After watching The Tillman Story, a documentary about a multimillion dollar NFL player who replaced a football in his hands for an assault rifle. Pat Tillman was then recognized by America as an american hero after passing away while in duty. His death was a mysterious, it had only led to more questions. One scene that really got to me was when his youngest brother Richard Tillman, got behind the podium to speak in front of dozens of people and to only say what one might call negative. When he had said “ He’s fucken dead, he’s not with god” it shocked me to hear that, i’m sure people who were at the service were as well. He did start off by calling him a champion, but pulled the plug when he said that. It bothered me a little because first of all it was a funeral service, second it was about his very own brother, lastly i have three younger siblings and i would never say anything like that about them in a situation like that. The on the flipside in a future interview he defended his statement by saying he was miserable at the time. Either Way i did not see what he did as acceptable.
One thing that surprised me in the documentary was when Russell Baer had quoted Pat. Along with his brother Kevin all three had been assigned to the same mission, which was to rescue Jessica lynch. As they waited for the go ahead on the mission they saw the city be bombarded with bombs. During the interview Richard had said “ that was the first time i have heard Pat in kind of like no kidding opinion on what was going on there, he just said ‘this war is so fucking illegal’”. It was earlier noted in the documentary that the army was not what Pat had expected. On top of that another part the really surprised me was when it was explained that Jessica was not the person the media had portrayed. The media had said that she was getting tortured and had fired up all of her rounds at the enemy before being taken hostage. As it turns out none of that was true. The following fact which made it even more strange was that there was a delay on the mission because the military wanted to bring in a combat camera crew to document everything. Hence why Pat, Russell, and Kevin were waiting for them to go rescue her.
A lot of thoughts came and stayed into my head after watching the documentary. One question that i still have after watching the film was why did the military blatantly lie in the investigation, when they interviewed Bryan O’Neal and he looked over the investigation footage it was obviously edited to serve the military’s purpose. O’neal had recalled seeing the other friendly force convoy stopping at least two times so that the convoy can fire at them, then in the video it shows none of that. Another question i got from this was why did Richard not fire back at the convoy? He even admitted to taking his rifle off of safety and ready to fire still knowing that those were friendly forces. I feel that if he were to take a couple of shots there probably would of a chance of Pat not getting killed. On top of that how did the convoy not see Pat's squad? If the other squad was able to see them enough to fire at them and Pat’s squad was able to see them too, how could there be a confusion on who was who or not having a visual on their own forces. Even after pat had thrown a smoke grenade which seized the fire for a bit, the other squad was still determined to keep firing at Pat and his squad, it all seems a bit suspicious. It all in a way leads to thinking that there was a motive to shooting at Pat’s squad and probably knowing that they were friendlies was part of the motive. It also leads to a bigger question, how trustworthy is Uncle Sam then? If the military went to such extend to cover up Tillman's story imagine how far they went with other stories we thought to be true.
One thing i definitely want to research is what is the punishment in the military for friendly fire. Another thing would be how often does Uncle Sam lie to us about what is really going on? I also want to do some research on what is the consequence for high officials like the generals lying in situations like Tillman’s. Another topic would be how often does friendly fire happen the military. Lastly, how many other stories are out there of families having suspicion on how their loved ones were K.I.A. .
One thing i definitely want to research is what is the punishment in the military for friendly fire. Another thing would be how often does Uncle Sam lie to us about what is really going on? I also want to do some research on what is the consequence for high officials like the generals lying in situations like Tillman’s. Another topic would be how often does friendly fire happen the military. Lastly, how many other stories are out there of families having suspicion on how their loved ones were K.I.A. .
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