WMWG Part 12; 2004

2004 ...

·         April 7^th 2004 ... Pat and Kevin are deployed to Afghanistan.

New offensive – Operation Mountain Storm. Patrolling Afghanistan-Pakistan border to eliminate pockets of Taliban support in border villages. Data Khail and Zaka Khail tribes were the protectors of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in this province.

·         April 14^th 2004 ... Pat and Kevin, along with the rest of Alpha Company, began scouring the border looking for enemy forces. They never found much, making some soldiers think it was just a “Wild goose chase”.

·         April 21^st 2004 ... 14 pages of notes later and we come to where the book first opened. The day Pat Tillman died. When Alpha Company was patrolling the border, one of their Humvees broke down and was unable to be fixed, towed, or airlifted out of the area. Lieutenant Uthlaut was told by his superiors that he needed to find a way to get the damaged Humvee 12 miles to the nearest paved highway so the wrecker could take it back to the base. Uthlaut was also told by superiors, against his own thoughts, that he needed to split the company so one part could escort the Humvee to the highway and the other part could put ‘boots on the ground’ in the last village that needed to be patrolled in the mission. So the company was split and Serial One (the first 6 Humvees going to the village) and Serial Two (The last 6 Humvees escorting the wrecked Humvee to the highway) headed in different directions. But 15 minutes after splitting up, the Afghan who was towing the wrecked Humvee thought it would be a better idea to follow Serial One’s convoy. After turning back, Serial Two was attacked. A squad, including Pat Tillman, from Serial One scaled a small cliff to help fend off enemy forces on Serial Two. The squad began getting fired at from unknown locations and with weapons that the Taliban rarely used... Serial Two was firing at its own rangers in the squad. Since Afghan Military Forces were with the squad, that added to the confusion. Serial Two Incorrectly identified the AMF as the Taliban and began to heavily shoot at the squad. Many of the men of Serial Two that did the shooting were described as “trigger-happy” and was also said that many of them had never been in a firefight and did not positively identify their targets before shooting. Tillman’s autopsy later showed he was killed by a SAW gun that was fired by Trevor Alders from Serial Two.

·         April 22^nd 2004 ... Pat’s family was informed that Pat had died in an ambush. After interviewing Rangers from both serials, three commanders confirmed an investigation needed to be done.

·         April 23^rd 2004 ... Word went up the chain of command (The three major people involved in the case- McChrystal, Nixon, and Bailey) – even to the Pentagon and White House – that Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire. The Tillman family was not kept informed about the ongoing investigation.

The odd and irregular things done during Pat Tillman’s investigation are appalling. After Pat’s body was removed from the cliff, pieces of his brain and other various parts were still laying where he died. Supposedly, the parts were picked up and sealed in a canister to be put back with Pat’s body in the States. Instead, the canister disappeared and was never found.

Also, the standard operating procedure for when someone is KIA is to leave the uniform on the body until shipped back to the States for autopsy. This was not the case for Pat Tillman. Pat’s uniform and armor were taken off at Salerno and out into a trash bag before the body was flown to Bagram. A sergeant later testified that someone told him to burn the evidence in the bag. Including the last notebook Pat ever wrote in.

There are no words to profess how appalled and shocked I am that this behavior goes on during a governmental investigation of a dead soldier.

“Genuine leaders, like skillful chess players, must foresee the possible effects of their moves.” – AP United States History textbook.

·         April 24^th 2004 ... No rangers were allowed to tell Kevin, or anyone else for that matter, that Pat had died by friendly fire.

·         April 26^th 2004 ... Pat’s body along with Kevin landed at the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for autopsy. The medical examiners were furious that Pat arrived with NO clothes whatsoever; losing possible evidence that could have been obtained from the clothes. The examiners were told Pat was killed by the Taliban. The Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) was also uninformed about the suspected fratricide (When regulations state that ALL claims of fratricide be ran through the CID for investigation as well.) The CID was lied to by various legal advisors for the 3 investigators so the CID felt that it did not need to dig any deeper into the case.

·         April 30^th 2004 ... Pat Tillman was cremated. Silver Star was awarded.

While all this was going on, McChrystal was recommending Pat for the Silver Star medal. But all the recommendation material was written to say that Pat was killed by enemy fire.

It’s as if he was trying to make up for the fact that he was lying to everyone. What would the Pat rather have, truth for his family or a medal he received for fantasized enemy fire?

During this time things started to float to the surface. Things like the torture and abuse of Iraqi inmates on 60 Minutes and the combat in Fallujah. The Bush Admin. saw this as an opportunity to up the approval ratings so Bush could win a 2^nd term. Just like the Jessica Lynch story from 13 months earlier.

The Family Peace of Mind Act of violated when the Communications Director disseminated Bush’s statement of Tillman’s death less than 24 hours of the Tillman family learning of his death.

·         May 1^st 2004 ... McChrystal went from Brigadier General to Major General.

I have been taught since I was a child that if I did something wrong, I would and should take responsibility for my actions. My brain cannot comprehend the lengths these military officials would go to cover something like this up. Lying always makes everything worse.

·         May 3^rd 2004 ... Pat’s memorial service. The family was still not told of the fratricide. Days later, when the final report of the investigation said that Pat was indeed killed by a Ranger in Serial Two, the report ran up the chain of command and then simply disappeared when it got to Nixon and Bailey’s hands. On May 8^th McChrystal appointed someone else to do another investigation. The second investigation was completed on May 16^th and also said fratricide was the cause of death. This investigation was kept under tight wraps.

·         May 22^nd 2004 ... The Rangers returned to Fort Lewis.

Bailey testified later on that the only reason the Army finally came clean (May 24^th) about the lies is because Kevin was about to find out on his own what really happened to Pat.

·         May 28^th 2004 ... The chain of command decided to release the new statement on Pat’s death the start of the Memorial Day holiday so the story would be more obscured. The news ended up being leaked to the press before Pat’s parents could be notified.

·         June 16^th 2004 ... Tillman family received a briefing of the second investigation report. Disciplinary action was taken in response to Pat’s death. 5 men, including Uthlaut were busted out of the Rangers and sent to the regular Army. Bailey and Nixon were promoted.

·         September 19^th 2004 ... During a football game the Arizona Cardinals honored Pat with a halftime ceremony. Pat’s mother, Dannie Tillman began to seek out information on why the Army lied to her family and the Nation.

·         November 8^th 2004 ... After George W. Bush was elected for a second term yet another investigation was conducted to address the questions brought up by the Tillman Family.

Shortly after Pat’s death his friends and family created the Pat Tillman Foundation.