Original subtitles

Quiet please.

Pat Tillman, safety, Arizona State.

Good, keep looking. That's good.

Pat, can we try that just one more time?

Make sure not to kind of even glance up or look around or anything.

Okay. It's a long-ass time to just sit there.

Yeah, it is.

Here we go.

If they knew anything about my son, they wouldn't have done what they did.

Pat Tillman, safety, Arizona State.

Because he didn't really fit into that box that they would have liked.

Pat Tillman loved the game of football.

Yet, as much as Pat Tillman loved competing on the football field...

...he loved America even more.

Courageous and humble, a loving husband and son...

...a devoted brother and a fierce defender of liberty.

Pat Tillman will always be remembered--

I think they just thought, if they spun the story and we found out...

...we'd just keep it quiet because we wouldn't want to diminish...

...his heroism or anything like that...

...but, you know, nobody question's Pat's heroics. He was always heroic.

What they said happened, didn't happen.

They made up a story, and so you have to set the record straight.

Good evening, thanks for joining us--

Our top story--

On a more serious and indeed, tragic note--

Live fire rounds all around me--

In the third week of April 2004, the 24-hour news cycle...

...was dominated by two stories about fallen American soldiers.

The first involved an airport worker who had been fired...

...after sharing these photos with her local newspaper.

This sparked debate about a federal law...

...that had been in place since the first Gulf War.

Why should we hear about body bags and deaths?

Americans had been mesmerized by news coverage from the Persian Gulf.

But the military said photos like these...

...violated the privacy of grieving families.

The second story was not considered a violation of privacy.

Pat Tillman, who gave up a multimillion-dollar contract...

...in professional football, has been killed.

At age 25, Pat Tillman was a charismatic defensive back...

...in the national football league...

...with a reputation as a bruising tackler.

But he brushed it all aside...

...when he announced that he would be quitting the NFL...

...joining the Army Rangers along with his brother Kevin...

...and setting off to fight in the Middle East.

Though the media hounded him for an interview...

...Tillman refused to speak publicly about his decision to leave the NFL...

...requesting only that he be looked upon as any other soldier.

But this was a request that, in death, the public could not grant him.

The first thing we heard when we got the news of Pat's death...

...was that he was shot in the head getting out of a vehicle.

That's all we heard.

We didn't get an official story until the memorial service.

If you're the victim of an ambush, there are very few things you can do...

...to increase your chances of survival.

One of which is to get off that ambush point as fast as you can.

One of the vehicles in Pat's convoy...

...could not get off.

He made the call, he dismounted his troops...

...taking the fight to the enemy uphill.

This gave his brothers, in the downed vehicle...

...time to move off that target.

He directly saved their lives with that move.

Pat's memorial service in San Jose, California...

...was carried live by all the major networks.

That service is ongoing right now, as you just saw here on Fox News--

The story recounted in the eulogy was abridged...

...elaborated upon and retold time and again.

According to military accounts, Tillman ordered his men up a hill...

...to attack terrorists that had pinned down part of his platoon.

All the soldiers in that ambushed platoon were saved.

They were rescued by Pat Tillman.

Tillman directed his team into firing positions.

Tillman's voice was heard issuing commands...

...to take the fight to the enemy forces.

Pat Tillman's family will also receive the Silver Star for his service...

...and his great heroic efforts over there on April 22nd.

Pat was given the Silver Star, the nation's third highest combat honor...

...awarded for valor in battle with enemies of the United States.

A Navy SEAL friend of the family...

...had based his eulogy on the Silver Star narrative.

Pat sacrificed himself so his brothers could live.

What they received was something that was really honorable, you know.

The narrative that they got was something that was befitting a hero.

I knew that there was a massive possibility...

...that other things were gonna come out to bring certain things to light...

...that were gonna completely...

...make that ceremony invalid.

Company.

Present arm.

I remember, we did like this little memorial in Afghanistan for Pat.

You know, I mean, fuck, everybody showed up.

It was terrible. It was terrible seeing everybody.

Everybody was just lost, shocked, frustrated.

Sound off for roll call.

- Specialist Atkins. - Here, first sarge.

- Sergeant Elroy. - Here, first sarge.

- Specialist Norman. - Here, first sarge.

Specialist Tillman.

Specialist Patrick Tillman.

Specialist Patrick Daniel Tillman.

I knew we were gonna get debriefed.

And they were gonna pick it apart and figure out what happened.

And people were gonna get punished and people were gonna be leaving.

I didn't expect to ever, you know, be on a plane like two hours later.

They knew what the relationship was between me, Kevin and Pat.

And they told me:

"You're the closest to the brothers, we want you to fly back with Kevin.

It's not your place to tell the family anything.

You need to keep your mouth shut about it.

You need to not cause any type of turmoil."

And I-- You know, I said, okay. Yeah.

They put us into a cargo plane that was completely empty.

The only thing in it, right there in the middle, was Pat's coffin.

And they covered it with an American flag.

Just sitting across from Kevin and looking at him, I couldn't say anything.

I barely said two words to Kevin the whole time we were flying home.

I was afraid that he might ask me what happened to Pat.

Russell Baer came to our house after Pat's memorial service...

...and my ex-husband, or Pat's father...

...asked Russell to tell the story of what happened to Pat.

The position he was in while he was over at the house...

...was, I'm sure, very awkward. It appeared very awkward.

At the time, it seemed that he was still very upset...

...and rattled by the whole setting, and Pat's death...

...because he liked Pat a lot.

I went into Pat's mom's living room and I gave them my narrative...

...excluding certain possibilities.

And Russell Baer told us nothing.

Initially, I was not real pleased with Russell Baer.

It upset me that this kid...

...that's supposed to be a friend of the family's, didn't say anything.

But we found out about five weeks later, the reason.

A reporter from the Arizona Republic contacted me.

It was peculiar because I hadn't heard from the media for quite a few weeks.

And I just got a very eerie feeling, and when I called him back...

...he asked me what I thought about the news the Army had given us...

...and I didn't know what he was talking about.

So I basically prodded him to tell me...

...and he said that, you know, there was a suspicion...

...that Pat was killed by fratricide, "friendly fire."

The U.S. Army now says Pat Tillman was not killed by enemy fire.

It was dark, the terrain was rough.

To put it another way, it was the fog of war.

Now the Army says, Tillman's death was apparently an accident.

The investigation results indicate that Corporal Tillman...

...probably died as a result of friendly fire...

...while his unit was engaged in combat with enemy forces.

It was determined that I was to give the press conference.

My role during this period...

...was commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

I commanded the Green Berets...

...Civil Affairs, SIOPs, the 160th Aviation...

...the Rangers and a number of our Special units.

It was General Kensinger's job to explain why five weeks earlier...

...the military had reported that Pat was killed by the Taliban.

You know, I don't wanna sound trite...

...but there's an old Army adage that says first reports are incorrect.

There is an inherent danger of confusion in any firefight...

...particularly when a unit is ambushed.

During the press conference...

...and at a subsequent private briefing with the Tillman's...

...the Army said Pat had been killed by an errant U.S. bullet...

...during a chaotic ambush.

The ambush was conducted by 10 to 12 enemy personnel...

...from multiple locations--

According to them, things were confusing...

