Pat Tillman's father to Army investigator: 'F— you … and yours'
Aug 13, 2010, 12:15 PM EDT
No story in recent years has been as baffling, disheartening and frustrating as that surrounding the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, who was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in April of 2004 as a member of the Army Rangers. And as much as we think we know about the facts surrounding Tillman’s death, apparently we don’t know the half of it. The Tillman Story, an already-controversial documentary on his death and subsequent military coverup, premiered in New York on Monday. On Aug. 20 it debuts in Los Angeles and New York.
The Weinstein Company, which is distributing the film, sent the Huffington Post two previously unseen letters written by Tillman’s father, Pat Sr., to Brigadier General Gary M. Jones (the man spearheading the investigation) as well as the Senate Armed Services Committee (which oversaw Jones’s work). They posted them today, and they’re really worth a read. There has been much focus on Tillman’s mom, Mary, due mostly to her book Boots On the Ground By Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman, in which she examines the convoluted path of the military’s — and the Bush Administration’s — clumsy coverup. But the letters now shine a brighter light on the frustrations of the father, who time and again ran into brick walls trying to get straight answers on what happened to his son.
Excerpt from Tillman Sr.’s letters, via The Huffington Post:
“You are a General,” Tillman’s father writes Jones after being presented with a briefing book of his findings. “There is no way a man like you, with your intelligence, education, military experience, responsibilities (primarily for difficult situations), and rank… believes the conclusions reached in the March 31, 2005 Briefing Book. But your signature is on it. I assume, therefore, that you are part of this shameless bull****. I embarrassed myself by treating you with respect [on] March 31, 2005. I thought your rank deserved it and anticipated something different from the new and improved investigation. I won’t act so hypocritically if we meet again.
“The Rangers stand for something — to this day, in my mind, the best. None of the five (5) soldiers on the ground, nor anyone in a discretionary capacity involved in this “Briefing Book” deserves to be affiliated with the Rangers. If your uniforms are so decorated, you should remove those items.
“In sum: F*** you … and yours.”
Perhaps the most in-demand person at the documentary after-party on Monday was Russell Baer, an Army Ranger Specialist and good friend of Tillman’s who served alongside Tillman and his brother Kevin in Afghanistan.
In the film, Baer explains how his army commanders instructed him to lie to Tillman’s family about his death, propping up the myth that Tillman was killed during a Taliban ambush rather than by his fellow American soldiers.
And while the Tillman family cooperated with the documentary — Pat’s mother, Dannie, and father, Pat Sr. as well as younger brother Richard and his widow Marie all appear on-camera over the course of the film — none was in New York for the premiere.
“Their response was, ‘Why would we come to that?’” [director Amir] Bar-Lev said during a Q&A at Michael’s. “They have a really strong sense of what is public and what is private in a time when so many of us seem to have lost that.”
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Pat Tillman’s Father To Army Investigator: ‘F— You … And Yours’ [Huffington Post]
‘The Tillman Story’ Premieres In New York [Huffington Post]
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- chris - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:22 PM
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The problem is that to many, even to those military, there is a sense of shame to be a victim of friendly fire. Friendly fire happened even in the days before gunpowder but as weapons became longer range the likelihood of serious injury or death has become a very real danger on the battlefield. Once could say that we need to stop firing so close but then casualties from enemy fire would be much higher than we are experiencing through friendly fire. Pin point accuracy and good communications limit friendly fire deaths but people and technology aren’t perfect so more casualties will happen and there is nothing shameful about being accidently killed by one of your own in battle. Despite this, I have seen injured US soldiers fight long and hard against a finding of friendly fire as the cause of their injuries because they feel less “honorable”. Civilians often adopt the same attitude out of ignorance and often assume that if there is friendly fire there has to be negligence on somebodies (even the injured) part. That isn’t true and we need to get over the shame of it.
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- geo75 - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:26 PM
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Hey pop you made your point,he did not play that great of football,so back off…………….
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- Fred Priestman - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:31 PM
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I agree with the Tillman family, the Bush administration used Pat Tillman’s death as a propaganda tool to sell the war that was going badly. Bush lied again, the Army lied again and then the cover-up began, right from day one. There is more to this story and it should be investigated. I salute Pat Tillman, a true hero and my thoughts are with his family.
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- Acoustictherapy - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:31 PM
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Well said, Chris.
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- Whatever. - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:33 PM
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Get over yourself.
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- Acoustictherapy - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:33 PM
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P.S. geo75 is an idiot.
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- Silent_Bob - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:33 PM
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Regardless of negligence, the truth should have been told. Thats a disgrace.
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- jk - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:34 PM
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geo75 – You’re a disgrace to humanity. This family has a right to their anger and rage. They gave a son to the military and in return got bull****. You should be ashamed, geo, ashamed.
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- Bob - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:34 PM
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Why all the crap over a person-I was going to type “man”, who basically guit a very well paying job, deserted his family, and who wanted to go play soldier to massage his ego.
I also question as to how he became an E-3 after only six months in the army.
As for the “friendly” fire–don’t bet it was ever so friendly, he problably shot his mouth off too many times. That kind of “friendly” fire weeded out that kind of trash quickly in Viet Nam.
