Nov. 9, 2006
Tillman Probe Reveals Startling Details
One Shooter In Friendly-Fire Death Of Pat Tillman Had 'Hazy' Vision From Laser Eye Surgery
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(CBS/AP)
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Photo Essay
Pat Tillman
A look at the former NFL player who died fighting as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan.
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They walked the landscape with surviving witnesses. They found a rock stained with the blood of the victim. They re-enacted the killings — here the U.S. Army Rangers swept through the canyon in their Humvee, blasting away; here the doomed man waved his arms, pleading for recognition as a friend, not an enemy.
"Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" he shouted, again and again.
The latest inquiry into Tillman's death by friendly fire should end next month; authorities have said they intend to release to the public only a synopsis of their report. But The Associated Press has combed through the results of more than two years of investigations — reviewed thousands of pages of internal Army documents, interviewed dozens of people familiar with the case — and uncovered some startling findings.
One of the four shooters, Staff Sgt. Trevor Alders, had recently had PRK laser eye surgery. Although he could see two sets of hands "straight up," his vision was "hazy," he said. In the absence of "friendly identifying signals," he assumed Tillman and an allied Afghan who also was killed were enemy.
Another, Spc. Steve Elliott, said he was "excited" by the sight of rifles, muzzle flashes and "shapes." A third, Spc. Stephen Ashpole, said he saw two figures, and just aimed where everyone else was shooting.
Squad leader Sgt. Greg Baker had 20-20 eyesight, but claimed he had "tunnel vision." Amid the chaos and pumping adrenaline, Baker said he hammered what he thought was the enemy but was actually the allied Afghan fighter next to Tillman who was trying to give the Americans cover: "I zoned in on him because I could see the AK-47. I focused only on him."
All four failed to identify their targets before firing, a direct violation of the fire discipline techniques drilled into every soldier.
There's more:
Investigators have been stymied because some of those involved now have lawyers and refused to cooperate, and other soldiers who were at the scene couldn't be located.
Three of the four shooters are now out of the Army, and essentially beyond the reach of military justice.
Taken together, these findings raise more questions than they answer, in a case that already had veered from suggestions that it all was a result of the "fog of war" to insinuations that criminal acts were to blame.
The Pentagon's failure to reveal for more than a month that Tillman was killed by friendly fire have raised suspicions of a coverup. To Tillman's family, there is little doubt that his death was more than an innocent mistake.
One investigator told the Tillmans that it hadn't been ruled out that Tillman was shot by an American sniper or deliberately murdered by his own men — though he also gave no indication the evidence pointed that way.
"I will not assume his death was accidental or 'fog of war,"' said his father, Pat Tillman Sr. "I want to know what happened, and they've clouded that so badly we may never know."
And so, almost two years after three bullets through the forehead killed the star defensive back — a man who President Bush would call "an inspiration on and off the football field" — the fourth investigation began.
This time, the investigators are supposed to think like prosecutors:
The long and complicated story of Pat Tillman's death and the investigations it spawned began five years ago, in the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center.
"It is a proud and patriotic thing you are doing," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wrote to Tillman in 2002, after Tillman — shocked and outraged by the Sept. 11 attacks — turned down a multimillion-dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the elite Army Rangers.
The San Jose, Calif. native enlisted with his brother Kevin, who gave up his own chance to play professional baseball. The Tillmans were deployed to Iraq in 2003, then sent to Afghanistan.
The mission of their "Black Sheep" platoon in April 2004 sounded straightforward: Divide a region along the Pakistan border into zones, then check each grid for insurgents and weapons. They were to clear two zones and then move deeper into Afghanistan.
But a broken-down Humvee known as a Ground Mobility Vehicle, or GMV, stalled the unit on an isolated road. A mechanic couldn't fix it, and a fuel pump flown in on a helicopter didn't help.
Hours passed. Enemy fighters watched invisibly, plotting their ambush.
Tillman's platoon must have presented an inviting target. There were 39 men — including six allied Afghan fighters trained by the CIA — and about a dozen vehicles.
