|
Book offers eye-opening account
Published October 25, 2009
Post-Sept. 11, 2001, a talented safety for the Arizona Cardinals professional football team walked away from the game, money, glamour and a new wife to spend a few years defending his country.
Many months later, he would be killed on the side of hill in Afghanistan, shot three times above the eye, his brains dislodged from his skull, a victim of a weapon called a SAW (M249 Squad Automatic Weapon) and fired by a fellow U.S. soldier.
What happened after that is a disgrace to everything he stood for. The military claimed he was killed by the Taliban, but everyone involved knew the real truth.
Pat Tillman was and still is an inspiring figure. While nothing we could ever do could come close to his level of sacrifice, his actions at the time gave many of us the impetus to step out of our comfort zones and do some different things with our free time.
In the years that followed, as a result of intermittent stories and a lapse of time between investigations, facts surrounding his life and death were difficult to piece together.
Finally, in the new book, “Where Men Win Glory,” there is a concentration of the details. Written by Jon Krakauer, it chronicles Tillman the person, Tillman the soldier and, sadly, Tillman the figurative victim of politics and propaganda.
If you were raised to respect the uniform and rank like I was, Krakauer’s compilation will give you pause.
Every family deserves to hear the truth about how a loved one died serving his country.
In Tillman’s case, not even his brother who was serving in his same unit initially was told the truth.
Instead, his body and soul were plucked from a cold hillside and apparently detoured for political purposes until circumstances surpassed control.
Normally, a soldier is returned to the States in the uniform he was wearing when he was killed. This is done for forensics and the need to accurately record the circumstances of a soldier’s demise. According to Krakauer, Tillman’s body was returned naked and his personal effects, including his diary, were burned in a barrel in Afghanistan.
Tillman’s fellow soldiers were ordered to remain silent about the incident and his friend — a Navy SEAL — was misled to read an incorrect account of his death at his funeral.
Why was it so damning that Tillman was killed by friendly fire? Was it the looming presidential election and the political need for a patriotic example? Or, was it the embarrassment of sloppy soldiering and the dilemma of reining in effective modern weapons and the actions of young soldiers under duress?
On page 343, the book reveals a startling list. It says, “According to the most comprehensive survey of casualties in World War II (both fatal and nonfatal), 21 percent of the casualties in World War II were attributable to friendly fire, 39 percent of the casualties in Vietnam and 52 percent of the casualties in the first Gulf War. Thus far in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, casualty rates are 41 percent and 13 percent, respectively.”
While those figures can be dissected in different ways and Krakauer says they are “conservative,” the numbers, if correct, are nevertheless alarming.
War is certainly not pretty and mistakes happen, but as we honor the memory of those brave men and women who have sacrificed on our behalf, we at least deserve to know the truth about their deaths, no matter how ugly or distasteful it may be.
Pat Tillman is a true hero, and the military’s continued denial about the coverup that took place surrounding his death is a sad testament about those who continue to lead; one of whom is now in command in Afghanistan.
I encourage you to read the book and draw your own conclusions.
Bill Cornwell is editor and publisher of The Facts.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print
|
|
|
 |
|
Click for all
Top Ads listing
|
