Part II: Tragedy

Tillman death marred by Pentagon

This series of columns is about a hero - a true hero.

It's not about a Dan Marino or a Babe Ruth or a Peyton Manning or a Michael Jordan. The world of sports overuses the word "hero" in its everyday vocabulary. But in recent times, the word - in association with sports - can be given to one person: Pat Tillman.

Tillman was the NFL player who gave up millions of dollars to enlist in the U.S. Army because of his loyalty to America after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was killed by friendly fire, or fratricide, on April 22, 2004.

Tillman is making news again, but for all the wrong reasons.

Three weeks ago, members of Tillman's family made their first public appearance together, appealing for the truth about what happened. Their questions focus on how the specifics of his death were covered up. The Army knew immediately that his death was the result of fratricide and there is a paper trail of the knowledge leading all the way up the chain of command. The family was not told he was killed by fratricide until May 29, 2004.

But that's not the ugly part. Not only did the Bush administration take advantage of their own fictitious reports for public notoriety, the Army covered up its own investigations that concluded with its own negligence.

The truth of the tragedy is Tillman's Ranger platoon was split in two because of the decision of commanders. It was one part of the two elements firing on the other near the time of sunset that resulted in Tillman's death.

There were two anomalies the platoon was dealing with that day: splitting the platoon and traveling by day instead of by night. Both were the result of bureaucratic nonsense. There was nothing tactically critical about arriving on their objective on any deadline. Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, who was the third investigator of the incident, said there was a false sense of urgency created by political pressure to put boots on the ground in a certain area to show progress.

The standard operating procedure of the Ranger elements was traveling by night and clearing villages of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters by day. But the Black Sheep platoon, which Tillman's second platoon of Alpha Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion is called, had a problem that fateful day. They had a broken-down Humvee that commanders in Camp Salerno, the Army's Forward Operating Base in the province of Khowst, had a hard time figuring out what they wanted to do with. So after a long day in the village of Magarah, which frustrated the Rangers to no end because enemies had a long time to learn of their presence, a commander at Salerno ordered the 35-man, 11-vehicle Black Sheep platoon split in two. This decision was against major arguments from the platoon leader.

One group (Serial 1) escorted the broken-down Humvee to a pickup point. The other group (Serial 2), of which Tillman was a part, went on - up and through a narrow canyon and out of radio contact - to the village of Manah. When Serial 2 reached the pickup point, it was supposed to hightail it back and then up the canyon to link up with Serial 1.

It was late afternoon when the two elements split and about 15 minutes into their trek to the pickup point, Serial 2 had to turn around, because the road it was traveling on became too treacherous to tow the Humvee. As troops climbed into the canyon (that Serial 1 had just traveled through) and hit the narrowest part, a small handful of enemy soldiers launched an ambush.

The ambush was deemed more of an annoyance than an attack because of their distance away and weapons used. The enemy combatants positioned themselves way up on the ridge of the canyon and fired rocket-propelled grenades, which didn't directly hit the Rangers. In response, Serial 2 unloaded with nearly everything they had toward the ridge. It was the first firefight for most of the Rangers. Plus, most of them had a hard time seeing because of the position of the sun, and then fired in the direction of their squad leader without identifying their target. The enemy combatants simply ducked behind the ridge to get away and reposition.

All the while, Serial 1 - which was near its objective (the village of Manah) - heard the commotion down in the canyon and went back down into it to support their brothers. Unable to get a safe vantage of the enemy, Tillman and another Ranger (along with an Afghan friendly), climbed a hill to engage the enemy.

But once they came into view of Serial 2, the Afghan friendly was believed to have been a regular Afghan by Serial 2 and killed. According to testimony, Tillman and the other Ranger waved their arms, yelled "cease-fire" and set off a smoke grenade to show themselves as friendly.

The shooting stopped.

Thinking they were safe, Tillman and Spc. Bryan O'Neal stood up and began talking. But then the shooting resumed. Tillman was hit in the wrist, arm and leg with shrapnel and his body armor was riddled with bullets. Two other Rangers, the platoon leader and his radio-telephone operator, up the canyon near Manah, also were injured by shrapnel.

O'Neal, who tried burying himself in the surrounding rocks when the shooting commenced, testified: "I could hear the pain in his voice as he called out, 'Cease-fire. Friendlies. I am Pat f--ing Tillman, dammit.' He said this over and over until he stopped," having been hit by three bullets in the forehead.

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Carl Hennell is a sports reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. He was a parachute infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C., for three years. He can be reached at 758-4446 or chennell@dailyinterlake.com. Next Monday's Part III will focus on the five investigations into Tillman's death.