• Pentagon officials say officers to be held accountable for mistakes
• Tillman died in Afghanistan in 2004 after giving up NFL career
• Death originally reported as enemy action, weeks later revealed as friendly fire
• Pentagon to announce results of two investigations on Monday
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Pentagon investigation will recommend that nine officers, including up to four generals, be held accountable for missteps in the aftermath of the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, senior defense officials said Friday.
The Defense Department inspector general will cite a range of errors and inappropriate conduct as the military probed the former football star's death on the battlefront in 2004, said one defense official.
The official, who like the others requested anonymity because the Army has not publicly released the information, said it appears senior military leaders may not have had all the facts or worked hard enough to get the facts of what happened on April 22, 2004, when Tillman was killed by members of his own platoon.
Dozens of soldiers -- those immediately around Tillman at the scene of the shooting, his immediate superiors and high-ranking officers at a command post nearby -- knew within minutes or hours that his death was fratricide.
Even so, the Army persisted in telling Tillman's family he was killed in a conventional ambush, including at his nationally televised memorial service 11 days later. It was five weeks before his family was told the truth, a delay the Army has blamed on procedural mistakes.
The latest investigation has focused on how high up the chain of command it was known that Tillman's death was caused by his own comrades. Officers from the rank of colonel and up will be blamed in the report, according to one officer who has been informed of the findings." CNN Article
Here are the words of Pat Tillman's brother Kevin, on Pat's birthday (Nov 6), and death. This was right before the elections.
His letter to all of us:(click to read the full transcript)
"Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday."
"...although he supported the Afghan war, believing it justified by the Sept. 11 attacks, "Pat was very critical of the whole Iraq war." Another soldier in the platoon, who asked not to be identified, said Pat urged him to vote for Bush's Democratic opponent in the 2004 election, Sen. John Kerry. Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen White -- a Navy SEAL who served with Pat and Kevin for four months in Iraq and was the only military member to speak at Tillman's memorial -- said Pat "wasn't very fired up about being in Iraq" and instead wanted to go fight al Qaeda in Afghanistan. .."
Pat Tillmans request that his comrads vote Democrat
Blog post from 5/26/06
This article, just released this afternoon at cnn.com is an updated piece on their investigation into the death of Pat Tillman.
This detailed story is a must read. it does not speak of American military men who were off fighting in Afghanistan, but rather scared shitless inexperienced and undertrained BOYS who were firing weapons aimlessly in utter frantic fear of dying themselves.. completely ignoring training, orders, and yells of "friendlies" from those being fired upon.
It is a gripping detailed account.. It speaks of incompetence and an undertrained American force fighting in the middle of nowhere with no real idea of what the hell they were doing.. and then the calculated coverup from the bottom ranks up to the top.. not in a joint effort, but in a attempt to save their own asses (at the bottom) and to save the idea of a nobel war, and a presidency (at the top).
You can add Rumsfeld to your anger list as you read about the broken down humvee that had to be towed and the radio's that didn't work thus giving them no contact with others in their platoon.. CNN article 5/2006
