You Can't Handle The Truthiness

One episode that has stuck in my craw for quite some time is the death of Pat Tillman. You may recall Tillman as the hard-hitting NFL safety who walked away from a huge contract extension to join the Army Rangers in Afghanistan. Tillman was killed by friendly fire during an ambush, but the details of his death were covered for some time; indeed, his funeral was yet another cynical opportunity for the armchair warriors to exult in their overall cause, including Iraq. After a year of covering it up, the details of the accidental killing were finally released. And now the Army is launching a criminal investigation into the incident.

The Department of Defense inspector general has asked the Army to open a criminal investigation into the death of Army Cpl. Pat Tillman, the football star turned soldier who was killed in Afghanistan by his fellow Rangers nearly two years ago.

The request, which came out of the inspector general's review of four previous investigations of the April 22, 2004, shooting, will likely lead investigators from the Army Criminal Investigation Command to return to Afghanistan and conduct a monthslong investigation into whether Tillman's death may have been a homicide, the result of criminal negligence or an accident, said an Army official who asked to remain anonymous.

Everything I have read about the incident seems to indicate that it really was an accident. Friendly fire is unfortunately not at all uncommon in war, obviously. The real crime here was the cover-up, which included destroying Tillman's body armor and equipment immediately after his death, thus obviously hampering any investigation into the details surrounding the incident.

As with so many other things, if there was truly no wrongdoing, then why all the effort to cover it up?

Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, told The Chronicle on Saturday that while he was gratified by the inspector general's recommendation, he was concerned about the Army "investigating itself" and said he may recommend a congressional inquiry into Tillman's death and a possible cover-up by the military.

Well, good for Honda, but you can't help but wonder just how many other Pat Tillmans are out there, who will never get a fair shake on how they died. But this is a start, so you can't knock that.

"The first investigative officer indicated two years ago there should have been a criminal investigation, and the Army took his investigative report and sent it up to the regiment level in what he thought was an attempt to find the truth, but which appears to have been an attempt to cover up the truth," Tillman's mother, Mary, said Saturday.

"The whole family has been trying to say there is something wrong here -- it's been there from the beginning, and we've had to go through this horrible process for almost two years. The Army used him. They knew right away he was killed by fratricide and used him for their own purposes to promote the war, to get sympathy for the war, for five weeks."

She's right, and that's what was most galling about all this. They knew what had happened, and still used TIllman's funeral as just another pep rally for themselves. Truly shameful.

Military officials originally said Tillman was killed when his unit came under enemy fire in Afghanistan, a statement repeated a week after his death in a Special Operations Command press release announcing his posthumous Silver Star medal.

"Through the firing, Tillman's voice was heard issuing commands to take the fight to the enemy forces emplaced on the dominating high ground," the release said. "Leading his Rangers without regard for his own safety, Tillman was shot and killed while focusing his efforts on the elimination of the enemy forces and the protection of his team members."

It wasn't until the end of May, weeks after a May 5 memorial service in San Jose, that the U.S. Central Command announced Tillman died "as a probable result of friendly fire while his unit was engaged in combat with enemy forces."

In fact, according to documents obtained by The Chronicle, the first investigator had delivered a report on May 4, 2004, concluding that soldiers involved in the incident had committed "gross negligence" and should be appropriately disciplined.

I don't what practical result will come of all this, if it will bring other wrongful deaths that had been glossed over out into the light, or if it will simply provide some closure for the Tillmans. I do know that the Army did wrong by Pat Tillman, and that's reason enough to get to the bottom of it once and for all.