Pat Tillman left one of the most sought after jobs on Earth as a star in the NFL to join the Army and volunteer as a Ranger. It was a noble, patriotic and selfless act that deserves to be his legacy. Unfortunately the circumstances surrounding his death get more attention than the sacrifice he made for this country. There is a movie coming out called “The Tillman Story” that seems to perpetuate some of the worst conspiracy theories about his death. It is important that we separate myths from reality. This piece will focus on the circumstances of the incident and the immediate reaction from the military in the weeks that followed.
Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan in 2004 was a tragic accident and resulted from fratricide. He was shot by members of his own unit who failed to identify an Afghan soldier and Tillman as friendlies. There are those who want to cast doubt on that and claim that there was a crime committed and that Tillman was murdered, but there is simply nothing in the evidence available that points to that. I have read hundreds of pages from the multiple investigations of the incident and there is simply no way to get that many people to tell almost exactly the same story of how the incident unfolded.
Tillman was on a patrol when one of the vehicles broke down and they were attempting to tow it back to their base. During the course of that the patrol split into two groups. Tillman and serial one were to head back via one route and the broken vehicle and serial two were to rendezvous with a recovery vehicle via another. Serial one left and shortly thereafter serial two did as well. The civilian truck towing the broken vehicle stated that he was unable to traverse one section of the route and serial two then redirected to follow the same route as serial one. They were unable to convey this change to serial one due to the extreme terrain. The second group came under enemy fire during this movement and began to attempt to clear themselves from the ambush site by moving forward.
Tillman and the members of the first group also heard the fire and began to react. They exited their vehicles and Tillman spotted one of the sources of enemy fire. He asked permission to assault that position and when it was granted, moved out and began maneuvering and firing upon it. As he was doing this one of the vehicles from the second serial rounded a corner and observed an Afghan soldier who was with Tillman firing an AK-47. The light conditions prevented them from identifying him as a friendly, so based on the proximity to the ambush site, his weapon and a dark face they took him under fire. Multiple weapons systems from the vehicle engaged and killed him. During this Tillman and another American took cover behind a rock.
There was a lull in fire after the Afghan was killed and Tillman stood up to identify himself shouting “I’m Pat Fu**ing Tillman, why are you shooting?”. Unfortunately all the Rangers in the vehicle saw was another silhouette and a possible threat and they shot and killed him. Almost immediately after this the driver of the vehicle that had fired rounded a corner and saw the vehicles from Tillman’s group and began yelling for a cease fire because there were friendlies in the area.
They immediately learned that they had killed Tillman and the other allied soldier and in all of the statements they made this was noted. But there are several more items that are regularly brought up as “evidence of some sort of cover up.” The first is that Tillman’s uniform and body armor were burned several days after this. This was done mistakenly by personnel who believed that because the gear was covered in blood that it represented a bio hazard. Although this was not the case, by this point it was common knowledge that this was a friendly fire incident and that Tillman’s body armor had been hit by multiple rounds identified as US because of the green markings on the bullets. There was no attempt to hide this fact and there was an investigation into the incident underway.
Another point of contention was that it took 5 weeks to tell the family that this was fratricide. That was a failure by the command to properly understand the reporting procedures. They should have told them at the initial notification that it was believed to be friendly fire, but that investigations were still underway. Instead they waited for the investigation to give them positive confirmation and that caused the family concern and made them suspicious. They commenced an inquiry, helped by Sen. John McCain, and submitted a list of questions about the incident. I have seen the questions and answers and they leave no reason to believe it was not an accident or that there was a concerted effort to deceive them.
The other major issue surrounds the award of a Silver Star to Tillman for this event. It is often posited that this was to deflect from the fact that this was a friendly fire incident. While that may be true, CPL Tillman was leading his men on an assault of an enemy position when he was killed. He was attacking and leading from the front and that is why the award was submitted. Was there an element of “this is Pat Tillman” involved? Almost certainly, but the idea that this was simply part of a cover up is unfair. The speed with which the award was approved has also been questioned, but the Rangers had a policy of rapid response for posthumous valor awards so the families could be presented the medal at or before the funeral. There were numerous examples of this from the unit to validate that.
Anyone who volunteers for the military during wartime deserves our respect and our thanks. Someone who leaves comfort and riches behind to do so especially. Pat Tillman’s death was an unfortunate accident, but it was not a conspiracy to kill him or to cover up the fact that his own men pulled the triggers. He deserves to be remembered for the sacrifice he made as a patriot and a brave US Army Ranger.