©MMVI, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
These people who say they're glad we're in Iraq because they don't want the terrorists at home are foolish, selfish, and deceived. In the first place, anyone who accepts someone else's son or daughter dying in their place is pond scum. The terrorists have had open access to our borders since the Bush family brought us NAFTA. Last, the people masterminding all this mess live, move, and have their being in the CIA as much as anywhere else. I'm more afraid of them than I am a terrorist. Our personal liberties have never been more eroded.
Bush has said repeatedly he accepts responsibility for matters like this, so why has the Tillman case developed into such a fiasco of finger-pointing and "every-man-for-himself"? Didn't Rumsfeld want the truth? Apparently not-- despite direct appeals from the Tillman family, the truth about Tillman's death was inconvenient for even a man who stated he admired Tillman's courage.
Details of the truth took literal years to leak out, and the Army had to be jump-started repeatedly to proceed in its "deliberations". This gives all the appearances of a military command dragged kicking and screaming toward some unpleasant realizations.
Comparing administrative handling of the Tillman case to a game of career-risk "hot potato!" is most apt-- leaving the Tillmans and the American people not only saddened by the loss of Tillman, but convinced the military is anything but mission-focused.
Lack of mission-focus not only obstructed the Tillman investigation(s), but is also an apt metaphor for the whole Bush Iraq misadventure. Begun at the insistence of Bush, Iraq also involved splitting our forces and shooting blindly in all directions. This is an exceptionally low point-- among many others-- for leadership from the Bush administration.
I know first hand what military cover up looks like and feels like. My first husband, Kevin Andrew Johnson, also served in the Navy, was killed in an "Military Mishap", 17 Nov. 1991, deemed pilot error. Everything from finding the missing HM-53 Helo, to the JAG report issued some 18 months later, was a series of SNAFU's. If he had been a civilian and this "mishap" had happened, heads would have rolled until every question was answered truthfully.
I still have great respect for our military. What I don't understand is, why all the cover up and red tape. Can't someone, anyone, come forward for Kevin and for Pat and say, "I screwed up". "It was ultimately my fault". "I'm sorry". That's all I've ever wanted and I think it might be all the Tillmans need to hear.
Oh, by the way: I'm not buying that "I had hazy vision from eye surgery." I was in the military for 14 years and I would submit to you that Laser Eye Surgery is NOT done in theater, and the soldier would not have been returned to duty until he had properly healed from the surgery, which means his vision would have cleared. So if the Army is going to publicize the grizzly details, at least give us something believable.
"Friendly Fire" happens in war. In 1944 the Air Force bombed our lines not once, but twice in France - killing a general.
I don't think there was anything but a horrible set of circumstances, a group of tired soldiers, and a loss of situational awareness that led to his being shot.
Were procedures not followed - yes. Was there an attempt to minimize how much information got out - yes. Will anything be served by pursuing this into the ground - no. The young men who were responsible for this action will always carry it. Pat Tillman died for a cause - he was a patriot.
My heart goes out to his father and family, but it may be that there is no one person who knows exactly what happened - unfortunately war takes the lives of wonderful young men.
"Friendly Fire" happens in war. In 1944 the Air Force bombed our lines not once, but twice in France - killing a general.
I don't think there was anything but a horrible set of circumstances, a group of tired soldiers, and a loss of situational awareness that led to his being shot.
Were procedures not followed - yes. Was there an attempt to minimize how much information got out - yes. Will anything be served by pursuing this into the ground - no. The young men who were responsible for this action will always carry it. Pat Tillman died for a cause - he was a patriot.
My heart goes out to his father and family, but it may be that there is no one person who knows exactly what happened - unfortunately war takes the lives of wonderful young men.
The legacy of war never changes, it leaves ubiquitous innocent death, social destruction, lasting hatreds and unmeasurable despair...and usually solves nothing at its conclusion.
Nothing good comes of war...except perhaps an extremely expensive form of population control and occasionally new technology or two are developed. War is disruptive to all societies in so many ways and yet we continue to rationalize and accept, and validate the necessity of war. Again, I think that is the ultimate tragedy of all this. How does one apologize to those souls forever damaged by the fallacy and insanity of war? War is hell?