...and it's an unfortunate accident.

I know I felt like they haven't really looked into this well enough...

...to give me an explanation, and I don't much appreciate that.

The results of this investigation...

...in no way diminish the bravery and sacrifice displayed...

...by Corporal Tillman.

In the process of this explanation, I asked one of them:

"Why then award him a Silver Star?

You don't give a Silver Star for attitude."

He goes, "Well, we did in this case."

You don't wanna think the worst of the people that you're dealing with.

Our thoughts and our prayers remain with the Tillman family.

Thank you for being here this morning.

You want to believe they're telling you the truth...

...yet, you're getting this sense that you're being lied to.

U.S. Central Command is the point of contact...

...for further inquiries in this investigation. Thank you.

At the end of the briefing, we were told that we would be getting...

...the source documents that were used to support the investigation.

They showed me the box. It was six binders full of stuff.

"Eventually, Mr. Tillman, you're going to get a copy of all this."

I said, "Great. When am I gonna get it?"

What motivates you the most?

I don't know. I get a lot of satisfaction out of, like...

...you know, my family being proud of me.

My brothers, you know, I care what they think and how they feel...

...and I want them to be proud of what I'm doing.

My mom-- My mom finished dead last in the San Francisco Marathon.

I don't know when it was. She was probably 30-- Whatever years old.

I mean, dead last. On the little sheet when--

You know, they do it-- Her-- Mary Tillman, the last fricking name.

They were actually tearing everything down when she finished, you know.

They were putting everything away.

So, I mean, that says a lot about her. She's a real hard-working woman--

Dannie committed herself to trying to...

...you know, figure out exactly what happened to our son.

She contacted a lot of people. She did a lot of work.

I'd take things to work, or I'd make phone calls...

...when I didn't have students, or when I had my break or at lunch.

I'd call the medical examiner, the coroner.

I'd call ballistic people trying to find someone that could answer questions.

I mean, I was just making calls all the time.

Along the way, I'd encounter people that were able to help us.

And at somewhere along the line, we got in touch with Stan Goff.

I was running a blog, everybody got a blog nowadays...

...so I wrote something about the Tillman Case.

It was just, you know, a commentary piece related to...

...this whole perception-management aspect of the war.

So when we got to talking, she realized I'd been around.

I'd been to Vietnam and Guatemala...

...Grenada, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Somalia.

Three assignments with Ranger units...

...two assignments with the Special Forces unit...

...one assignment with the Counterterrorist unit.

So it wasn't just that I had experience in Pat's unit...

...it was also that I could sort of help them...

...read the hieroglyphics in that Special Operations world.

Because it is a culture.

The first time the family got a sense that we were being lied to...

...was when we started looking at the documents.

They gave her the papers, but what they did was...

...I think, they tried to drown her, you know.

They wanted to give her so much that, you know, no normal human being...

...would dig through all this paperwork and try to make sense out of it.

The Army handed over transcripts of every interview they conducted...

...with Pat's platoon and their commanding officers.

There were also radio-communications logs...

...field-hospital reports, terrain maps, an autopsy...

...and a detailed study of the light conditions that day.

In all, it totaled over 3,000 pages of material on Pat's death.

But it's redacted.

Every single name, half the actions, any references to places.

You have to go this sort of painstaking reconstruction.

It's like doing a very difficult crossword puzzle.

You keep running around looking for just one word you can fit in there...

...and then you can sort of lock all the other stuff into it.

We tried to look at what was being said...

...and then we'd try to piece together--

Okay, if they're saying this, then who might that be?

We would take a redacted name...

...and we'd try to count the number of spaces that were in there...

...to try to figure out whose last name was in there.

And, of course, by going over the same thing again and again...

...with some names plugged in...

...we started to become familiar with aspects of it.

I wanna make this very clear, when we initially heard of this fratricide...

...and the fact that these soldiers in this vehicle had killed Pat...

...we felt very bad for them, to have to live with this.

We thought it was just some horrible accident.

You know, they were in a fog of war and they were frightened...

...and it was too dark to see. But you're reading things in the documents...

...that make you very suspicious.

The more that we heard about the situation...

...it seemed much more like gross negligence.

They asked one of the soldiers:

"Did you positively identify your target?"

He said, "I don't know. I thought everybody else did.

I just wanted to be in a firefight."

That doesn't sound like someone who's afraid.

That sounds like someone who simply wants to shoot at something.

There's a sense that we can't discover meaning...

...we can't discover who we are, we have no real sense of identity...

...until that's tested somehow.

Let's test it against something that's real, let's test it in a context...

...where life and death are real coexisting possibilities.

All young infantrymen will say, "I wanna be in a firefight."

That's what makes them feel like they're fully fledged.

You know, they can say, "Well, I've actually experienced combat."

What is up?

What's up?

I went in for all the selfish reasons.

I didn't go in because I was patriotic and wanted to serve my country.

I wanted to serve myself.

I wanted to get some money for college.

I wanted to learn to be more self-sufficient.

I wanted to blow things up and shoot guns, you know.

I got to Ranger battalion September 10th.

And, literally, when I got there and woke up the next morning...

...I got thrown out of my bed and I thought it was a joke.

You know, new guy, big joke.

And when I saw the planes hit the towers...

...you know, during breakfast, it was like:

"I'm gonna fucking die."

It was about 10 minutes later, there was people yelling and standing up.

They were pumped because we was gonna go to war.

They knew we was gonna go to war at that point.

Sound off.

You don't wanna see it happen, but at the same time...

...that's what you've been working for.

And whenever that comes down, you want a chance to say:

"Hey, I can handle this"

Airborne Rangers, motherfucker!

Go!

You know, we're supposed to believe that soldiers' motives are pure...

...that they go into these situations reluctantly.

It's an imposition of a level of wisdom and maturity on soldiers...

...that doesn't apply to 19 year olds anywhere, ever.

I ain't fucking out, dude.

A 19-year-old kid is far less interested in displaying wisdom...

...than they are in, like, giving some sort of a practical demonstration...

...of their masculinity, you know what I mean?

The atmosphere in a military unit like that, is a locker-room atmosphere.

Tapping.

Fucker.

It's not philosophical.

- I turn my back on you. - Get that fucking camera out of here.

I expected Pat to be kind of like, you know, in a general sense...

...the general depiction of, like, your jock, your meathead.

Not very intelligent.

Kind of like the guys I knew in high school. They were just...

...jerks.

Arrogant, you know, full of himself.

Why the hell is somebody leaving an NFL contract...

...to come to this shit hole and deal with this kind of nonsense?

There was just kind of a low mumble...

...that he really was looking to become a political leader.

A lot of people thought he just didn't have a good head on his shoulders.

He wanted to kind of do the macho, red-blooded American, patriotic thing.

He was an ex-football player, he was used to getting millions of dollars...

...and he was used to pretty much having it his way.

He was a private...

...which in Ranger mentality, it means that you're on the same level as dirt.

There was a time where I did have to take corrective action against Pat...

...for, basically, coming unglued on me for an order that he was given.

That's just the way that the military goes.

You get orders, sometimes you don't like them.

You don't have the option of saying:

"I don't like this. Let's do this another way."

Or in his case, saying, "This is completely fucking stupid."

Pat had something, you know, that I wanted.

