I watched an interesting documentary last week, The Tillman Story. Pat Tillman played NFL football for the Arizona Cardinals, and unexpectedly quit the NFL and enlisted in the army rangers following the September 11 attacks. I knew he had been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004, and there was a coverup, but didn’t really know all the details.
The film interviews many of Tillman’s family, friends and fellow troops. Private First Class (PFC) Bradley O’Neal described his surprise at seeing Pat Tillman reading the Book of Mormon. O’Neal noted that Tillman wasn’t religious at all (a huge understatement, Tillman is an atheist), but Tillman said he respected religious people. O’Neal offered to answer any questions Tillman had because O’Neal is a Mormon.
The are still discrepancies in how Tillman was killed, but here’s what likely happened. Tillman’s unit stopped when one of the vehicles broke down. After hours went by, someone decided to split the unit in half, send one unit ahead while the other half stayed behind to fix the vehicle. Tillman’s group headed into a canyon. Due to the high canyon walls, they lost radio contact with the second unit. Both units heard an explosion. Tillman’s unit did not know the second unit had started into the canyon, and the second unit believed the sound may have come from the Taliban. However, nobody saw a Taliban fighter, and O’Neal believed the sound may have come from an accidental discharge of a weapon, completely unrelated to the Taliban.
The stage was now set for disaster. The second unit irresponsibly started shooting at the first unit. Tillman, O’Neal, and at least one other soldier headed up the canyon on foot. O’Neal recalls praying out loud, and Tillman told him to stop, saying he wanted O’Neal to focus on the situation and avoid spacing out and getting shot. O’Neal said he was grateful for Tillman’s admonition. After a brief pause in shooting, Tillman and another soldier were killed from a barrage of machine gun fire, but O’Neal lived to tell the tale.
Everyone immediately knew that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire, but the military, wanting to avoid bad publicity about it’s most well-known enlisted man, concocted a story that Tillman had been killed in an ambush by the Taliban, and began a coverup. Troops responsible for Tillman’s death destroyed evidence by burning his uniform, body armor, as well as his diary. Soldiers who witnessed the incident were commanded to remain silent under threats that speaking would damage careers. Seven days after Tillman’s death, a memo was sent to all generals advising them that Tillman was killed by friendly fire, rather than an ambush that was still being reported in the media. Even at Tillman’s funeral, the military lied about his death. The incriminating memo was sent to 5 star General Abizaid, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and even President Bush. Bush’s speech writers told Bush to avoid describing the fake details of Tillman’s death in case the true story became public. The film strongly implies that President Bush was aware of the false news story of Tillman’s death and coverup.
The military promised to give Tillman’s family transcripts of all parts of the investigation into Tillman’s death, and tried to overwhelm them with the volume of information. The family was given thousands of pages of interview and radio transcripts in an apparent attempt to drown them in information. With the help of others, Tillman’s mother uncovered the truth and coverup, and his father sent a letter outlining potential criminal wrong doing by the military, prompting another investigation and congressional hearings. This time, the military decided to pin the coverup on a retired three star general, shielding higher ups from responsibility. The retired general had no chance to defend himself, and was punished by taking away one of his stars. (He was interviewed in the film as well.)
Tillman’s father is still frustrated by the military’s stonewalling, and still has questions about his son’s death, but feels he’s taken this as far as he can. What are your thoughts about the possibility that the Bush administration’s covered up Tillman’s death? What are your thoughts about O’Neals involvement in this unfortunate affair? Does this dispel the myth that “there are no atheists in foxholes”?
Wheat & Tares 
I think Pat Tillman, and countless others, certainly have dispelled that myth.
BURNED HIS DIARY?! If I were a member of his family, that fact alone would be overwhelmingly sad and difficult to get over, ever. When you add all the other offenses and lies….just too much to handle. Such a tragedy!
“No atheists in foxholes” is definitely a myth. In 10+ years in the military, I have served alongside people of a variety of faiths, including growing numbers of ‘nones’ (atheist/agnostic/humanist/nonreligious etc.). By my observation, Millenials (which account for the youngest generation of those currently serving) seem to have a higher rate of ‘nones’ than the previous generation of servicemembers (mine) do. This probably correlates with the well-documented rising rate of ‘nones’ in the U.S. generally.
People have different reasons and motivations for joining the military. I have trusted my life to good people of all faiths (or lack thereof), and have no reason to believe that a person’s religion alone can make him/her a better soldier/sailor/airman/Marine. If anything, my military experience taught me to get over the whole notion of “atheism = evil” that I was taught growing up.
With regard to Pat Tillman; his atheism should not diminish his legacy, nor should the scandalous cover-up surrounding his death. He was a man of remarkable character, voluntarily leaving a successful football career to serve a cause bigger than himself. In this era, its unheard of for a professional athlete to do something that. It would be refreshing to see someone like LeBron James do that.
mormon connection too – A lot of this research was done by john krakauer – author of “Under the Banner of Heaven”
I’m saddened to know that the Army bureaucrats would feel the need to concoct an utter falsehood in order to cover up the unfortunate accidental death of one of it’s ‘starts’, and that if Pres. Bush KNEW that it was phony, why he didn’t step in and in effect say, “screw you guys, I’m telling the American public the truth!”, IDK, but it doesn’t help what to me is already a tarnished legacy of our 43rd President.
OF COURSE you’ll find exceptions to the mantra, “NO Atheists in foxholes”…I doubt that a soldier, under fire and desperate to survive with all the chaos going on, is having a theological or philosophical debate anyway! Tillman’s legacy and accomplishments, as well as sadness over his tragic death, are in no way diminished b/c he’d professed Atheism. It IS interesting that shortly before he had a copy of the Book or Mormon on his person. If the man was sincerely interested, he’s had time to discuss it with the missionaries “there”, I’d rather he’d have been discussing LIVE with one of the LIVE missionaries “here”.
I recall years ago reading the account of a man, (I don’t remember if he was LDS or not), who’d been shot down over Hanoi in the Vietnam War and was held prisoner for seven years at the “Hilton”. His faith helped in large part to give him hope that’d he’d survive and be freed, but it was something he had before his capture, though he’d confessed to at times being slack about it. He said that many of his fellow prisoners “found the Lord” when likewise held at the Hanoi Hilton, but it was his observation that those that ‘found God’ there would likely leave ‘Him’ there as well.
What are your thoughts about the possibility that the Bush administration’s covered up Tillman’s death? About the same as my thoughts about the Obama administration covering up what happened in Benghazi. Neither actions are good. What are your thoughts about O’Neals involvement in this unfortunate affair? He’s lucky he listened to Tillman. Does this dispel the myth that “there are no atheists in foxholes”? Not really. There have been countless soldiers across the globe over time who, because of culture or personal belief, didn’t worship God or anyone or anything else in times of peril. Makes me glad we believe in a Spirit World. As an aside, I think Tillman would have joined the army, then have had to apply for and then undergo a separate rigorous training in order to be a Ranger. (Don’t want to get into an argument over who’s tougher – Navy Seal or Army Ranger)
Seals…any day. But that’s like arguing which movie monster do you want to be smashed to bits by: King Kong or Godzilla? Both elite outfits are awesome.
Still, I’d worry about having to face Russian “Spetsnaz” even in the lean times of the Russian military, those guys are baaaad….
The last 5 Star General was Omar Bradley.
Force Recon …
Or he was murdered by the Pentagon because he went from a gold star recruiting gem to an outspoken anti -war advocate.