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'San Fran Chronicle' Probes Pat Tillman's Death, and Life

By Editor & Publisher Staff

For a lengthy page one probe of the life and death of former pro football star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, the San Francisco Chronicle examined more than 2,000 pages of testimony, as well as interviews with Tillman's family members and soldiers who served with him. Sunday's article by Robert Collier said the newspaper “found contradictions, inaccuracies and what appears to be the military’s attempt at self-protection.”...

The Pentagon belatedly confirmed that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire last year in Afghanistan. His family hopes a new inquiry launched by the Pentagon in August will answer some of their questions, for example, why testimony was changed and why the military waited five weeks to notify the family of the friendly-fire aspect.

The Chronicle also revealed that interviews “show a side of Pat Tillman not widely known -- a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought, and died in service to his country yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty. He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books on World War II and Winston Churchill to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author.”

The massive Chronicle article contains the testimony of a colleague who watched him die: "I could hear the pain in his voice as he called out, 'Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat f—ing Tillman, dammit.'” Tillman said this over and over until he stopped, having been hit by three bullets in the forehead....

A colleague who served with Tillman for more than a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, said: “We were outside of (a city in southern Iraq) watching as bombs were dropping on the town. ... We were talking. And Pat said, 'You know, this war is so f— illegal.' And we all said, 'Yeah.' That's who he was. He totally was against Bush.”

Another soldier in the platoon said Tillman urged him to vote in the 2004 election for Sen. John Kerry.

dcooper wrote:However, I think it's important to remember not only that Pat Tillman was a hero for forfeiting his NFL career to fight in Iraq, but also that he was killed by his own troops for what seems more and more likely to be revenge against his vocal opposition to the war. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that this wasn't just a accident, or even one or two rogue soldiers making their own political statement, but possibly an execution ordered by higher-ups to shut him up. Even the potential that this is a possibility requires that we shine a light on the events that happened so we can get to the real truth, not the DOD-created truth.

dcooper wrote:However, I think it's important to remember not only that Pat Tillman was a hero for forfeiting his NFL career to fight in Iraq.

czeskleba wrote:

dcooper wrote:However, I think it's important to remember not only that Pat Tillman was a hero for forfeiting his NFL career to fight in Iraq.

I don't know that I'd call him a hero for that. Extremely unselfish, definitely. But "hero" to me connotes bravery and self sacrifice beyond the norm. I guess we could say he's heroic in the sense that anyone who joins the military with the sincere goal of protecting his country is heroic. But does forsaking wealth somehow make him more heroic than the guy who gives up a job at the doughnut shop to enlist?