(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
This was just reported on ABC World News and apparently ABC Good Morning America also had a report this morning, video from that below.
EXCERPT: Jon Krakauer’s ‘Where Men Win Glory’
Krakauer Investigates the Life and Death of American Football Hero Pat Tillman
Patrick Tillman, former NFL player, made national headlines when he gave up his lucrative sports career to join the U.S. Army Rangers.
Tillman, one of the most potent symbols of post-9/11 patriotism in America, was gunned down by friendly fire in 2004.
Revelations abound in Krakauer’s new book, coming from interviews with friends and relatives, and Tillman’s personal journals.
Read an excerpt of the book below:
Excerpt From the Prologue
Ever since Homo sapiens first coalesced into tribes, war has been part of the human condition. Inevitably, warring societies portray their campaigns as virtuous struggles, and present their fallen warriors as heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for a noble cause. But death by so- called friendly fire, which is an inescapable aspect of armed conflict in the modern era, doesn’t conform to this mythic narrative. It strips away war’s heroic veneer to reveal what lies beneath. It’s an unsettling reminder that barbarism, senseless violence, and random death are commonplace even in the most “just” and “honorable” of wars. Consequently, and unsurprisingly, when soldiers accidentally kill one of their own, there is tremendous reluctance to confront the truth within the ranks of the military. There is an overwhelming inclination to keep the unsavory particulars hidden from public view, to pretend the calamity never occurred. Thus it has always been, and probably always will be. As Aeschylus, the exalted Greek tragedian, noted in the fifth century b.c., “In war, truth is the first casualty.”
Jon Krakauer’s book: “Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman”
Although it wasn’t Tillman’s intention, when he left the Cardinals to join the Army he was transformed overnight into an icon of post-9/11 patriotism. Seizing the opportunity to capitalize on his celebrity, the Bush administration endeavored to use his name and image to promote what it had christened the Global War on Terror. Tillman abhorred this role. As soon as he decided to enlist, he stopped talking to the press altogether, although his silence did nothing to squelch America’s fascination with the football star who traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a bad haircut. Following his death on the battlefield, the public’s interest in Tillman shot through the roof. The posthumous media frenzy shed little light on who he really was, however. The intricate mosaic of personal history that defined his existence was obscured by the blizzard of hype.
In the interview video above, from ABC’s “Good Morning America” we find out he was also in Iraq, but not only that he was involved in the operation to rescue Jessica Lynch. Even this author didn’t know about that untill he was going through the papers and reports preparing the book. Tillman apparently knew it was a bogus operation and that he might be used in similar manner if something happened, He Was Right!!
He also could have gotten out of the Army and never have gone to Afghanistan, but choose to stay and finish his commitment!!
2 comments
was interviewed today on The Diane Rehm Show on NPR. He has some powerful messages.
Jon Krakauer seems to find his ideal dream man and offers platitudes worthy of Ann Coulter as subsitute for facts.
With some 3 to 4 thousand journal entries, Krakauer and the widow select about 30 or so that most serve the widow’s self-image.
The main sources on Pat’s personal life are the widow, her sister and the sister’s husband. Hardly a cross section of the people that were important to Pat.
The brother is treated like a tool who just happens to hang around all the time.
As a friend of Pat’s. I find this portrait to be no better than the picture DoD tried to paint. Completely self-serving.