You know, there was something that Pat knew and just got...

...that I needed, that I wanted.

I went in looking for that one thing that I couldn't put my finger on...

...that was going to help me to accomplish everything I wanted to do...

...and Pat had that something.

He wasn't at all what I expected to find.

He didn't seem like this tough knucklehead guy.

You know, he was interested in Emerson, in Chomsky...

...and he just seemed very, just, open.

It didn't matter who you were, where you were from, what you were into...

...Pat always wanted to find out what you were about.

And he would ask a million questions.

I walked in on him one time and he was reading the Book of Mormon.

And, you know, it really hit me because I am Mormon.

So I asked him, "Hey, you know, you have any questions...

...please feel free to ask.

I'll explain whatever I can to you as best as I can.

I knew that he wasn't religious, but he told me that he respected all religions.

Bryan O'Neal was kind of a small guy, a very nervous guy.

I wasn't real impressed.

I think he was really looking for a place to fit in...

...looking for more family...

...looking for something that was a little bit of a closer tie.

I was kind of terrified going there because, you know...

...the rumors of hazing and tricks that the senior guys play on the new guys.

Pat was different from everyone else in the platoon.

He didn't ever, you know, treat me like I was lower than him.

I think the only time, you know, that I upset Pat...

...is he asked me to, you know, prep some ChemLights...

...for an objective we had the next day...

...and I forgot, you know, I was doing other things.

And he basically let me know that I disappointed him...

...that I didn't do what he wanted me to do.

And that really, you know--

I wish he would've taken me in the hallway...

...and smoked me up and down, and, you know, treated me horribly...

...you know, called me stupid.

But him telling me that I disappointed him, it really upset me, you know.

I decided I was never gonna do that again...

...because he was such a great guy I didn't wanna let him down.

When Bryan came in, Pat kind of picked him up.

He just put an arm around him and scooped him up the best he could.

Everyone was actually envious that he was my team leader...

...that little scrawny me would be working with this huge football player.

I blamed myself for quite some time that maybe...

...you know, Pat's not in a place where he should be...

...because I didn't put forth more effort.

And, you know, it's something I still think about today.

You know, that because of my lack of faith...

...you know, he may be suffering for it.

For all those who are here tonight...

...we honor the memory and accomplishments of Pat Tillman...

...by permanently retiring his number 42 ASU football jersey.

Arizona was always very good to Pat...

...but it's very hard when you're put out there kind of on display.

The public grieving is not something that I can do.

I don't wanna do it.

It's an awkward spot.

The issue at the time was trying to figure out what had happened to Pat.

It was, you know, sort of a difficult situation...

...because it was a very private thing that happened...

...that was then being played out in the public.

And so I had this sense of sort of wanting to hold on to what I could.

Even at that point, he was totally getting lost.

Pat, who he was as a person, was lost in the conversation.

--what you did with Pat Tillman--

Oh, there we go, typical Republican personal attack.

- Can't stick to the issues-- - Let me finish the point.

Pat Tillman was a Noam Chomsky fan...

...was gonna vote for John Kerry, was against the war in Iraq.

- I don't believe it. - I don't believe it either.

He signed up because of his desire to fight.

They would take parts of who he was...

...and magnify those to suit their purposes.

I was trying to figure out how to live without him.

You feel like your world has stopped...

...and yet, everything goes on like normal.

It started pretty much overnight after Pat was killed.

The day after he was killed, there were cameras on my front lawn...

...which was bizarre.

I mean, I was not expecting anything like that at all.

He lived here in University Place with his wife.

I remember my mom was always going around closing the blinds.

Today three men from Fort Lewis walk slowly to the house...

...to tell his wife, Marie, they care.

Staff Sergeant David High, a Ranger, tried unsuccessfully...

...to express his feelings, choked up, and walked away.

No, that's not good. Sorry.

But the newsmen camped out on Marie's lawn had the story wrong.

In fact, the casualty-assistance officers were there to compel Marie...

...to sign off on a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery...

...with full military honors.

They were sort of pushing for a military funeral...

...which was not what his wishes were.

During basic training, Pat had a premonition...

...that if he died, he might be used as a public-relations' stunt.

So he'd smuggled a copy of his final wishes home to Marie.

I really had to kind of push back on them.

They were proceeding as if this was the way things were gonna happen.

Probably thinking that, you know, I was so grief-stricken...

...that I would just go along with it.

My mission here is to support the family...

...and help them through the process, and make it easier for her.

That's the first episode, in a way.

Before Pat's body is even cold.

The death didn't just belong to the family.

This was bigger than the family.

"This is ours," you know.

It's ours to interpret.

And you will see him again when a loving God reunites us all...

...with the loved ones who preceded us in death.

The contrast of the memorial service...

...should have hit a warning shot to the military.

You got people out there speaking in these glittering generalities.

Pat, your family doesn't have to worry anymore.

You are home, you are safe, and you will not be forgotten.

And then you've got his brother coming up there.

Somebody who's willing to speak the brutality of that reality for them.

He was always giving gifts. Thanks, Pat.

I didn't write shit because I'm not a writer.

And I just want to say, it was--

There's a lot of people here, thanks.

It was really amazing to be his little baby brother.

Yeah, I'm not just gonna sit up here and break down on you, but....

Thank you for coming. Pat's a fucking champion...

...and always will be.

Just make no mistake, he'd want me to say this.

He's not with God, he's fucking dead. He's not religious, so....

Thanks for your thoughts, but he's fucking dead.

I don't regret any of that.

You know, as far as what I was thinking...

...I was just simply miserable, you know.

I was, you know-- I was sad for my whole my family.

I was sad for my mom, my dad, Marie, Kevin.

This isn't a production. It's my brother's service.

I didn't plan on saying that, it just....

He's not what these people wished he was.

Everyone grabbed at Pat's death.

Not necessarily just the military, everybody grabbed at him.

They just chose the wrong family to try to do it in front of.

Not to say that we always did the right thing in this house...

...we made lots of mistakes...

...but I think that we did make an attempt to tell the truth.

You know, sometimes you have to work at that.

In 1976, Patrick and Dannie Tillman moved to New Almaden...

...a two-road town near San Jose, California...

...where he practiced law and she worked as a teacher.

Part of the reason for living out in New Almaden...

...was a deliberate decision...

...to set a better environment for the kids.

We discouraged watching TV.

We did the same thing with the telephone.

We had one telephone and it was right in the middle of the house.

If you wanted to talk to somebody...

...then you'd talk right in front of everybody else.

So it wasn't like we isolated them, it's just there were certain priorities...

...and it wasn't that difficult to deprive them for their own good.

You know, we did grow up together. Pat and Kevin were so close in age...

...they were only 14 months apart, so they were together all the time.

They would go to the creek, the mountains.

I was exhausted by 7 because they were all over the place...

...and I just didn't have that kind of stamina.

It was just our own little world.

And we happened to have a very just and kind leader in Pat.

And it pushed Kevin and myself to do things...

...that, you know, we probably wouldn't have normally done.

The boys had that colorful language.

It just was the way they talked.

Well, the F-word is one of their more popular words...

...and they can use it as an adjective, a verb, a noun.

They can, you know-- And then other parts of speech that we don't know.

Yeah, that's true.