As ideal as this may sound, the horror will not go away until we embrace as a world society, somehow, a reality that excludes the insanity of war from our combined cultures.
There again just one of many. It was not a "cover-up" just one of those horribly sad things that happened. Look at Max Cleland. For years, he thought his wounds were his own fault until someone saw him on television and came forward to tell him the grenade that blew him apart was off someone else's ammo belt.
As has been noted, Pat Tillman died for his country and he believed in what he was doing.
The worst thing people can do is belittle that sacrifice by belittling a president even if we would like to see George Bush drawn, quartered and burned in effigy. With LBJ, we made the mistake of hating his guts and hating the war, and transferred that hate to our troops when they came home. Max Cleland has said in an interview that he's never really recovered from the emotional pain of his homecoming. That's what should make us ashamed. Bush is going to the ranch very, very rich in two years.We can't touch him regardless of what he deserves so why don't we quit calling each other names and start working on things that matter-how about better VA hospitals and benefits for vets. Maybe we could draft Max to run the VA again-it was the best then it's ever been.
This world is a much worse place without all the "Pat Tillman%u2019s" who gave their lives and limbs to protect our ideals and way of life. Heaven is a better place with Pat Tillman, Casey Sheehan, and all of their comrades in arms. Hell will certainly be much more crowded with the executives of Enron, Halliburton, KBR, and the 2000-2008 White House Mafia.
I agree these matters are better suited to remain between the families of the solidiers who died questionable deaths and the military.
However, If the public is not aware of the magnitude of cover ups and under disclosure of "accidental" deaths, These events will continue and no measures will be taken to try to reduce the number of incidents. As to your comment about lazer surgery for one of the shooters present at Pat Tillmans death, The Military has failed previously to certify or (up chit) at least one Navy Pilot, in the past, who was allowed to fly a Marine Helicopter, even after the discovery of a hairline skull fracture at which time a down chit was issued. I know this first hand from my personal copy of a JAG report issued in my husbands "Mishap". The Co-Pilot was responsible for the navigation. He coordinated the path of that Helo, sending it straight into the side of a mountain in Half Moon Bay, CA. This Soldier was also a commercial pilot for a major airline at the time. Is there a documented release (up chit) to active duty from the Tillman unit soldiers surgeon for clear vision, and if so, why? The soldier in question has said his vision was hazy. The Army would have every reason to withold a mistake of this magnitude. Please don't assume all rules,regulations and procedures are followed 100% of the time.
According to news reports from the San Francisco Chronicle and The Guardian in the U.K., Pat Tillman beleived the Iraq war was illegal, and told his fellow Rangers so. He read Noam Chomsky, the author who was against the Iraq war, and intended to meet with him after the his service. He also refused to be a war "poster boy".
A determination was made in the first investigation, done in a weeks time, that Pat's death was due to "friendly fire". Yet the Army presented a complete scenario to our press that he died from enemy fire, leading a charge up a hill. Fabrication. Known lies. This was upheld for a full month.
Can you really believe that one of the shooters who shot at Pat Tillman had laser surgery, and everything he saw was "hazy"? Another claimed he had "tunnel vision". These guys are U.S. Army Rangers? What's the truth here? It's very damning, whatever it is.
This is a much bigger story than Cindy Shenahan.
Where's the TV news talking heads and investigative reporters on this one??
You say "these guys were Army Rangers" as if that should denote that they should not make mistakes like this blue on blue incident. For the most part, the Army Rangers are young men who like the idea of playing war, but that doesnt mean that they are true "professional" soldiers like SF-ODA, ODB, or ODD operators are. Yes, the Rangers do have more training and have built a unit cohesion that is better than a typical US infantry fighting force has, but they are by no means immune to going blind in the fog of war and falling prey to stupid mistakes. There is a reason that the true "professional warriors" - SpecOps soldiers like the Green Berets or Delta commandos, loath the idea of having to rely on the Rangers as a support element in combat. Ask any Special Forces operator (many of whom went through the Ranger training in their first few years in the service) what they think of the Rangers as a fighting force, and you will not get rave reviews. While better trained than the general infantry, the Rangers are still rather typical, meaning that fire discipline and tactical foresight tends to fall apart rather rapidly in the face of percieved threats.
