Monday was Memorial Day, the day where America recognises those who died serving in war. It is interesting that the US splits rememberance days across two; later in the year is Veteran’s Day, where the country recognises the contribution of those who have or are currently serving.
Fortunately for me, I don’t know anyone who died in conflict, so I thought I would share the story of Pat Tillman. Pat was born in California, and despite being scored low by college scouts on metrics such as “explosiveness” and height (Pat was 5’11, so essentially a manlet), won a scholarship to Arizona State, where his leadership and positive attitude caught the attention of many. After graduating with a 3.85 GPA and leading his team to an undefeated season, Tillman would be selected as pick 226 for the Arizona Cardinals NFL team.
Mr Tillman slotted into the Cardinals team quickly, and became a regular starter for the team, but in 2001, when the twin towers came down, he decided he had a more important job. Pat turned down a $3.6 million dollar contract to join his brother and enlist. Due to his fitness, attitidue, and skillset, Pat was rapidly recruited by the Army Rangers, the US Army equivalent of the Special Forces. Pat wasn’t going to be unloading trucks, he was going to be a “door kicker”.
Unfortunately, this is when things started going downhill. Pat thought that he would be sent to Afghanistan to flush out and destroy the Taliban that attacked America, but instead was deployed to Iraq, a war which he described as “fucking illegal”. Over time, he became increasingly more disillusioned with the war, and considered the whole thing a terrible waste.
On April 22nd, 2004, a poorly planned mission caused Pat’s convoy to be ambushed by insurgents. Guns started firing, and as Pat was working with less experienced soldiers, things starting going downhill, fast. When the dust settled, two soldiers, one Afghani, one American, were found dead. The latter was Pat Tillman. He was 27 years old, and had married his highschool girlfriend just a few years prior.
The year was 2004, and after massive support initially, recruitment enthusiasm was beginning to drop. The US Military were very keen to use Pat as their poster boy, the handsome NFL star who sacrificed everything to protect the country that he loved so dear. Which is true, but it missed out some key facts. I mentioned before how he had become very much against the conflict, particularly in Iraq. At his funeral, which was televised and had future presidential candidate John McCain speak at, spoke highly of Pat’s religious conviction, despite him being an atheist. And the final, and most galling, lie was that Pat had been killed by insurgents. It turned out during the autopsy that what killed Tillman were bullets from his own soldiers, shot a mere 30 feet away. This was the distance that Pat would be standing away from opposition quarterbacks while playing in the NFL, close enough to see the whites of their eyes. However, it wasn’t close enough.
It tooks years of effort from his family and wife to get the full story out, and it was never explained why his personal journals were destroyed. I understand that truth is the first casualty of any war, but this instance is particularly hard to stomach.
Regardless of this, the US Defence Force remains a force for good in this world, and is filled with good people.
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