They kind of-- They swear a lot.

Did you have rules in the house about cussing?

Evidently not.

I never met Pat, so the only way that I know Pat Tillman...

...is through what I've heard from his family.

Pat was a pretty typical kid, but then he also had this gift.

You know, he had this gift.

He was a comparatively little guy that could just really run fast...

...and knock the shit out of people.

We first noticed Pat Tillman when he scored the game-winning touchdown...

...against Independence last season, then did a flip in full pads.

Made it up, I don't know.

Came to me right about the time I did it. I don't know.

He was very low-key about getting the compliments and the accolades.

It kind of embarrassed him.

You're always so modest when I talk to you.

This time, take some credit for yourself.

You're not gonna do it, are you?

I had a big line and a great offensive coordinator.

I don't know where he is, but well-coached.

He wasn't much of a showman.

- Give him the plaque. - Here you go.

He enjoyed the game. He enjoyed all the games that he played.

He liked climbing things.

He liked jumping off of things.

He liked taking risks, yeah. Yeah, he was big on risks.

He challenged himself that way. He wouldn't let me see any of that.

If you're gonna do that kind of stuff, do it behind my back.

Pat was given a football scholarship to Arizona State University...

...where he became an academic All-American...

...with a 3.8 grade point average.

We never lose at home. We kicked the shit out of them.

His square-jawed intensity and long-haired California cool...

...soon made him a local celebrity.

I want you to talk about Patton...

...military leaders that you kind of tap into...

...for your own, I guess, abilities on a football field.

You know, Patton's a cool guy. I like his stuff.

He made some comment one time, something to the effect of:

"No one ever won a war dying for their country.

Let the other son of a bitch die for his."

It's things like that, it's guys like that, guys where their attitude--

They're a little bit crazy...

...but it's that craziness that propels them to greatness.

The throw. Shoots it over the middle. And, whoa, what a hit.

Pat Tillman knocked the helmet off of Isaac Byrd.

- That was scary. - Oh, my.

Because he was considered small, at 5'11"...

...Pat was never expected to make it in NFL.

But from his very first training camp, he set the tone for his career.

I mean, they are gonna be fights in training camp.

I got Pitt and Pat Tillman together.

Those two are important to me. There was no problem.

You know, 9:00 in the morning, get your ass knocked off...

...I might be mad too.

He would hit you as hard as he possibly could.

Never even looked at Pat Tillman. Never even thought--

That's a perfect job for Pat Tillman because he's a little bit free of spirit.

To his new teammates, Pat was a bit of an oddball.

He didn't own a cell phone or a car...

...and would leave his beach cruiser in the team parking lot...

...among the Escalades and BMWs.

But to fans, Pat was a rare example of a public figure...

...who wasn't afraid to speak his mind.

Why should the fans think this year's gonna be any different?

You know what? They shouldn't.

We haven't done anything at this point to prove that we're not--

We didn't have a good year last year, and that's the only thing that matters.

We need to go out and start winning games.

When we start winning games, the fans will come out and watch us.

Until that happens, you know, I wouldn't come out either.

The Cardinals win and they go to the playoffs.

He liked the physicality of it, but I think he really liked that feeling...

...of being connected with the man next to you.

I think he thrived on that feeling of unity.

At the age of 25, four years into his NFL career...

...Pat married his high-school sweetheart.

This is very special for me.

It means a lot that my older brother is getting married--

Pat first crossed paths with Marie Ugenti at the age of 4...

...when they played in the same youth soccer league.

She was his first and only girlfriend.

And even though they would go to different colleges...

...and he would become a high-profile athlete...

...Pat remained faithful to Marie until the end of his life.

As far as an older brother, you couldn't ask for anything more than him.

I mean, he's lights out, he's fantastic. And to know that he's with Marie...

...the greatest girl in the whole world, it's just money, man.

It's absolutely money for me.

I don't know, I love it, dude. This is fucking awesome.

To see Pat and Marie get married-- It was just an awesome day.

I didn't realize that--

You know, what was known at that point, obviously.

But it was....

I'm glad I didn't. I don't think I would have had as much fun, that's for sure.

They made this decision, the three of them...

...Kevin and Pat and Marie. It was something they talked about.

They kept it from us until after Pat and Marie were actually married.

The boys, they called me on, actually, Mother's Day of 2002...

...and they told me that they were going to enlist.

And Dannie was not happy about the whole thing.

She made it known.

Members of the family go back for generations serving.

My father, my father-in-law...

...all my uncles, served in World War II or Korea.

And, you know, I talked to the boys a lot...

...about, you know, the camaraderie of war.

And I suppose it concerned me that I did talk too much about that.

That it became more intriguing to them than it should've been.

Some people thought that, you know, I could have talked him out of it...

...or asked him not to do it.

But that was just never something I would've done.

Somehow or another, Dannie had a lot more foresight than I did...

...because it dawned on her right then and there...

...that she cannot deal with losing one of her sons.

My comment at the time was:

"Could you imagine someone seeing Pat and Kevin coming after them?

I feel bad for those people."

So that was a bad call on my part.

We'll never know exactly why Pat Tillman enlisted.

He made a deliberate choice not to make it a public matter.

But after he died, an interview surfaced.

Even as athletes, we bitch and moan every now and again...

...about this or that, and if we ever just, you know--

Times like this, you stop and think about just how--

Not only how good we have it, but what kind of a system we live under...

...what freedoms we're allowed, and that wasn't built overnight.

And it's kind of--

The flag is a symbol of all that, the symbol of--

You know, you just don't think about it--

On the day after 9/11, the Cardinals had conducted team interviews...

...so players could comment on the country...

...in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

My great-grandfather was at Pearl Harbor...

...and a lot of my family has given up-- Has gone and fought in wars.

And I really haven't done a damn thing...

...as far as laying myself on the line like that.

So I have a great deal of respect for those that have.

And what the flag stands for.

The interview became known as Pat's explanation...

...for why he dropped everything and joined the Army...

...even though he wouldn't actually make his decision...

...for another six months.

It would be used to violate his only request...

...that his motivation for enlisting be kept private.

Pat Tillman had everything to live for.

All that was missing was a true sense of purpose.

He said he found that on September 11th, 2001.

Former safety for the Arizona Cardinals...

...gave up a multimillion-dollar pro-football deal...

...the day after September 11th.

Tillman explained his decision--

This is what he said the day after the attacks--

Here's how he explained his decision--

"To make right," he said, "what 9/11 had made so wrong."

He was a human being...

...and by putting this kind of heroic, saintly quality to him...

...you're taking away the struggle of being a human being.

I mean, he had to make choices, just like we all do.

And he tried to make the right choices.

When he didn't make the right choice, he was the first person to tell you.

The military was not what Pat expected it to be.

He thought, just like the majority of people in this country...

...that going into Afghanistan was the right thing to do.

And then, of course, once they enlisted...

...the talks started veering towards going into Iraq.

And when they were over there, he didn't like what he saw.

In February 2003, Pat and Kevin were deployed to Iraq.

One month later, the Rangers were ordered...

...to provide perimeter support for the rescue of Jessica Lynch...

...a supply clerk who had reportedly engaged the enemy...

...in a fierce firefight before being taken prisoner.

She showed true courage.

