ESPN just released the first of a three-part series investigating the death of Pat Tillman, the former NFL football player who joined the army after 911 and died from friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.
The whole piece is excellent, and I'm looking forward to parts two and three over the next two days. The piece goes over the events of that day in detail, and, even more shocking, the mentality of the commanders on the ground:
In an interview with ESPN.com, [Lt. Col. Ralph] Kauzlarich [the Army officer who directed the first official inquiry] said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more -- that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."
Apparently losing your son to friendly fire is a lot easier to accept if you're a christian. More below the fold.
Tillman's mother, the one who is an atheist and is only concerned about why her son was killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire because he's now "worm dirt", had the following to say:
Pat may not have been what you call a Christian. He was about the best person I ever knew. I mean, he was just a good guy. He didn't lie. He was very honest. He was very generous. He was very humble. I mean, he had an ego, but it was a healthy ego. It is like, everything those [people] are, he wasn't.
And yeah, it gets worse:
Kauzlarich also said he was not driven to identify Tillman's killer. "You know what? I don't think it really matters," Kauzlarich said. "And the reason I say that -- you got to look at the overall situation here that these guys were fighting in. And somebody hit him. So would you hold that guy [who] hit him responsible for hitting him, when everybody was shooting in that direction, given the situation? We'll see how the [Defense Department Inspector General's] investigation comes out. But I had no issue on not finding a specific person responsible for doing it."
Yeah. The guy the Army put in charge of figuring out what happens doesn't really think it matters. Let's talk a bit more about Lt. Col. Kauzlarich:
Kauzlarich, now 40, was the Ranger regiment executive officer in Afghanistan, making him ultimately responsible for the conduct of the fateful operation in which Pat Tillman died. Kauzlarich later played a role in writing the recommendation for the posthumous Silver Star. And finally, with his fingerprints already all over many of the hot-button issues, including the question of who ordered the platoon to be split as it dragged a disabled Humvee through the mountains, Kauzlarich conducted the first official Army investigation into Tillman's death.
So if he doesn't care that much about what happened, why is the Lt. Col. taking such pains to try and cover it up with a silver star, a posthumous promotion and a purple heart (which should only be received from wounds inflicted by the enemy).
Seriously, get over there and read the whole story now. And don't forget that if Pat Tillman hadn't been an NFL star who joined the army for the love of his country (a love that he possessed despite not being a "Christian", mind you), we wouldn't have known any of this.
Update: As others have pointed out, it's possible to get a purple heart from friendly fire if engaged with the enemy. However, it's not possible to receive a Silver Star. As for the concern about the Executive Officer (XO) being in command, that was ESPN's writing, not mine, so I'll leave it be. It could be possible that the Rangers XO is the lead in the field, who reports to an Army CO. But that's speculation.