The basic story of Pat Tillman is clear, and since he was a professional football player who dropped his football career to join the Army along with his brother after 9/11, he got a lot of press.
After completing Ranger indoctrination Tillman was sent with the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Lewis, Washington into Iraq in the initial invasion, then sent from Iraq to Afghanistan where he was killed on April 22, 2004 while on patrol. The initial report from the Army Special forces Command said that he was killed by enemy fire in an exchange of fire with the enemy resulting from an ambush. Gen. John Abizaid, the Commander of the troops in Iraq and Iran at that time, awarded Tillman the Silver Star, a Purple Heart and a posthumous promotion from specialist to corporal based on a detailed account of the heroic story of his actions - in a battle that never took place and which was known by the Army Commanders to have not taken place.
The Army Commanders immediately knew that Tillman's death was actually a friendly fire incident. So they put his unit under a communications blackout to prevent any communications with reporters and burned Tillman's body armor and uniform. The initial investigation conducted by Army captain Richard Scott concluded that Tillman's death was the result of a lack of discipline that should have brought serious punishment. The investigations by higher ranking officers that have since followed have reached much less harsh conclusions, so the individuals who actually killed Pat Tillman have gotten mild punishment if any at all, and the higher ranking officers have not taken any responsibility for what was a failure of leadership, more clearly in the aftermath of Tillman's death, but from what I have heard, also during the shooting itself.
As a retired Army officer myself, it looks like the living survivors get a lot more mercy than they deserve, the dead remain very dead and so get no mercy at all, and the commanders who failed to properly control the situation or investigate, judge and honestly report the aftermath continue on in their careers with no real accountability. This looks like a prime example of careerism in the military. Pat Tillman, his family, the Army and the American people all deserve much better.
Mark Kleiman properly points out how the Democrats should be dealing with this. Congressional Hearings to determine exactly what happened and why, both on a road outside of the village of Sperah, Afghanistan and later during the investigations and cover-ups.
EmptyWheel at The Next Hurrah adds her always considerable political wisdom to Mark Kleiman's proposals.
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