Pat Tillman

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Pat Tillman
Arizona Republic Photo.
Date of birth	November 6, 1976
Place of birth	San Jose, California
Date of death	April 22, 2004 (age 27)
Place of death	Sperah, Afghanistan
Position(s)	Safety
College	Arizona State
NFL Draft	1998 / Round 7/Pick 226
Retired #s	Arizona Cardinals #40 Arizona State Sun Devils #42
Statistics	CBS.com DatabaseFootball ESPN
Team(s)
1998-2001	Arizona Cardinals

Patrick Daniel Tillman, Jr. (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004) was an American football player who left his professional sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002.^[1]

He served in Iraq and later in Afghanistan, as a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, where he was killed. His decision, and subsequent death, were the subject of much media attention. More controversy ensued when, on May 28, 2004, the Pentagon notified the Tillman family that he had died as a result of a friendly fire incident; the family and other critics alleged that the Department of Defense delayed the disclosure for weeks after Tillman's memorial service out of a desire to protect the image of the U.S. armed forces.^[2][3]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Football career 1.2 Military service 2 Controversy regarding Tillman's death 3 Political views 4 Religious beliefs 5 Controversial criticisms 6 Memorials and tributes 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Football career

Pat Tillman was born in San Jose, California. He started his college career as a linebacker for Arizona State University in 1994, when he secured the last remaining scholarship for the team. He was a teammate of quarterback Jake Plummer who would later be his teammate on the hometown Arizona Cardinals. Tillman excelled as a linebacker at Arizona State, despite being relatively small for the position at five-feet eleven-inches (1.80 m) tall. As a senior, he was voted the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Academically, Tillman majored in marketing and graduated in three and a half years with a 3.84 GPA.

In the 1998 NFL Draft, Tillman was selected as the 226th pick by the Arizona Cardinals. Tillman moved over to play the safety position in the NFL and started ten of sixteen games in his rookie season.

At one point in his NFL career, Tillman turned down a five-year, $9 million contract offer from the St. Louis Rams out of loyalty to the Cardinals.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2002, eight months after the September 11, 2001 attacks and after completing the fifteen remaining games of the 2001 season which followed the attacks (at a salary of $512,000 per year),^[4] Tillman turned down a contract offer of $3.6 million over three years from the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army.^[1]

[edit] Military service

Pat Tillman
Pat Tillman
Allegiance	United States Army
Years of service	2002-2004
Rank	Corporal
Unit	2nd Ranger Battalion
Battles/wars	2003 Invasion of Iraq Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan (OEF-A)
Awards	Silver Star Purple Heart

He enlisted, along with his brother Kevin, who gave up the chance of a career in professional baseball. The two brothers completed the Ranger Indoctrination Program in late 2002 and were assigned to the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Lewis, Washington.^{[citation needed]} Both Pat and Kevin were deployed to the Middle East as part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Tillman was subsequently redeployed to Afghanistan, where, on April 22, 2004, he was killed in action by friendly fire while on patrol. His unit, according to the Army, was attacked in an apparent ambush on a road outside of the village of Sperah about twenty-five miles (forty km) southwest of Khost, near the Pakistan border. An Afghan militia soldier was killed, and two other Rangers were injured as well. The U.S. Department of Defense concluded that Pat Tillman's death was due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight. It was later learned that, in fact, no hostile forces were involved in the firefight and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion over an exploded mine or remote controlled bomb. The Army Special Operations Command, however, initially claimed that there was an exchange with hostile forces. A later investigation conducted by Brigadier General Jones found that the Army was slow to correct the story of a hostile exchange of fire after learning that it was false.

Tillman was the first professional football player to be killed in combat since the death of Bob Kalsu of the Buffalo Bills, who died in the Vietnam War in 1970. Tillman was posthumously promoted from Specialist to Corporal. He also received posthumous Silver Star and Purple Heart medals. He is survived by his wife Marie.

