The Hero's Dead But The Controversy Lives On
MayorBob.
Posted to Etcetera on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 08:08:08 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
The story of Pat Tillman is not yet over. Although the man has been dead and buried for close to three years, the controversy surrounding him continues to live on. The military has just released its latest version of what happened to Tillman and they are hoping this will be the end of it. However, the Tillman family doesn't believe the final word has been written just yet.
The story of Pat Tillman initially seemed something from a Hollywood script. Professional football player gives up lucrative career to answer the call of duty and fight terrorists as an Army Ranger. Within two years of joining the Army he dies heroically under enemy fire and is awarded the Silver Star for valor. But, if Tillman's story is a Hollywood script, it's like Rambo as told by Murphy. As it turns out, Tillman didn't die as a result of enemy fire; he was killed by friendly fire. The Tillman family says the Army has been covering up the facts of this case since day one and continue to do so. The Tillman affair has been investigated five times and punishments have been dished out for what happened on the ground in Afghanistan in 2004. But the Tillman family is still waiting for a version of what happened after Tillman's death that makes sense and calls higher ups in the chain of command to accountability. And that, they say, has not been done yet.
What the military has done is release the latest version (pdf doc) of events. In this version, blame does get placed with higher ups, including Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger, former commander of Special Forces. Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren said, "we as an Army failed in our duty" and promised that the Army will address all the issues presented in the report. Another Pentagon spokesperson expects more disciplinary measures to be taken against "any and all" found to be responsible for the reporting cock up. The report went on to say there didn't appear to be any crime or negligence involved in Tillman's death.
Congressman Mike Honda (D - CA) who called for an investigation soon after the Army admitted to the mix up said that Secretary Geren's press conference "raised more questions than it answered." Honda was joined in his skepticism about this issue being put to bed by the Tillman family. During an NPR interview, Tillman's mother, Mary, said they are definitely not done with it. She accuses the military of continuing to lie about her son's death. She claims responsibility shouldn't end with Lt. Gen. Kensinger, pointing to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld as a "consummate micromanager" who needed Tillman to be a hero to "sell the war." She claims the Army refuses to locate an after action report filed by an officer soon after her son died. She was told the Army can't release the report because "it isn't signed." She also said that, at one point when the family was being briefed, an official accused them of "being abusive" of the military. She said:"I wouldn't have wanted to have been them ... we were extremely rude to them, but they ... were just lying."
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