The Tillman Story

Kevin Tillman, with his mother, Mary, testifying about the death of his brother, Pat, a fellow Army Ranger

THE TILLMAN STORY         B                     

USA  (94 mi)  2010  d:  Amir Bar-Lev      Official site

People have asked, “Why is Pat so special that so much attention is given to his death?” I understand that question. Thousands of soldiers and Marines have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of their families have also been lied to, yet those deaths have not received the attention Pat’s did. And Pat’s death continues to be in the news.

Pat’s story initially became news because he was well known for having played in the NFL. The government used his fame to create propaganda for the war. Pat is not more important or special than any of the others who have fought in these wars, but the truth of what happened to Pat — and to every soldier who has died — is important. The truth shines a light on systematic corruption, incompetence and lack of accountability in the military and in government.

Over the last five years, the Pentagon and Congress have had numerous opportunities to hold accountable those responsible for the coverup of Pat’s death. Each time they’ve failed. The government didn't just lie to us; it lied to a nation.

—Mary “Dannie” Tillman

Here’s a documentary about a recent newsworthy event where the audience already knows the outcome, as it was plastered all over the front pages, which makes it all the more difficult to make a compelling film that continues to hold the audience’s attention.  The real surprise here is not what happened to Pat Tillman, a pro football player for the St. Louis Cardinals, who after 9/11 enlisted into the U.S. Army Rangers along with his brother, Kevin, turning down a multi-million dollar contract to serve in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was eventually killed in 2004 by fratricide, or friendly fire, but that his story of selfless patriotism and heroism was immediately co-opted by various organizations and used as propaganda to help promote their respective causes, not the least of which was the American Armed Forces which immediately used him as a poster boy to help recruit young soldiers.  What we discover surrounding this film is an arrogance of war that includes a wholesale contempt for the truth.  While on the same battlefield where Tillman was killed, but ten minutes away, his brother Kevin was immediately quarantined by the Army and no one was allowed to tell him or his family what happened.  The initial reports announced that Tillman was killed in an act of valiant heroism, killed by the Taliban while saving the lives of his men, even constructing his final words “Let’s take the fight to the enemy!” that he was alleged to have shouted at his troops, which was the Army version reported at the family funeral.  But once the family got their hands on the 3000 pages of documents used by the Army to conduct their investigation of his death, most of it was lined out, suppressing the names of all the officers and individual soldiers interviewed, leaving the family wondering what really happened, where it soon became clear the Army, in direct violation of military regulations, burned Tillman’s uniform, body armor, and diary, all the evidence that could be used to determine what actually happened instead of the fabricated version touted by the military that immediately awarded Tillman a Silver Star, a Purple Heart, and a posthumous promotion to corporal for his valor, apparently figuring the family would be happy with nationwide adulation.

What is clear is that from day one, the Army has continued to misrepresent the truth about how he died and instead glorified Tillman into some kind of larger than life, mythical war hero.  When meeting the members of the Tillman family, from his mother Dannie, his father Patrick Sr, his brothers Kevin and Richard, and widowed spouse Marie, their family has a commendable history of service in the armed forces that Pat Tillman may have wanted to live up to.  Also since his brother enlisted at the same time, it’s possible he may have joined to protect his younger brother.  His actual reasons were never made public, as he was a private man who never wanted glory.  Instead he was a guy who rode a bicycle to the Cardinal training camp and never owned a cell phone, an avowed atheist who studied all the religions in order to show due respect for each, while studying Emerson, Homer, and even Noam Chomsky, where the picture his family paints of a quiet, reflective individual is radically different from the flag waving, Rambo-like status that quickly took shape in the media, very similar to the Jessica Lynch story, the Army private who was reportedly captured and being tortured in a hospital, requiring the heroic rescue of a special ops team whose mission was mysteriously delayed until after the arrival of an Army cameraman who could film the rescue live, all fodder for the evening news which ran the story as fed to them, only to discover afterwards that none of it was true, as she was never captured or tortured, but was wounded and being well taken care of in a hospital, with no need for any special forces.  Lynch afterwards accused the government of embellishing her story as part of a concerted propaganda effort to gain support for the war, a claim Tillman could not make in death.  His family was obviously uncomfortable with how Tillman was being misrepresented at the memorial service orchestrated by the Bush Administration that included high ranking Army officers and political dignitaries, where his younger brother Richard took the podium during the live coverage and countered “He’s not with God, he’s fucking dead.  He’s not religious.  So thanks for your thoughts, but he’s fucking dead,” causing the networks to immediately shut down their live feed.    