You say "these guys were Army Rangers" as if that should denote that they should not make mistakes like this blue on blue incident. For the most part, the Army Rangers are young men who like the idea of playing war, but that doesnt mean that they are true "professional" soldiers like SF-ODA, ODB, or ODD operators are. Yes, the Rangers do have more training and have built a unit cohesion that is better than a typical US infantry fighting force has, but they are by no means immune to going blind in the fog of war and falling prey to stupid mistakes. There is a reason that the true "professional warriors" - SpecOps soldiers like the Green Berets or Delta commandos, loath the idea of having to rely on the Rangers as a support element in combat. Ask any Special Forces operator (many of whom went through the Ranger training in their first few years in the service) what they think of the Rangers as a fighting force, and you will not get rave reviews. While better trained than the general infantry, the Rangers are still rather typical, meaning that fire discipline and tactical foresight tends to fall apart rather rapidly in the face of percieved threats.
Pat's unit of 34 divided up in hostile territory, with only one 50 cal machine gun between them. Not a smart thing to do. this was ordered done by higher ups not at the scene.
They were in one place for hours, then, instead of waiting for cover of darkness to negotiate the "ambush alley" pass they entered, did so in broad daylight. This was against Ranger rules.
Pat was shot at in broad daylight, three times in a tight pattern, in the forehead, partially taking off his head. His uniform and body armor were stripped off him, and buried on the spot, as a "biohazard", not a common practice.
The Rangers that shot at him did not observe the rule to identify your target first. Pat and the Afghan he was with were wearing similar uniforms, not the traditional Afghan garb. One claimed he had just had laser surgery and everything was "hazy". Another claimed to have "tunnel vision". Yet, Pat sustained 3 close-patterned shots in the forehead. They claimed they fired from a moving vehicle. Before that, it was from a stationary point, and before that, it was a moving vehicle again.
Some wonder if it was a "hit" on one of their own.
Reminds me of the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty and the subsequent coverup: www.ussliberty.org
a site maintained by the "officer on deck" that day.
Tinker3478: Bush should be held accountable. It's not about name-calling. Not about revenge. It's simply seeking some justice, some resolution for the needless horrific War that he unleashed in Iraq. Even if you don't want to believe that Bush intentionally lied his way into War (and the facts are that he did lie), there should still be some accountability.
You make this foolish comment about the Rangers being so "worked up about killing that they didnt care who they killed." That is so very easy to say from your safe little sanctuary at home in the free world, and exposes a level of ignorance about the chaotic and incredibly frightening reality of infantry warfare. Yes, it appears that ROEs were clearly violated, but that happens when young troops are scared witless, sleep deprived and hungry, separated from the security that a fully intact squad helps provide, and fully aware that there are PLENTY of bad guys around the immediate area who wish nothing more than to kill an American fighting man - or better yet, capture them, torture them, and then kill them.
FAR to often, civilians in our society jump to an opinion that is formed ignorantly, having NEVER bothered to examine or understand the myriad factors at play that contribute to the incredible confusion and chaos that is combat. Yes, people screwed up here (by the sounds of it, both up and down the chain of command) and that cost Tillman his life, but to conclude that this incident was caused by kill-hungry, bloodthirsty Rangers rather than simply frightened boys who believed they were coming under attack is wrong.
I never knew who Pat Tillman was before he died, I was never a football fan... I have heard his death was a great loss to football, and I believe that, but lets not forget, ALL DEATH is a GREAT LOSS as that person is someone's son, daughter, father, mother, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, nephew, niece, grandparent. We all have someone.
Happy Veteran's Day!!! All Veterans DESERVE this day of Praise and Rememberance!! Thank you!! Thank you for doing the job, that I couldn't.