She shot until she ran out of ammunition.

She's alive, she's being tortured.

Despite the apparent urgency...

...the rescue of Jessica Lynch was inexplicably put on hold.

Russell Baer waited out the delay on top of a bunker...

...with Pat and his brother Kevin.

Just watching these bombs and these A-10's strafe the city.

That was the first time I'd heard Pat in kind of like no-kidding opinion...

...on kind of what was going on there.

He just said, "This war is just so fucking illegal."

You know, just watching this scene unfold...

...you know, the city's being blown to shit.

Come right, come right.

Okay. I'm moving to cover our backs.

- Okay. - This is oppressive.

Hold it there, please.

It's pretty clear the Special Ops team could have essentially...

...walked into the hospital, picked her up and carried her out...

...and would've been cooperated with all along the way.

It would come out later that Jessica Lynch...

...had neither fired her weapon nor been tortured...

...and that the inexplicable delay...

...had been to enable a combat camera crew to record the mission.

- Camera right here? - Can you smile?

- Can you smile for the family? - For your folks?

There you go. You're doing great, Jessica. You're doing wonderful.

It was a film production.

Jessica Lynch's rescue was a film production.

We understand that there is video taken by a combat camera team.

- Can you show us that video? - Do we have the tape?

Some brave souls put their lives on the line to make this happen.

Loyal to the creed that they know...

...that they'll never leave a fallen comrade...

...and never embarrass their country. With that, I'll take your questions.

The media has been more than complicit.

The military has just released new video this morning of the daring raid.

They wanna take all the complexities of a real situation...

...and reduce them into a comfortable fable.

It was a mission one described as "a midnight ballet."

One that's easy to sort of digest...

...and, you know, consists of good guys and bad guys...

...that are clearly recognizable from movies.

Saving Private Lynch.

Private First Class Jessica Lang, a 19-year-old U.S. Army soldier.

I apologize. It's Jessica "Lynch."

If you wanna get the public to cosign something...

...you gotta give them something that they're willing to cosign.

It has to be turned into a morality play.

- American hero. - American hero.

I do not wanna see dead bodies.

I do not wanna see coffins. I wanna remain comfortable.

Welcome home.

And so, you know, the government gives them what they want.

The press gives them what they want.

Pat and Kevin, when they came back from Iraq...

...were like, "This is just 100 percent bullshit."

I think after coming home from Iraq, he was a little disillusioned.

It was right around the halfway mark...

...and he was in a stage of looking towards the next step.

Just before Pat was due to return to combat duty...

...an opportunity arose that would have saved his life.

One of the NFL teams had approached his agent...

...and, you know, said that he would be eligible to get out...

...since he had been on a combat tour.

In a back-channel agreement...

...the military said that Pat could be immediately discharged with honors...

...and could return to his football career by the following season.

As coach Dave McGinnis later recalled...

...Pat sought him out to discuss the secret offer.

When he came in and talked to me--

We talked for about two hours in my office.

And we talked about some things that at the time...

...that he asked that I not talk about.

He said, "Coach Mac, I'll tell you some things, but I would prefer--"

And believe me, I will hold those things forever.

Just know this, that Pat Tillman made a decision...

...based on some very real values.

And the words: honor, integrity, dignity, commitment...

...they were not just adjectives with Pat Tillman...

...they were realities in his life...

...and that came through very loud and clear.

He committed for three years and he was gonna fulfill his commitment.

It's the same reason why Kevin didn't leave after Pat was killed.

They made a commitment and they honored that.

Did you get the impression that he planned on returning to football?

Just give me a minute here because this is....

You know, he had....

That's what he wanted to do...

...because one of the last things that he said to me when we left up there--

You know, I said, "Okay, good luck. Stay in touch, we'll be--"

And he said, "You know, I'd...."

And then-- And his last--

He said, "Coach, I just-- You know, I wanna come back and play for you."

Pat reported for his second tour of duty in April of 2004.

His platoon was sent to Afghanistan and assigned to carry out...

...reconnaissance sweeps near the Pakistani border.

The Rangers were accompanied by a group of allied Afghan militia...

...known as AMF soldiers.

Pat was now in charge of a small fire team including Bryan O'Neal.

At that time, I mean, I was still brand-new.

Being from Arizona...

...I thought a lot of Afghanistan looked like a lot of Arizona.

The people were a bit different.

These photos were taken by Pat's platoon...

...in the days leading up to the incident of April 22nd.

On that day, while traversing the rugged terrain...

...one of the platoon's Humvees broke down.

After six hours stuck in a small village, the commanders back at base...

...ordered the platoon split in two halves, or "serials."

One serial was to deal with the downed vehicle...

...while the other, including Pat, Russell Baer and Bryan O'Neal...

...was to carry on with the mission.

I remember thinking that it was a horrible idea to split the convoy.

You know, you're taking half of your firepower away...

...especially in this area we were going through.

As soon as we took off, we basically went into this canyon...

...where the walls were so steep.

442 Zulu. We're running down the canyon.

Staff Sergeant **** is going to narrate as best he can...

...his recollection of events passing through this canyon.

This video shows the actual canyon where Pat was killed.

It was presented to the Tillman's...

...as part of the military's official explanation of the incident.

Okay, we're rolling. This is April 23rd, 2006. 0551 Zulu.

The Army's investigator returned to Afghanistan...

...with members of Pat's platoon...

...who walked him through the sequence of events...

...and laid out the routes of the two serials.

Traveling along a dry creek bed at the bottom of a narrow gorge...

...Pat, Bryan O'Neal, Russell Baer, and the rest of Serial 1...

...made it through the canyon unscathed.

At the mouth of the canyon, they arrived at a small village.

There was a rolling hill with some compounds on it.

My squad leader said, "Stop the vehicles. Get out, stretch your legs.

Let's figure out where we're at. Let's figure out where Serial 2's at."

And that's when we heard the first initial explosion.

I remember hearing these explosions go off...

...and I knew they were in the back of the canyon where we just were.

Which kind of surprised me because, you know, I didn't realize...

...that the second half of the convoy was following behind us like they were.

In the steep terrain...

...the two serials had lost radio contact with each other.

Pat's serial didn't know...

...that half a mile behind them in the canyon, was the second serial.

In the last of five vehicles was Kevin Tillman and Jason Parsons.

We was moving through the canyon and then there was an explosion.

I mean, it was a pretty decent explosion.

We seen rocks and dust and everything fly.

People in a vehicle further up the canyon...

...believed that it was an RPG attack...

...so they began lighting up that position.

The Army initially reported that the Rangers were set upon...

...by an ambush of up to 20 Taliban fighters.

But in the entire course of this attack...

...not a single Ranger was wounded by enemy fire.

Not even a bullet hole was found in any of the equipment.

Even though you go through all the statements, no one ever saw...

...more than two people at a time that were attacking them.

And in many cases, they sounded very unsure of themselves...

...even saying that.

It's completely conceivable...

...that these explosions were maybe one of our guys AD'd his weapon.

AD meaning they discharged the weapon accidentally.

That's his perspective. I'll let him have it.

But from my perspective, there was two mortars that hit...

...there were rounds coming in...

...I had one impact 6 to 7 feet away from me.

In the end, the existence of any enemy combatants...

