Defense lied to them until the impending redeployment of in-the-know Ranger batallion back to the U.S. made the revelation of fratricide inevitable … oh no.

The office of Defense Department public relations official Lawrence Di Rita should have purchased high-quality shredders for all commanders. The do ents pertaining to the first three of six investigations contain generous and often gratuitous redactions. They were given to the Tillman family, and through them to CNN, to ESPN—oh yes, and to me. They show that it was the impending redeployment of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, Pat Tillman’s unit, in which the real story of his death was general knowledge, that compelled the Department of Defense to come clean, sort of.

“When you die,” the Reverend Kauzlarich explained to ESPN’s Fish, “I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don’t believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt.”

A theological term perhaps.

Next page: “Kauzlarich, like Boykin and all their ilk, has the spiritual depth of his own skin, which is what he is trying to save … whether in an exchange of faith for immortality or in deflecting the sorry truth onto a bereaved and angered family with cheap revival-tent accusations of ‘atheism.’ ”

Page 2)

I don’t doubt for a minute that Kauzlarich’s version of spirituality is a kind of quid pro quo—a simple exchange of belief for immortality would strike the hardest of bargainers as a pretty good deal. It even trumps the dissonance of the Warrior Jesus, the Prince of Peace mounted on a Humvee, perhaps manning the .50-cal, in Mazar-i-Sharif or Fallujah.

If you can sustain that contradiction, it is not particularly remarkable to believe you are a Lamb of God at the same time you deploy religious belief as a disingenuous dodge in defense of your career.

“So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more,” continued Kauzlarich, “that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don’t know how an atheist thinks…. You know what? I don’t think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don’t know. Maybe they want to see somebody’s head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can’t bring their son back.”

So we get to it at last. Kauzlarich imagines himself as John the Baptist, and Mary Tillman as Salome. Poor, poor man. Wretched, wretched woman.

I imagine a fish decal on Kauzlarich’s car, one that has a double significance: Jesus, of course, cloning fish for the starving masses, but also a red herring.

Kauzlarich is in a state of dread—not the existential variety, since he has already cut the deal to survive death. His dread is more immediate and secular.

A Ranger captain was assigned to investigate the death of Pat Tillman—Richard Scott, then commander of Headquarters Company, 2/75 Rangers. Scott carried out his task with integrity, and the Article 15-6 investigation was completed in two weeks. That investigation determined two things: (1) The fellow Rangers who shot Tillman (and an Afghan that the military has never credited with a human being’s name) violated their own rules of engagement and were possibly criminally negligent and (2) that the order that led to splitting the platoon—one vigorously and rightly opposed by the platoon leader on the ground—was responsible for setting up the communications breakdown that resulted in the incident.

It is not legal in the military to dispose of investigations or to compel or allow witnesses to change statements, and then make the original statements disappear, but that is precisely what happened in the case of Pat Tillman. When Kauzlarich took over the investigation from Scott, Kauzlarich’s role in the alleged coverup disappeared and criminal charge recommendations were transformed into wrist-slapping nonjudicial punishments.

Even before the first investigation was complete—nay, even before Tillman’s unit returned from the field to conduct an “after-action review” to determine what happened—everyone in Tillman’s chain of command, including Kauzlarich [http://www.fromthewilderness.com/fre..._files4.shtml], appears to have conspired to draft a recommendation for a Silver Star award as part of the intentional development of a fictional account to cover up the fratricide.

This was in April-May 2004. And for those who don’t remember, these months were a catastrophic cascade of setbacks, bad news and rank scandal, including the dual rebellion in Iraq and the first public release of the Abu Ghraib photos. The death by fratricide of a famous young man (who was resisting the Department of Defense efforts to turn him into a jingo icon) ran headlong into the DoD public affairs narrative of precision and professionalism (in an elite unit). That was very bad news.

But with every stick, there is a carrot.

If this story could be covered up, for just a while, it had spin capacity. Pat could be turned into a martyr-jingo icon. An account could be constructed that would map directly onto the television-stunned social imagination of the American public. A tale worthy of the arrested development of a nation that believes in the fantasies of masculine adolescence.

And that is precisely what they did, Kauzlarich included. They drafted a Silver Star and a docudrama lie about an intense encounter with a determined enemy in which the obedient patriot sets an example worthy of a recruiting poster. A Tom Clancy joint. The real Pat Tillman was not only of no use, he was a net negative. Real people get in the way.

They never counted on his brother Kevin discovering that there was an initial investigation that vanished. They never counted on a mother and father who were strong enough to demand the truth about what had happened, and determined enough to rescue the real person that was Pat Tillman from the spin machine into which the Pentagon tried to feed his body.

Pat himself, after seeing the Iraq war firsthand and declaring it to be “so ing illegal,” quipped to his fellow soldiers that the military seemed to be so inept that it couldn’t even construct a credible lie. How prescient was that?

Kauzlarich, like Boykin and all their ilk, has the spiritual depth of his own skin, which is what he is trying to save … whether in an exchange of faith for immortality or in deflecting the sorry truth onto a bereaved and angered family with cheap revival-tent accusations of “atheism.”

Mary Tillman, Pat’s mother, showed me a page from Pat’s journal when he was 16 years old. It was Pat’s reflection on why he had decided, once and for all, that he didn’t need organized religion. The entry was motivated by Pat’s grief at the death of an old family cat. Pat wasn’t comfortable with the idea that one could love another creature that was being excluded from the bargain in the afterlife. He and his brothers grew up between a river and the mountains, where they roamed countless miles and delighted in the ceaseless interplay of geography, climate, flora and fauna. In his journal entry, Pat speculated about this singular universality, and made up his mind that one didn’t need some anti-material monarchy buzzing with angels to accommodate himself to mortality.

Pat never felt separate enough from the world to despise the worms. And so Kauzlarich’s expression of fear and loathing for the world would have amused Pat.

Pat’s ashes are adrift from where they were scattered along the Pacific Ocean, mixing back into the elements with which he was so at home; while Ralph Kauzlarich and the Pentagon fret about a five-foot-two-inch mother who refuses to make them an offering of her fear. Surely Pat Tillman is laughing.


*Differing account as reported by
By MARTHA MENDOZA
The Associated Press
Friday, July 27, 2007; 1:48 AM
Associated Press reporters Scott Lindlaw and Lolita C. Baldor:

It has been widely reported by the AP and others that Spc. Bryan O'Neal, who was at Tillman's side as he was killed, told investigators that Tillman was waving his arms shouting "Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" again and again.

But the latest do ents give a different account from a chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman was killed.

The chaplain said that O'Neal told him he was hugging the ground at Tillman's side, "crying out to God, help us. And Tillman says to him, `Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2602025_2.html