A few month’s later, the Army changed their story and announced he was killed in the heat of battle from friendly fire, calling it “the fog of war,” continuing to herald his heroism on the battlefield. Tillman’s mother, who was a schoolteacher, initiated a relentless barrage of phone calls trying to figure out how to identify the names in the Army report, literally spending several years of her life doing this, eventually quitting her job.  Mostly she came up empty until she discovered Stan Goff, a retired special-ops expert who is an author who runs an Army-related website:  Stan Goff.  While Goff never knew Tillman, his experience in Special Forces helped the family understand the mindset and vernacular used by combat soldiers in describing the events in the report.  What they attempted to do was fill in the names and missing pieces for all the blacked out details in order to make the report more understandable.  Director Bar-Lev even returns to the canyon where Tillman was shot and reconstructs the events of that day, where his unit was unfortunately separated due to a broken down vehicle.  When Tillman heard a blast and attempted to climb a hill to join and protect the other half behind him, he was mistakenly shot by his own men.  As to why highly trained Rangers would shoot at Tillman who was about 40 yards away, reportedly shouting out at them “I’m Pat Fucking Tillman!,” several soldiers remarked in the report that they were “excited” and “wanted to stay in the firefight.”  Unlike the Army which still contends they received incoming rounds of mortar attack, Goff and the family ultimately concluded there was no credible evidence the Rangers were ever under attack, but it was more likely a gun that simply misfired and the over-reactions of trigger-happy 19-year olds.  When they finally identified a moving target off in the distance climbing up a hill, they moved in for the kill.  “It was not a fog of war. It was a lust to fight.”

After several years of getting stonewalled from military inquiries, Tillman’s father, a lawyer, fired off a blistering letter where point by point he discounts the accuracy and credibility of the Army’s official report, basically calling it a fraud and accusing the military investigators of a cover-up.  Two days later, an Associated Press reporter received an anonymously leaked top-secret memo sent by General Stanley McChrystal to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, top Pentagon Generals and senior White House officials within days of Tillman’s death which acknowledges his death by “friendly fire,” but also warns of potential political damage should this become public knowledge.  All of which suggests that military officials were aware of this while they were concocting various fabrications on live TV as early as the memorial service.  3-star General Philip Kensinger, who spoke at the memorial service, was singled out for blame precisely because he was retired, though he is seen on camera expressing amazement that after a career of following orders that he was singled out for following this one.  This led to a sham Congressional hearing which the family attended, moderated by California Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, where Kensinger and most of the Republicans were not present, but one by one the highest ranking 4-Star Generals in the land, including McChrystal, Richard Myers and John Abizaid, as well as then retired Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, used the words “I don’t recall” some 82 times in their testimony, with no follow up questions whatsoever, only polite comments about holding the military in high regard, allowing cover for the  military to continue to avoid telling the truth while escaping any kind of accountability.  Ironically, it was General McChrystal, despite knowing the true circumstances of Tillman’s death, who signed the order to award him a Silver Star, claiming “devastating enemy fire.”  Years later McChrystal was promoted to head all of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.  Ultimately, no soldier was ever held responsible for Tillman’s death, no Bush Administration official was ever held accountable for inventing a false scenario surrounding his death, which was probably created ahead of time in the event he was killed, as he was the highest profile soldier in the Armed Forces, the only one to receive a personal letter from the Secretary of Defense commending them for enlisting, or for inventing Jessica Lynch’s fake heroic rescue, even staging it on camera, or for fabricating the trumped up lies that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq, a country that attacked no one and had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, not that the truth matters.