...has been disputed.

What has never been disputed is that, in this moment...

...the Rangers in Serial 2 unleashed their full firepower...

...up into the canyon walls...

...as they continued driving towards Serial 1.

It was not a fog of war, not in my mind at all.

I believe it was a lust to fight.

I don't think these soldiers were scared when they came out of that canyon.

I think they were relieved they were out of the canyon...

...and they just wanted to shoot.

Hearing the explosion and gun fire...

...Serial 1 ran back toward the canyon to help Serial 2.

I remember seeing Pat, you know. He yelled at me, "O'Neal, follow me!"

And, you know, I do what I was told.

You know, he's my team leader, I follow him wherever I go.

And I was really surprised at how quick O'Neal was following Pat.

I mean, he has just as much gear on as everybody else...

...and he was just keeping up with him.

I remember getting halfway up this hill and Pat turning around...

...asking Sergeant Weeks, my squad leader:

"Hey, Sergeant Weeks, can we take our body armor off?"

And I remember thinking to myself:

"Fuck that. I am keeping my body armor on."

Pat is wanting to get up there as quickly as possible.

Tillman was at about this location...

...and he asked if he could drop his body armor...

...and start pursuing up this hill.

I told him no.

At that time, I noticed there was an Afghani militia man with us.

He jumped in with us and we just started running.

At the moment Pat's fire team reached these rocks...

...the lead vehicle of Serial 2 emerged from the canyon below them.

The vehicle had left Kevin, Jason and the rest of the convoy behind.

It pulled into the clearing, and the soldiers onboard took aim...

...directly up at Pat's fire team.

The AMF soldier standing next to Pat...

...was shot eight times in the chest and dropped dead.

Facing the gentleman, and I approached--

People started to yell, "Cease fire!"

Then people said, "Hey, I think they're fucking shooting at us."

And then, you know, we knew, no shit, that they were shooting at us.

A .50 cal can shoot 900 rounds a minute...

...and it could have been no less than a minute that they were shooting at us.

You could see on the rock all the marks from the rounds...

...all except the spot where I was lying.

I just remember thinking, "I'm gonna die."

And, you know, asking Pat, "What are we gonna do?

How are we gonna get out of this?" And he said, "I've got an idea."

He popped a smoke grenade and threw it...

...and they stopped shooting at us.

And after they stopped shooting at us, you know, me and Pat stood up...

...let our hearts slow down for a second.

I remember looking at Pat asking him, "How could that happen?

How did they not see us?"

And, you know, he couldn't answer me, he didn't know.

I was actually more afraid for the guys that had just got done shooting at us...

...that they were gonna get in trouble.

The soldiers didn't get in trouble...

...because the military always maintained...

...that what happened next transpired in only four seconds...

...during the confusion of combat.

For years, we get this story...

...that Pat was shot from probably 200, 300 yards away.

They were going about 25 to 35 miles an hour...

...firing wildly to the right...

...and Pat and this Afghan were just an unfortunate consequence...

...of people being excited.

But Bryan O'Neal has said, in no uncertain terms that...

...that was not the case.

Today was the first day I've ever actually seen this PowerPoint.

It's really interesting to see from this perspective now.

I don't find this video accurate because it depicts, on his account...

...that they were moving continuously...

...through the valley where they were driving.

In actuality, from my memory...

...I remember them stopping and firing on two occasions.

What he's saying here is a complete lie.

The driver took them from about a hundred yards away...

...over to a better location to kill them.

Now they're about 40 yards away.

You know, they stopped and then drove forward...

...and then reengaged us, dismounted...

...and then started reengaging us again.

At that point, I thought we were all gonna die.

And....

I remember putting my weapon on fire, and having my finger on the trigger...

...and knowing these are my buddies down there...

...but knowing that they're gonna kill us and kill everybody.

And I was, you know, a second away from just loading them up...

...just killing them all, and I could have done it.

I started to say a prayer out loud, you know, and it was something like:

"Oh, God, please, if you can help us out of this situation...

...you know, I'll be very grateful...

...and I'll do what I can to repay you for this debt that I will owe you."

And I remember Pat saying, "O'Neal, quit praying."

You know, God is not the one to help you now.

This is reality, this is what we need to focus on.

I don't want you to go into some la-la land...

...not pay attention and then get killed."

I was actually grateful for him to say that.

I was really trying to put my focus somewhere else and not keep it here.

Pat, he saved my life.

All of the sudden, they started shooting at us again...

...and I just remember Pat, you know, yelling his name.

"I'm Pat Tillman.

I'm Pat fucking Tillman, why are you shooting at me?"

Pat's last words were, repeatedly, "I'm Pat fucking Tillman."

And that was after he got lit up by the machine gun the first time.

He's flat on the ground, sitting on the ground, he was hurt.

And I suspect he was a bit disappointed...

...that his own team is shooting at him.

And I imagine that those comments of his, "I'm Pat fucking Tillman"...

...he said while looking right at them...

...with a face that would make most people nervous.

I remember hearing the sound of a drinking fountain.

Like, when you press the button...

...to get water out of the drinking fountain, the sound it makes.

And I just look over at my side and I see this blood...

...pouring down this rock that I'm sitting behind.

He-- His head was gone.

Completely gone.

And I take my helmet off and I throw it against the ground...

...and then I kind of blackout.

I just heard this guttural scream.

And I automatically thought, "Someone's dead."

It's the first thing I had.

And I caught Dannie about seven, eight feet outside her door...

...and she was collapsing, and I caught her...

...and she had a telephone in her hand.

One sad thing, and I'll never forget this...

...but she went and got a picture of Patrick...

...and she had this picture and she just kept saying:

"April the 22nd, 2004.

April the 22nd, Pat is gone.

April the 22nd--"

I was with Kevin when he found out Pat had been killed.

He got out of the vehicle...

...and you could see there was a million things going through his head.

There was absolute horror and shock...

...and I remember him screaming several times.

I remember him taking his helmet off and slamming it on the ground.

I remember...

...our medic, Doc...

...kind of coming up to him, you know, saying, "Hey, give me your weapon."

And then I saw him go over to his brother's body and he just sat there.

I remember seeing Kevin in his Humvee...

...and I was told by Colonel Bailey...

...to not tell him Pat was killed by friendly fire.

You know, "Your career is on the line...

...do not tell Kevin exactly what happened."

Kevin had arrived on the scene 10 minutes after the shooting.

He was immediately quarantined and the rest of the platoon...

...was ordered not to tell him what had happened.

Russell Baer was put on a plane with Kevin.

He was ordered to escort Pat's remains back home...

...and to present the family with flags on behalf of the country.

That was a difficult experience for me. Just with everything that I knew...

...and I was scared about what was to come afterwards.

You know, I was just-- I was afraid for it all.

I mean, it was the first time I'd ever met Pat's mom...

...and she saw how difficult it was for me and she....

She grabbed my hand, kind of just patted my hand a little bit.

The real test of a man is not when he plays the role he wants for himself...

...but when he plays the role destiny has for him.

So when that little voice in your head tells you not to do the easy things...

...but the right things...

...it's Pat. Right in your ear, man. It's Pat.

Right after Pat died...

...we probably felt the most sense of comfort from people from the military.

And we were very honored to see that General Kensinger was present.