[edit] Controversy regarding Tillman's death

This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

A report described in The Washington Post on May 4, 2005 (prepared upon the request of Tillman's family) by Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones revealed that in the days immediately following Tillman's death, U.S. Army investigators were aware that Tillman was killed by friendly fire, shot three times to the head.[1] Jones reported that senior Army commanders, including Gen. John Abizaid, knew of this fact within days of the shooting but nevertheless approved the awarding of the Silver Star, Purple Heart, and a posthumous promotion. The citation report accompanying these awards said that Tillman was killed by enemy forces and contained a detailed account of the supposed battle--which Army leadership knew had never taken place.

Jones reported that members of Tillman's unit burned his body armor and uniform in an apparent attempt to hide the fact that he was killed by friendly fire. Several soldiers were subsequently punished for their actions by being removed from the United States Army Rangers. [2] Jones believed that Tillman should retain his medals and promotion, since, according to Jones, he intended to engage the enemy and, in Jones's opinion, behaved heroically.[3]

Tillman's family was not informed of the finding that he was killed by friendly fire until weeks after his memorial service, although at least some senior Army officers knew of that fact prior to the service ([4]). Tillman's parents have sharply criticized the Army's handling of the incident; they charge that the Army was more concerned about protecting its image and its recruiting efforts than about telling the truth.[5]

His mother Mary Tillman told The Washington Post, "The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting." Tillman's father, Patrick Tillman, Sr., was incensed by the coverup of the cause of his son's death, which he attributed to a conscious decision by the leadership of the U.S. Army to protect the Army's image.

"After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this. They purposely interfered with the investigation; they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."[6]

He also blamed high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the family and to the public.[7]

Later, Tillman's father suggested in a letter to The Washington Post that the Army hierarchy's purported mistakes were part of a pattern of conscious misconduct:

With respect to the Army's reference to 'mistakes in reporting the circumstances of [my son's] death': those 'mistakes' were deliberate, calculated, ordered (repeatedly), and disgraceful -- conduct well beneath the standard to which every soldier in the field is held.[8][9]

These complaints and allegations led the Pentagon's Inspector General to open a further inquiry into Tillman's death in August 2005.[10]

On March 4, 2006, the U.S. Defense Department Inspector General directed the Army to open a criminal investigation of Tillman's death. The Army's Criminal Investigative Division will determine if Tillman's death was the result of negligent homicide.[11]

On March 26, 2007, the Pentagon released their report on the events surrounding Tillman's death and coverup.

[edit] Political views

The September 25, 2005 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported that Tillman held views which were critical of the Iraq war and did not support President Bush's re-election. According to Tillman's mother, a friend of Tillman had arranged a meeting with Noam Chomsky, to take place after his return from Afghanistan. Chomsky confirmed this [12]. The article also reported that Tillman urged a soldier in his platoon to vote for John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election. [13] However this could not be independently verified due to his death in Afghanistan.

[edit] Religious beliefs

Tillman's religious beliefs are not totally clear, although by accounts, he was not religious. According to speakers at his funeral, he was very well-read, having read a number of religious texts including the Bible, Quran and Book of Mormon as well as transcendentalist authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau; his younger brother Rich stated that he "isn't with God... He wasn't religious."[14] Another article quotes him as having told then-general manager of the Seattle Seahawks Bob Ferguson in December 2003 that "you know I'm not religious".[15]

[edit] Controversial criticisms

In a column published on April 28, 2004 in the University of Massachusetts student newspaper, Rene Gonzalez, a graduate student, wrote that it was "hard to say I have any sympathy for his death", that he made "himself useful to a foreign invading army, and he paid for it" and was a "G.I. Joe guy, who got what was coming to him." ([16]) Many articles and blogs, including some of a personal nature, were published condemning Gonzalez. ESPN later reported that in an email to a television station, Gonzales apologized to the Tillman family "for all the pain that my article has brought them" and stated that he made his point "in such an insensitive way, that the article was not worth publishing" ([17]).

