America At Large: So now Pat Tillman's death turns out to have been an own goal. As even those who have never watched a National Football League game must know by now, Tillman was the former Arizona Cardinals safety who spurned a $3.6 million contract renewal to become a US Army Ranger in the wake of the September 11th attacks.America At Large
He had already served at least one tour in Iraq and had somehow wound up in Afghanistan when he was killed on April 22nd in what was described as an "ambush" when his patrol allegedly came under fire near the Afghan-Pakistani border. The nature of his life and the supposed circumstances of his death conspired to elevate him to heroic status.
"Pat Tillman," New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft reflected in a conversation with me a few days later while the 2004 draft was in progress. "I've been thinking about him all weekend.
"Think about it," said Kraft. "When you consider all the qualities that make a football team great - courage, toughness, perseverance, hard work, and an almost noble sense of purpose - this guy embodied them all. In the end, he was the ultimate team player. I've been thinking about him all weekend, even in the draft room, because I don't think that we as a league can forget this guy. He was the kind of guy I'd want on my team - in any business."
At the time the voices of dissent were decidedly muted, although a University of Massachusetts student was reprimanded for writing an op-ed story in the campus newspaper in which he described Tillman as "not a hero, but a Rambo", and cartoonist Ted Rall received death threats after the publication of a cartoon which asked whether Tillman should be remembered as a hero, a sap, or an "idiot".
Just a few days ago - ironically enough, on the holiday weekend Americans celebrate as Memorial Day - it came to light that Tillman wasn't killed by terrorist-minded Islamic extremists at all. He was shot by his own team-mates in one of those bungled operations that calls to mind those reports which accompany the first day of deer-hunting season, when you can take it for granted that some trigger-happy sportsman is going to mistake either one of his hunting partners, the farmer's cow, or your family dog for a 14-point buck.
That everyone from George W Bush to NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue to we in the media - the player's likeness graced the cover of Sports Illustrated the week after his death - rushed to confer immortality after Tillman made the ultimate sacrifice is understandable. As a nation we were eager to believe the army's official version of Tillman's tragic demise, which turns out to have been a fanciful illusion - sort of like Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Consider Sports Illustrated's dramatic account: "The rangers scrambled out of their vehicles as they came under ambush and charged the militants on foot. Suddenly Pat was down, Pat was dying. Two other US soldiers were wounded, and a coalition Afghan fighter was killed in a firefight that lasted 15 or 20 minutes before the jihadists melted away."
Author Gary Smith may have been guilty of slightly embellishing the known "facts", but his description relied heavily on the army's account.
In the version given by an army spokesman who confirmed Tillman's death in April, the football star had been killed in a "firefight" on a road southwest of the US base at Khost. After coming under fire, Tillman's patrol got out of their vehicles and gave chase, a path which directly led to the ambush.
"Through the firing, Tillman's voice was heard issuing fire commands to take the fight to the enemy on the dominating high ground," another army version claimed. "Only after his team engaged the well-armed enemy did it appear their fire diminished."
Only six weeks later - after Tillman had been posthumously awarded the silver star and purple heart, been promoted to corporal, been lauded by Congress and had a plaza at the Cardinals' new stadium named in his honour - did the truth begin to emerge. Tillman wasn't killed by "enemy" fire, because there wasn't any enemy present. He was shot by his fellow soldiers.
Despite what were described as "constricted terrain and impaired light conditions", Tillman's detachment had split into two on this particular recon mission. Apparently somewhere in between the groups, a rogue land mine exploded. Assuming they had come under fire, both groups began shooting wildly at one another. Pat Tillman, along with two other rangers, was killed by what the army chooses to oxymoronically describe as "friendly fire".
Tillman was hardly the first soldier to have been killed by his men. In the American Civil War, Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded in an artillery barrage from troops under his command, and credible accounts have been advanced that Michael Collins' demise at Béal na mBlath might have come under similar circumstances. It hasn't diminished their heroic status - nor should it Tillman's, however misguided his participation in Bush's adventure may have been.
Interviewed by NBC news at the Cardinals' Phoenix facility in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, Pat Tillman may have foreshadowed his fate when he reflected: "My great grandfather was at Pearl Harbor, and a lot of my family has gone and fought in wars, and I really haven't done a damn thing as far as laying myself on the line like that."
"He gave up more than anyone I know to serve," said a fellow soldier upon learning of the actual circumstances of the football player's tragic end. "A lot of us sacrifice something, but no one sacrificed as much as he did to join. It doesn't really matter how he was killed. It's sad."
