The Tragedy of Pat Tillman.

This isn't a new story by any means but I was reminded of it while reading an article at one of my regular reads, Yellow Dog Blog.

In short, Pat Tillman was a professional Grid Iron player in the US. He was young and had a very lucrative future ahead of him, in fact Tillman turned down a $3.6 million contract with the St. Lois Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army . After 911 Pat and his brother enlisted in the US Marines.

From Wikipedia-

The two brothers completed training for the elite Army Ranger school in late 2002 and were assigned to the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in
Fort Lewis, Washington. Both Pat and Kevin were deployed to the Middle East as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Pat Tillman was subsequently redeployed to Afghanistan, where, on April 22 2004, he was killed in action by friendly fire while on patrol.
His unit was attacked in an apparent ambush on a road outside of the village of Sperah about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Khost, near the Pakistan border. An Afghan militia soldier was killed and two other Rangers were injured as well.
The U.S. Department of Defense concluded that Pat Tillman's death was due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight.
It was later learned that in fact, no hostile forces were involved in the firefight, and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion over an exploded mine or remote controlled bomb. U.S. Army Special Operations Command, however, initially claimed there was an exchange with hostile forces.

A later investigation conducted by Brigadier General Jones found that the Army was slow to correct the story of a hostile exchange of fire after learning that it was false.

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Tillman's family requested a report on the death of their son, and it was only then that they found out that he wasn't killed in battle but was in fact shot and killed by friendly fire.

I have to say that I do realise that this type of thing can happen. But, all the lies and secrecy, especially to the family is a disgrace.

"Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones revealed that in the days immediately following
Tillman's death, US Army investigators were aware that Tillman was killed by friendly fire. Jones reported that senior Army commanders, including Gen. John Abizaid, knew of this fact within days of the shooting, but nevertheless approved the awarding of the Silver Star, Purple Heart, and a posthumous promotion. The citation report accompanying these awards said that Tillman was killed by enemy forces and contained a detailed account of the alleged battle which Army leadership knew had never taken place.

Jones reported that members of Tillman's unit burned his body armour and uniform in an apparent attempt to hide the fact that he was killed by friendly fire. Several soldiers were subsequently punished for their actions by being removed from their Army Rangers unit. Jones believed that Tillman should retain his medals and promotion, since he intended to engage the enemy, and behaved heroically.

Tillman's family was not informed of the finding that he was killed by friendly fire until weeks after his memorial service, although at least some senior Army officers knew of that fact prior to the service"

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Everything about this "War on Terror" is wrong but when they cannot even tell the truth to the parents of the Soldier who died it casts a darker shadow over the morals of the Goverments who started it.
The fact that he was the ultimate team player and it was his own men who killed him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.