I wanna thank anybody involved in the military...

...especially the Rangers. Outstanding human beings--

Then to find out that they were the very people to lie to us...

...it's outrageous.

I don't know a lot about what happened to Pat...

...but the last few days have not been very pleasant.

It's only been a week and it ain't getting any better.

It's a horrible thing to lie.

It's an atrocity that they would take a young man with honorable intentions...

...who served his country...

...and lie about how he died to promote a war.

To use him as a political-- A propaganda tool, basically.

That is immoral.

The five shooters never gave a credible explanation for their actions.

But by the time the Tillmans had unredacted...

...the entire box of documents...

...they understood that the deception about their son's death...

...went much higher than the soldiers on the ground.

Pat Tillman has been killed.

Forty-five minutes later, he's been killed by fratricide.

"Oh, shit. What do we do now?"

"Okay, let's spin this as a heroic action.

We'll turn his dead body into a recruiting poster."

They destroyed his uniform, his body armor, his helmet, his diary.

Every piece of evidence that could ever be used...

...to explain what happened is eliminated.

You just don't do shit without telling your superior officer.

"Oh, I'm gonna go burn Pat's uniform."

No.

You don't piss without permission...

...so this goes pretty damn high.

Once the Tillmans shifted their focus...

...to the higher-ups responsible for the cover-up...

...the lead investigator assigned to their case...

...began publicly suggesting that it was time to move on.

I don't know. These people, they have a hard time letting it go.

It may be because of their religious beliefs.

- I don't know how an atheist thinks. - Right.

But I can only imagine that, that would be pretty tough.

Right.

If you're an atheist, then you don't believe in anything?

If you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You're worm dirt.

It's pretty hard to get your head around that.

So you suspect that's the reason why this thing's dragging on.

I think so. There's not a whole lot of trust in the system.

- Right. - Or faith in the system.

It was my understanding at the time that this investigation is over...

...that this has been closed...

...they're not gonna give me the truth, it's a done deal.

And that being said, there's not much I can do to force the issue.

So I wrote them a letter.

I just went through and blew out...

...just about everything they considered to be a fact.

And explained to them why that is a lie...

...and concluded by telling them that I have low regard for them.

I just wanted to tell somebody off.

Unbeknownst to Pat Sr., the Army considered the wording of his letter...

...to be a formal accusation of criminal misconduct.

This automatically initiated a new investigation...

...by the inspector general's office.

Thank you for being here today.

It's kind of obnoxious that the letter did have the impact that it did.

It's like, wait a minute, my mom has been working her ass off for years...

...and if she knew all she had to do was tell you to go fuck yourself...

...and you'd actually do your job, I'm sure she would have done that...

...two and a half years before.

After an 18-month inquiry, the Army secretary announced...

...that the military was finally ready to assign blame.

We present to you the results of the Wallace Investigation...

...into the tragic death of Corporal Pat Tillman.

I'm on my way to an anniversary in Las Vegas.

I get a phone call from my wife that says, "Hey, you're on CNN."

Up first, new information about who bungled the initial probe...

...into the friendly-fire death...

...of Army Ranger and former football star Pat Tillman.

Let's go to the news conference now over at the Pentagon. Let's listen in.

General Wallace did find a senior official...

...Lieutenant General Kensinger, the senior leader in...

...the administrative chain of command for the 75th Ranger Regiment...

...found him guilty of deception.

General Kensinger was the captain of that ship and his ship ran aground.

It ran aground because he failed--

Devastating. Devastating to be called the villain in the process...

...or the captain who ran his ship aground...

...and let all his soldiers down.

General Kensinger was the public face of the Army...

...in the weeks after Pat's death.

I will not be taking questions.

The Army said that Kensinger knew about the fratricide...

...when he attended Pat's memorial service.

He would be stripped of his third star.

But as a reporter noted...

...there may have be another reason why Kensinger took the fall.

--yet, all the blame falls on General Kensinger.

I'm just trying to make sense of that.

He happens to be retired, is there a coincidence there?

The fact that he--

He's the only one who's really being singled out.

I believe the buck stops with Kensinger.

He was the senior leader in the chain of command for--

I don't think the buck stops at Kensinger.

There's no way this cover-up started at the three-star level. It had to go higher.

You look at what Kensinger's role--

I don't think Kensinger would have been inclined to cover it up...

...if he wasn't ordered to.

--if he performed his duty--

I mean, he was culpable.

I mean, he could've easily picked up the phone and called us...

...you know, but this is their life, this is their career...

...and they're terrified of losing what they've worked so hard for.

My wife says I'm too much of a soldier.

I've been doing it, you know, since 17.

When somebody tells me something, tells me to go do something, you say--

In the Army, you salute and, you know, about-face, and go get it done.

To think that, you know, this is how, you know, you get treated.

Thank you. Thanks a lot.

With the end of the press conference...

...the Army declared the Tillman matter over.

But two days later, as if in response to this...

...a reporter received an anonymous leak.

It was a copy of a top-secret internal communiqué...

...known as a P4 memo...

...sent just seven days after Pat's death...

...and a full month before the family learned of the fratricide.

After this briefing that we received from the inspector general...

...someone from Associated Press was sent a P4 memo...

...that went out to the highest generals in the land.

Not only did the P4 memo clearly state...

...that Pat was killed by friendly fire, but it left no doubt...

...that the cover-up reached well above General Kensinger's rank.

Thank you, all.

General Stanley McChrystal had sent the P4 memo on April 29th...

...after White House speechwriters had requested details...

...about Pat's death from the Pentagon.

The P4 memo states they must warn the president about this...

...because they'll be giving speeches and they shouldn't be embarrassed...

...if the circumstances of Pat's death become public.

He set aside a career in athletics--

The warning seemed to work.

In a speech, given two days before the memorial...

...the president avoided the very details of Pat's death...

...that his speechwriters had requested.

Friends say that this young man saw the images of September the 11th...

...and seeing that evil, he felt called to defend America.

Our suspicions in the beginning were very much validated by that P4 memo.

These generals had plenty of time...

...to make sure that we, as a family, were told the truth...

...but they chose not to tell us.

The P4 memo clearly showed...

...that while America was being told the valorous account of Pat's death...

...the entire chain of command not only knew it was a lie...

...but were urgently concerned about the implications...

...should the truth get out.

Armed with this new evidence...

...the family was able to take their case above the military...

...and in April 2007, the House of Representatives convened hearings...

...to investigate whether there had been a cover-up in the Tillman case.

The first testimony given was from the man...

...who had remained silent throughout the ordeal...

...Pat's brother, Kevin Tillman.

Even after discovering that the entire platoon...

...had been lying to him about the fratricide...

...Kevin had insisted on completing the full term of his enlistment.

Once he got out of the Army, Kevin went into seclusion...

...refusing, until now, to speak publicly about his brother.

My name is Kevin Tillman.

Two days ago marked the third anniversary...

...of the death of my older brother, Pat Tillman. Spera, Afghanistan.

To our family and friends, it was a devastating loss.

To the nation, it was a moment of disorientation.

To the military, it was a nightmare.

But to others within the government, it appears to have been an opportunity.

A terrible tragedy was transformed into an inspirational message...

...that served instead, to support the nation's foreign-policy wars.

