Unearthing a military scandal

“Boots on the Ground By Dusk/My Tribute to Pat Tillman” By Mary Tillman with Narda Zacchino.  Modern Times, 2008; go to www.leftbooks.com to order.

If you assume that this book about former National Football League safety Pat Tillman is an ultrapatriotic eulogy, you may pass it over and miss one of the finest anti-war stories of our era. With courage and tenacity, Pat’s mother Mary Tillman broke through the lies the military told the Tillman family about his death, seeking the truth, however painful it might be.

In fact, both Mary Tillman and Pat’s father Patrick came from families which believed in military service. Mary’s father and brother were Marines. Patrick’s father and two uncles were in the Navy and were in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed.

Pat Tillman was already playing professional football for the Arizona Cardinals when 9/11 happened. Kevin Tillman was a minor league baseball player. They decided to enlist in the Army together in May 2002. Pat was celebrated by the media for his patriotic sacrifice because he was walking away from a $3.6 million contract. Without an insider’s view such as this book, we would not know that Pat considered peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer, to be his hero.

Pat and Kevin were in the same platoon when Pat was killed in Afghanistan in April 2004, but Kevin was separated from his brother and did not see what happened. As presented by the Army to the family and the public, Pat died while charging up a hill toward the enemy to protect his fellow Army Rangers. Pat was posthumously awarded a Silver Star, Purple Heart and a promotion. The military said that his death was “in the line of devastating enemy fire.”

Five weeks later, it was revealed that the cause of Pat’s death was “friendly fire.” An unofficial meeting was held with family members based on an investigation immediately after the incident. At the first formal briefing, Mary Tillman noticed significant inconsistencies with the previous report and many questions were simply not answered.

Although Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona had spoken at Pat’s memorial service when he was a fallen hero, when Pat’s mother appealed to Sen. McCain for help in investigating the cover-up within the military, she found him less helpful.

By late 2006, Kevin’s perspective had changed dramatically. He posted an eloquent piece on Truthdig.com entitled, “After Pat’s Birthday.” To get the full impact, it really should be read in its entirety, but some excerpts follow:

“Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military. ....

“Somehow profiting from the tragedy and horror is tolerated. ....

“Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe. ...

“Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.”

Over a period of three years, Mary Tillman amassed thousands of pages of documents, most of which were heavily censored by the military.

In April 2007, the Senate Oversight and Government Reform Committee held hearings entitled “Misleading Information from the Battlefield.” Kevin Tillman testified, as did former Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who told the committee about the false statements the military made about her capture in Iraq in March 2003.

Kevin Tillman’s testimony, which can be viewed in CNN’s video archives, maintains that the five weeks in which the truth about his brother was suppressed was intended to prevent another political disaster during the period when the scandal about torture at the Abu Ghraib prison was the top news item.

However, neither Sen. Waxman nor the other Democrats on the committee asked the top-ranking military officials the tough questions that Mary Tillman had primed them to ask. The sanctity of the military authority went essentially unchallenged.

Although this is a heart-wrenching story of grief and betrayal, it ultimately inspires optimism. In the face of the terrible truth about what really happened to their son, Mary, Kevin and other members of the Tillman family grew and changed. And their love for each other and for Pat shone steadily throughout.