A May 3, 2004 editorial cartoon by Ted Rall [18] distributed by Universal Press Syndicate portrayed Tillman as a misled "idiot" who had enlisted to "kill Arabs." Later, after reports of Tillman's anti-war views became public, Rall said that he was wrong to have assumed Tillman to be a "right wing poster child", when, as reported to Rall, Tillman regarded the invasion of Iraq as illegal ([19]).

[edit] Memorials and tributes

After his death, the Pat Tillman Foundation was established to carry forward its view of Tillman's legacy by inspiring and supporting those striving for positive change in themselves and the world around them.

A highway bypass around the Hoover Dam will have a bridge bearing Tillman's name. When completed in 2008, the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge will span the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona.

Lincoln Law School of San Jose, CA has established the Pat Tillman Scholarship in honor of Tillman. Tillman's father, Patrick Kevin Tillman, earned his Juris Doctor from Lincoln in 1983.

On Sunday, September 19, 2004, all teams of the NFL wore a memorial decal on their helmets in honor of Pat Tillman. The Arizona Cardinals continued to wear this decal throughout the 2004 season. Former Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer requested to also wear the decal for the entire season but the NFL turned him down saying his helmet would not be uniform with the rest of the Denver Broncos.

The Cardinals retired his number 40, and Arizona State did the same for the number 42 he wore with the Sun Devils. The Cardinals have named the plaza surrounding their University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza. Later, on November 12, 2006 during a Cardinals game versus the Cowboys, a bronze statue was revealed in his honor.

Pat Tillman's high school, Leland High School in San Jose, California, renamed its football field after him.

In 2004, the NFL donated $250,000.00 to the United Service Organizations to build a USO center in memory of Tillman. The Pat Tillman USO Center, the first USO center in Afghanistan, opened on Bagram Air Base on April 1, 2005. [20]

Forward Operating Base Tillman is located close to the Pakistan border, near the village of Lwara in Paktia Province, Afghanistan.[21]

On Saturday, April 15, 2006, more than 10,000 participants turned out for Pat's Run in Tempe, Arizona. The racers traveled along the 4.2-mile course around Tempe Town Lake to the finish line, located on the 42 yard line of Sun Devil Stadium. A second race took place in San Jose. Sponsored by the Pat Tillman Foundation, a total of 14,000 runners took part. In 2005, about 6,000 took part in a single race in Tempe ([22]).

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Ex-NFL star Tillman makes ‘ultimate sacrifice’,Safety, who gave up big salary to join Army, killed in Afghanistan", MSNBC, April 26, 2004. Retrieved on November 23, 2006.
2. ^ Josh White. "Army Withheld Details About Tillman's Death:Investigator Quickly Learned 'Friendly Fire' Killed Athlete", Washington Post, May 4, 2005, p. A-3. Retrieved on November 23, 2006.
3. ^ Pat Tillman: It's Even Worse (December 6, 2004). Retrieved on November 23, 2006.
4. ^ "Pat Tillman", Salaries Database, USA Today. Retrieved on November 23, 2006.

[edit] External links

• An article about the struggle to define Tillman by both sides of the debate
• eight minute video highlighting Tillman's life
• Editorial: Facing Up to the Tragedy of War, New York Times, May 24, 2005
• Pat Tillman Foundation
• Tillman's sports page
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/a-coverup-at-the-highest_b_7878.html
• Links, Picture, and Biography
• "Kiss the Sun" (A Song for Pat Tillman)

• Gwen Knapp (May 4, 2004). N True hero athlete — Day's theme: Challenge yourself. San Francisco Chronicle. SFGate.com. Retrieved on November 23, 2006. Newspaper column about Tillman.

• Mike Fish. An Un-American Death. ESPN. Retrieved on November 23, 2006. Investigation into Pat Tillman's death.

• "Remember His Name". Sports Illustrated (September 5, 2006). Retrieved on November 5, 2006.

• Scott Lindlaw and Martha Mendoza (Associated Press). "Startling findings in Tillman probe", Yahoo News, November 9, 2006. Retrieved on November 9, 2006.