Investigating Tillman's death
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/SPORTS/603210349/1006

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Patrick K. Tillman stood
outside his law office here, staring intently
at a yellow house across the street, just more
than 70 yards away. That, he recalled, is how
far away his eldest son, Pat, who gave up an
NFL career to become an Army Ranger, was standing from
his fellow Rangers when they shot him dead
in Afghanistan.

"I could hit that house with a rock," Tillman said.
"You can see every last detail on that place, everything,
and you're telling me they couldn't see Pat?"

While fiercely shunning the public spotlight that has
followed Cpl. Pat Tillman's death, Patrick Tillman has
spent untold hours behind the scenes considering
measurements like the 70 yards.

He has drafted lengthy, sometimes raw, letters to
military leaders, demanding answers about the shooting.
And he has studied -- and challenged -- Army PowerPoint
presentations meant to explain how his son, who had
called out his own name and waved his arms,
wound up dead, shot three times in the head by
his own unit, which said it mistook him for the enemy.

"All I asked for is what happened to my son,
and it has been lie after lie after lie,"
said Tillman, 51, explaining that he believed
the matter should remain "between me and the military"
but that he had grown too troubled to keep silent.

After repeated complaints from the Tillmans and members
of Congress contacted by them, the Army is immersed in
a highly unusual criminal investigation of the killing,
and the Defense Department's inspector general,
which called for the investigation this month,
is looking separately into the Army's conduct in
its aftermath.

Senior military officials said Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld has expressed outrage to top aides
that the Army is having to conduct yet another inquiry
into the shooting, prolonging the family's anguish
and underscoring the failure of the Army's investigative
processes to bring closure.

Gary Comerford, a spokesman for the inspector general,
said the Army Criminal Investigation Command was
"dealing with events leading up to the death and
we're looking at anything after that." Though Comerford
did not say so, that could include the possibility of
a cover-up, the Tillmans said they were told by the
inspector general's office.

"I am sitting here on my own, going over and over and
over this for two years," Mary Tillman, 50, said in a
telephone interview. "The whole thing is such a debacle.
I am beyond tears. It's killing me." She criticized the
military and the news media for failing to find out
what occurred.

An examination by The New York Times of more than
2,000 pages of documents from three previous
administrative reviews by the Army of the shooting
reveals shifting testimony, the destruction of
obvious evidence in the case, and a series of
contradictions about the distances, the lighting
conditions and other details surrounding the shooting.

The Tillman family's first glimmers of distrust began
in the month after Pat Tillman was killed, at the age
of 27, on April 22, 2004. Within hours, military officers
came to the family home. No one mentioned that the
shooting had been at the hands of his colleagues.
Instead, eight days after Tillman's death, Army officials
awarded a Silver Star and issued a news release that
seemed to suggest he had been killed by enemy fire.

At the end of May, as the rest of Tillman's unit was
returning to the United States, the Army notified the
family of what it believed really happened. In the
months that followed, the Army assured the Tillmans
a thorough investigation would be made and those
responsible would be disciplined.

The Army's administrative reviews that followed have
left the Tillman family with more questions than answers,
they say. Some of those involved in the shooting have
provided shifting accounts of what happened, the records show.

That soldier, whose name, like many others,
was redacted from the Army files provided to
The Times by Patrick Tillman, said he believed
Rangers had changed their versions of what happened
and were not receiving the "due just punishment"
for what he concluded was "gross negligence."

Among a series of conflicts in the descriptions
of what happened, some Rangers said that in the
dusk they could see nothing more than "shapes"
and "muzzle flashes" even as Tillman tried to
tell his colleagues who he was, waving his arms,
setting off a smoke grenade signal, calling out.
Others said they saw and aimed for the Afghan fighter,
his "dark face" and his AK-47.

After the shooting, the Rangers destroyed evidence
that would be considered critical in any criminal case,
the records show. They burned Tillman's uniform.
They burned his body armor. Months later, the Rangers
involved said they did not intend to destroy evidence.

"It was a hygiene issue," one soldier wrote.
"They were starting to stink." Another soldier offered
a slightly different take, saying "the uniform
and equipment had blood on them and it would stir emotion"
that needed to be suppressed until the Rangers finished
their work overseas.

The family still wants to know what became of
Pat Tillman's diary.

