Pat Tillman was the ruggedly handsome Phoenix Cardinals profession football player who chucked his career and multi-million dollar contract and heeded The Decider's call to join the War on Terror. He enlisted in the Army along with brother Kevin (whose eloquent birthday remembrance we published here earlier this week) and they became Rangers.Tillman took three bullets through the forehead in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in April 2004 that was covered up by the Army, which concocted a false story about his heroics. Tillman, whom The Decider would call "an inspiration on and off the football field," was indeed a hero, he just didn't do any of the things that the Army claimed he did.
The Associated Press, which has aggressively pursued the story since his parents first raised questions about the circumstances of Tillman's death, has just released an explosive investigative piece on what it says really happened.
The AP's key findings:
* All four of the men in Tillman's platoon who shot at him assumed that he was an enemy Afghan combatant and failed to identify their targets before firing, a direct violation of the fire discipline techniques drilled into every soldier. One of the four had severe eye problems.
* The platoon had nearly run out of supplies, was down to the water in their drinking pouches, and was forced to buy a goat from a local vendor. Hunger and fatigue may have contributed to the misjudgment.
* A key commander in the events that led to Tillman's death both was reprimanded for his role and meted out punishments to those who fired, raising conflict of interest questions.* Someone tried to jump-start Tillman's heart with CPR hours after his head had been partly blown off and his corpse wrapped in a poncho.
* Key evidence including Tillman's body armor and uniform was burned.
* Investigators have been stymied because some of those involved now have lawyers and refused to cooperate, and other soldiers who were at the scene can't be located.
More here.
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