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Patrick Daniel Tillman (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004) was an American football player who left his professional sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. He joined the United States Army Rangers and served multiple tours in combat before he was killed by friendly fire in the mountains of Afghanistan. Details about the circumstances surrounding his death have been the subject of controversy and military investigations.



He enlisted, along with his brother Kevin, who gave up the chance of a career in professional baseball. The two brothers completed the Ranger Indoctrination Program in late 2002 and were assigned to the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Lewis, Washington. He resided in University Place with his wife before being deployed to Iraq. After participating in the initial invasion of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he graduated from Ranger School.



Tillman was subsequently redeployed to Afghanistan. On April 22, 2004, he was killed in a friendly fire incident while on patrol. The specific details of his death and its aftermath are currently being investigated by the US Congress.
The Army initially claimed that Tillman and his unit were attacked in an apparent ambush on a road outside of the village of Sperah about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Khost, near the Pakistan border. An Afghan militia soldier was killed, and two other Rangers were injured as well.
The Army Special Operations Command initially claimed that there was an exchange with hostile forces. After a lengthy investigation conducted by Brigadier General Jones, the U.S. Department of Defense concluded that both the Afghan militia soldier's and Pat Tillman's deaths were due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight.
A more thorough investigation concluded that no hostile forces were involved in the firefight and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion after a nearby explosive device was detonated.
On July 26, 2007, the AP received official documents stating that the investigating doctors performing the autopsy suspected that Tillman was murdered.[


Jones reported that members of Tillman's unit burned his body armor and uniform in an apparent attempt to hide the fact that he was killed by friendly fire.[13] Perhaps most tragically, his notebook, in which, according to author Jon Krakauer, Tillman had recorded some of his thoughts on Afghanistan, was also burned, a blatant violation of protocol.[14] Several soldiers were subsequently punished for their actions by being removed from the United States Army Rangers.[13] Jones believed that Tillman should retain his medals and promotion, since, according to Jones, he intended to engage the enemy and, in Jones's opinion, behaved heroically.[13]

On July 26, 2007, Chris Matthews reported on Hardball that Tillman's death may have been a case of fragging - specifically that the bullet holes were tight and neat, suggesting a shot at close range. Matthews based his speculation on a report from the doctors who investigated Tillman's body. The following day the Associated Press reported that a doctor who examined Tillman's body after his death wrote, "The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described,"[23] also noting that the wound entrances appeared as though he had been shot with an M16 rifle from less than 10 yards (9 m) away. A possible motive, however, has never been identified. According to one of his fellow soldiers, Tillman "was popular among his fellow soldiers and had no enemies".[18]


In addition:[23]

• There has never been evidence of enemy fire found on the scene, and no members of Tillman's group had been hit by enemy fire.
• The three-star general who withheld details of Tillman's death from his parents for a number of months, told investigators "he had a bad memory, and could not recall details of his actions" on more than 70 occasions.
• Army attorneys congratulated each other in emails for impeding criminal investigation as they concluded Tillman's death was the result of friendly fire, and that only administrative, or non-criminal, punishment was indicated.
• Army doctors told the investigators that these wounds suggested murder and urged them to launch a criminal investigation[24]
• It has been revealed that there were never-before-mentioned US snipers in the second group that had encountered Tillman's squad[24]

tl'dr: A NFL star saftey leaves all his glamor behind to fight in Iraq. He is then killed by friendly fire, medics say he is murderd and his squad burns the evidence. The government, knowing this lies and say he died fighting the enemies to boost moral and use it as propoganda. They don't tell his family till months later, after covering yp everything.

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koguryospy

I believe he was murdered.

Sakumo

I'm thinking no. I think he either faked his death because he was tired of all the publicity and re-entered the country with another name. Also, friendly fire does not quite count as a murder.

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Espada1

Is the army that dangerous?

Lalafell

All this bullshit about celebrity deaths and possible murders are just stupid.
There's no point in even trying to formulate your own opinion on the matter because you only have information that's been shoved down your throat by the media.
You never know the facts with these things
If you want the truth, you can wait for their celebrity judges and celebrity lawyers to decide it.

Just felt like saying that, proceed.

ButPirate

Um.....they already admitted to it being friendly fire. I do not classify that as murder (as someone has also stated) tho.

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Pluto

If the shots were so close, and it was friendly fire, it was probably murder.

Because 1) Unless that explosive went off near them and made everything a confusing smokey mess, the shooter would've known that he was friendly; and 2) They tried burning the evidence.

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Groteske

I just voted and my vote made them all 4's!

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Paladuck

Friendly fire = murder, if you did it intentionally. The way the article is phrased it made it seem like someone intentionally killed him. But then again it does seem a little biased...who knows what happened.

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Ithian

all 5's now

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