Mary Tillman said the situation has left her wondering
what other families who have lost service members in
Iraq and Afghanistan may really know about the
circumstances.
_____________________________________

Investigating Tillman's death
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/SPORTS/603210349/1006

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Patrick K. Tillman stood
outside his law office here, staring intently
at a yellow house across the street, just more
than 70 yards away. That, he recalled, is how
far away his eldest son, Pat, who gave up an
NFL career to become an Army Ranger, was standing from
his fellow Rangers when they shot him dead
in Afghanistan.

"I could hit that house with a rock," Tillman said.
"You can see every last detail on that place, everything,
and you're telling me they couldn't see Pat?"

While fiercely shunning the public spotlight that has
followed Cpl. Pat Tillman's death, Patrick Tillman has
spent untold hours behind the scenes considering
measurements like the 70 yards.

He has drafted lengthy, sometimes raw, letters to
military leaders, demanding answers about the shooting.
And he has studied -- and challenged -- Army PowerPoint
presentations meant to explain how his son, who had
called out his own name and waved his arms,
wound up dead, shot three times in the head by
his own unit, which said it mistook him for the enemy.

"All I asked for is what happened to my son,
and it has been lie after lie after lie,"
said Tillman, 51, explaining that he believed
the matter should remain "between me and the military"
but that he had grown too troubled to keep silent.

After repeated complaints from the Tillmans and members
of Congress contacted by them, the Army is immersed in
a highly unusual criminal investigation of the killing,
and the Defense Department's inspector general,
which called for the investigation this month,
is looking separately into the Army's conduct in
its aftermath.

Senior military officials said Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld has expressed outrage to top aides
that the Army is having to conduct yet another inquiry
into the shooting, prolonging the family's anguish
and underscoring the failure of the Army's investigative
processes to bring closure.

Gary Comerford, a spokesman for the inspector general,
said the Army Criminal Investigation Command was
"dealing with events leading up to the death and
we're looking at anything after that." Though Comerford
did not say so, that could include the possibility of
a cover-up, the Tillmans said they were told by the
inspector general's office.

"I am sitting here on my own, going over and over and
over this for two years," Mary Tillman, 50, said in a
telephone interview. "The whole thing is such a debacle.
I am beyond tears. It's killing me." She criticized the
military and the news media for failing to find out
what occurred.

An examination by The New York Times of more than
2,000 pages of documents from three previous
administrative reviews by the Army of the shooting
reveals shifting testimony, the destruction of
obvious evidence in the case, and a series of
contradictions about the distances, the lighting
conditions and other details surrounding the shooting.

The Tillman family's first glimmers of distrust began
in the month after Pat Tillman was killed, at the age
of 27, on April 22, 2004. Within hours, military officers
came to the family home. No one mentioned that the
shooting had been at the hands of his colleagues.
Instead, eight days after Tillman's death, Army officials
awarded a Silver Star and issued a news release that
seemed to suggest he had been killed by enemy fire.

At the end of May, as the rest of Tillman's unit was
returning to the United States, the Army notified the
family of what it believed really happened. In the
months that followed, the Army assured the Tillmans
a thorough investigation would be made and those
responsible would be disciplined.

The Army's administrative reviews that followed have
left the Tillman family with more questions than answers,
they say. Some of those involved in the shooting have
provided shifting accounts of what happened, the records show.

That soldier, whose name, like many others,
was redacted from the Army files provided to
The Times by Patrick Tillman, said he believed
Rangers had changed their versions of what happened
and were not receiving the "due just punishment"
for what he concluded was "gross negligence."

Among a series of conflicts in the descriptions
of what happened, some Rangers said that in the
dusk they could see nothing more than "shapes"
and "muzzle flashes" even as Tillman tried to
tell his colleagues who he was, waving his arms,
setting off a smoke grenade signal, calling out.
Others said they saw and aimed for the Afghan fighter,
his "dark face" and his AK-47.

After the shooting, the Rangers destroyed evidence
that would be considered critical in any criminal case,
the records show. They burned Tillman's uniform.
They burned his body armor. Months later, the Rangers
involved said they did not intend to destroy evidence.

"It was a hygiene issue," one soldier wrote.
"They were starting to stink." Another soldier offered
a slightly different take, saying "the uniform
and equipment had blood on them and it would stir emotion"
that needed to be suppressed until the Rangers finished
their work overseas.

The family still wants to know what became of
Pat Tillman's diary.

Mary Tillman said the situation has left her wondering
what other families who have lost service members in
Iraq and Afghanistan may really know about the
circumstances.
_____________________________________