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- chris - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:37 PM
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BTW, BG Jones told it like it was and admitted the cover up so what is the big deal. Yeah, the mother wanted to claim for a long time that Pat was deliberately killed by his fellow soldiers but that patently ridiculous from the get go. Most of the disagreements the Tillman family had with his report were caused by their lack of knowledge of how things work in the military. For example, flak vests are commonly burned when covered with blood as they are considered hazardous waste. I know this because some soldiers who had theirs burned when injured later had to prove it was properly lost so they didn’t have to pay for it (Yes, that is screwed up. Personal paperwok covered in blood is too. Also, under casualty procedures any personal writings that are not related to the family are often not returned either. For example, letters to or from a girlfriend are not returnes nor is anything which may be considered embarrassing to the dead or their relatives. However, the Tillman family continue to insist the burning of the flak vest is some sign of a conspiracy. If it is it is pretty widespread since the things are burned as waste all of the time. Those burn pits are in the news lately so look it up if you don’t believe me. Moreover, to tell the guy who basically admitting the cover up and telling it straight what happened to “F off” is pretty tacky even for a grieving parent. Especially when you consider adding the “yours” to it means your telling his family to “F off” too. The status of grieving parent only goes so far in excusing bad behavior. The Tillman’s have made their point, move on…..
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- sleeptech - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:37 PM
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You said “he did not play that great of football,so back off…………….”
Do you mean that it was ok for the military and Bush administration to try to covr up what happnened because (according to you), whe wasn’t a great football player? What’s that got to do with anything?
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- ann - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:37 PM
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Your cavalier response regarding the death of one of our own American citizens who bravely put his life on the line and lost it protecting our freedoms reflects the lack of respect shown to the Tillman family by our military when they lied about the nature of Patrick’s death.
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- dgnr8 - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:39 PM
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What’s football got to do with his remarks ? Hope you dont experience losing a love one because of somebody’s stupidity.
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- clement story - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:39 PM
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Chris, the real problem was and is lack of leadership, lack of command and lack of training. Our troops are being trained in the field of fire, they are doing a great job, however mistakes are to many until they get the field experence; we have had some many top generals resign, fired, and just plain give up in this long, unplanned fiasico !
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- jk - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:39 PM
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Another idiot.
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- Colleen - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:39 PM
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That was not the problem. There was a plan on the part of the Bush administration to use Pat Tillman as a poster boy for the war in Afghanistan as an enticement to enlistment. Despite geo75′s inaccurate and tasteless assessment, he was an excellent football player at the peak of his career, and he had many admirers.
It all would have worked just fine, except that the Bush administration was already neglecting the Afghanistan war in favor of the Iraq war. Tillman was pretty thoroughly disgusted with the overall mismanagement of the conflict, and the neglect that was allowing incompetence and corruption to take hold in the country’s organizational and governmental structures. His communications home reflected that.
After the friendly fire, the government wanted to use him in that poster-boy role posthumously. This did not go over well with the family especially as more details emerged and a coverup became increasingly evident.
As the family pressed for investigations and details and the extent of the cover up became apparent, the military shifted gears to a smear campaign. For example, they attributed a remark to the company chaplain that the chaplain later said he never made – that in the investigation the chaplain reported that a soldier in Tillman’s unit told him when they were under fire that Tillman commanded him to “stop sniveling.”
There is some concern that in fact the shooting was not accidental. The company was ordered to violate several standard procedures, and the soldier who actually fired the killing rounds was transferred to Delta Force.
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- TheIdahoKid - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:40 PM
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As in real life, (censored) happens in war also, Tillman’s ole man is a mouthy (censored) who apparently in ball less…
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- Drizzt - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:41 PM
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geo75, you’re such a Douchebag…
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- RRR - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:42 PM
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geo75,You are a butt head
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- kiki - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:42 PM
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Bob- you are an idiot. He died for this country so fools like you can have certain freedoms such as posting such nonsense. If you knew anything about him he felt a sense of duty after 9/11 and chose to serve his country.
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- Dave - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:42 PM
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I am a Vietnam Veteran. 1/8thCav, 1st Air Cav, RVN; Shit happens in warfare, deadly mistakes are common. No matter how he died, Pat Tillman was, and will always be , a national hero. The focus on how he died is misplaced even though I understand the families grief. Trying to blame Bush , the Generals in command etc misses the whole point. The only people who knew what really happened were at the secene of the fire fight and I am sure did not want to admit they screwed up big time. There were too many penalties to do that. Honor Pat Tillmans memory by doing somthing to salute the men and women currently overseas in harms way and let the professional learn from this terrible mistake.
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- Jack - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:43 PM
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The Army, engaged in war and also “selling the product to the U.S. public” often do stupid, illogical things which seem brilliant at the moment. Tillman was a soldier, plain and simple, not God’s gift to the U.S. Army. He was hyped up by the PAO types within the Army to showcase the “yankee doodle dandy” soldier going off to fight the godless terrorists. BULLSNOT!
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- D for Democracy - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:44 PM
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I disagree wholeheartedly. Being a victim of friendly fire is an absolute tragedy and makes everyone involved incredibly angry. I don’t know what kind of soldiers you’ve been around but the way you describe it isn’t like the ones I have seen and talked to. Getting shot, or worse killed, on the battlefield is the same no matter how you got shot. The bigger problem I have is with the society that puts a different picture on a person dependent on who shot them. What a waste of a very heroic group of people.
By the way, does anyone know where Gary Jones ended up?
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- Don - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:44 PM
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So, Geo75, I guess since he didn’t play that good of football, he deserved to die by friendly fire. You are a pathic little slime ball. Frendiley fire is caused by stupidity from the ones either calling for fire or the ones that don’t no how to read the settings of the weapons. Better yet, Mr. Slime Ball, the ones fireing the weapons. The United States Government and its leaders don’t want to take responsibility for the actions involving this nation.
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- InAwe - Aug 13, 2010 at 4:46 PM
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You are a bitter man Bob and quite a jerk. If you knew anything about Tilman you would know that he joined the Army to serve his country post 9-11. Maybe you were playing soldier during Vietnam (if indeed you ever served) but Pat Tilman was respected by his peers in the Army and serving his country honorably. Oh and check a little deeper — it is pretty easy to make E-3 in 6 months — maybe not for you though.