After the truth of Pat's death was partially revealed...

...the Army was now left with the task of briefing our family...

...and answering our questions.

With any luck, our family would sink quietly into our grief...

...and the whole unsavory episode would be swept under the rug.

However, they miscalculated our family's reaction.

Through the amazing strength and perseverance of my mother...

...the most amazing woman on earth...

...our family has managed to have multiple investigations conducted.

However, while each investigation gathered more information...

...the mountain of evidence was never used to arrive at an honest...

...or even sensible conclusion.

That is why we ask Congress...

...as a sovereign representative of the whole people...

...to investigate Pat's death.

Anything less than the truth is a betrayal of those values...

...that all soldiers who have fought for this nation have sought to uphold.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much for your testimony.

Ms. Tillman, I know he was speaking for both of you.

Is there anything you want to add?

I would like to say...

...we have been asked, over and over again:

"Well, what can we do for your family? How can we appease you?"

And it makes me sick.

It's not about our family.

Our family will never be satisfied. We'll never have Pat back.

But what is so outrageous is this isn't about Pat.

This is about what they did to a nation.

Pat died for this country.

He believed it was a great country that had a system that worked.

It's not perfect, no one has ever said that...

...but to write these glorious tales is really a disservice to Pat...

...and to all the other soldiers.

You're diminishing their true heroism.

It may not be pretty, it may not be like out of a John Wayne movie...

...but that's not what war is all about. It's ugly, it's bloody, it's painful.

Everyone should understand what's going on.

And we shouldn't have smokescreens thrown in our face.

Thank you.

Pat Tillman was the most famous enlisted man in the military.

Pat Tillman is killed. It's obvious that it was fratricide.

The idea, the very idea, that anyone in that chain of command...

...would dare keep this information from anyone above them...

...is absolutely inconceivable.

Pat Tillman received a letter congratulating him on his enlistment...

...under the signature of Donald Rumsfeld.

The Secretary of Defense didn't give me a congratulations letter...

...whenever I joined the Army.

Not only did Rumsfeld write a letter to Pat right after he enlisted...

...he also sent a high-priority e-mail to the secretary of the Army...

...saying that this guy is very special, we need to keep an eye on him.

At the urging of the Tillmans, the investigating committee...

...requested testimony from the recipients of the P4 memo...

...as well as Secretary Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers.

We finally were face to face with the highest generals in the land.

You know, the former Secretary of Defense.

And then we also had people that have the power...

...to make these guys accountable.

...to make these guys accountable.

General Abizaid, let me start with you. When did you receive this memo?

On the 29th, General McChrystal sent his message...

...and it went to my headquarters in Tampa...

...and it was not retransmitted...

...for reasons of difficulties with our systems within the headquarters...

...until the 6that the earliest--

Yeah, yeah. General Abizaid didn't get the fax...

...and there was a mix-up at the office. That's a good one.

Probably the 6th. It's a guess. I can't be sure exactly of the date--

Abizaid is responsible for the entire Middle East and North Africa...

...and this guy's not gonna be informed?

Well, General Myers, let's turn to you.

The other generals recounted similar stories.

I can't tell you. I don't know how I knew.

To the best of my knowledge, I've never seen this P4.

First of all, on the message, on the P4, I was an info addressee...

...which is not the primary addressee--

In the next three hours, the committee would hear...

...some variation of the phrase "I don't recall," 82 times.

I just don't know.

Incredibly, this urgent warning had somehow slipped through the cracks.

There's an interesting thing about the P4 that says:

"Deliver during normal duty hours." And so, again--

It was very disappointing.

That's not even the word, we were angry.

All the generals were lying,

They should have been called on a lot of things and they weren't.

I thought this was an oversight committee.

To me, an oversight committee...

...is someone that does a bit of investigation...

...it's not a cheerleading outfit.

I believe this is appropriately handled...

...and those who made errors were held accountable.

Ninety-nine point nine percent of the military do an outstanding job...

...and I thank you for setting an example.

These folks were held accountable. Is that correct, General Myers?

General? All generals?

From what I understand, that's correct.

You know, a lot of politics is theatrical wrestling, you know...

...which, behind the scenes it's like, "Okay, let's don't get anybody hurt."

Mr. Secretary, thank you for being with us today.

How and when did you learn that Corporal Tillman had been killed?

I don't recall precisely how I learned that he was killed.

Okay.

Before he did so, were you aware that President Bush...

...was going to reference Corporal Tillman...

...in a correspondents' dinner speech on May 1st?

No.

It was embarrassing to watch.

I have no recollection of discussing it--

These guys didn't have the ammunition...

...to cross-examine him and catch him in a lie.

Well, let me conclude the hearing by just indicating the facts...

...that General Myers and General Brown knew at the end of April.

General Abizaid learned on May 6th.

Secretary Rumsfeld learned on May 20th.

Could I correct--? Sir, could I make a point here?

Who? Yes, Mr. Secretary?

I wanna make sure it's precisely accurate.

I do not believe I testified that I learned on May 20th, and if I--

If that impression's been left, I don't want that left.

My testimony is that I just simply do not know...

...when I first learned of the possibility of fratricide.

- I appreciate that correction. - Thank you.

- And, sir, if I may? - Yeah.

I also wanted to make sure that the 6this a logical day.

- It's not the day. - Okay.

It's the best that my staff and I could come to the conclusion--

Well, you were all very busy. There was no question about it.

Sir, one other thing, if I could interrupt to also correct.

Your statement was that I knew about the friendly fire.

I knew that there was an investigation ongoing...

...about the potential for friendly fire.

That's goes for me too. That's exactly right.

- And for me, as well. - Okay.

At the point that they let Abizaid off the hook...

...that's the point where Dannie knew...

...you know, that this is as far as it was gonna go.

Thank you, sir.

That concludes our business and the committee hearing is adjourned.

On the way out of the congressional hearing...

...this congressman, he squats down next to me...

...and he holds out his hand to shake my hand...

...and he just wanted to tell me that he's proud of me...

...and he's proud of my son.

I just said, "Get out of here. Get away from me."

He would not go away, he wanted to keep talking.

I pulled my hand away from him, I said, "Get out of here, right now.

Get away from me."

Where does this stuff end?

It's been four years.

None of the actors in this matter have been held accountable.

But that's certainly no fault of Dannie's.

Pat would be nothing but unbelievably proud for her, you know.

I mean, she took it as far as she could take it.

She did everything in her power to fight for Pat.

And I mean, she knocked it out of the park.

Unfortunately, the fucking government moved the fence back, and it--

You know, that was it.

It's about all I can do at this point. We've sort of, you know--

The questioning has sort of run its course.

I guess I held out hope that at the last hour we would get answers...

...but, no, that's not what happened.

I don't think there's much else that can be done.

The be all and the end all...

...is not whether or not Congress follows through.

Like it or not, there's a public dimension to Pat Tillman...

...and it ain't gonna go away.

That's a dangerous thing to fool around with though.

It's dangerous to lionize people like Pat.

When people who are attracted to the mystique of Pat Tillman...

...begin to actually study who Pat Tillman was...

...they're gonna find out that this story doesn't fit...

...into something that's all tidy and mythic.

The danger of something like this...

...is it's an opportunity for reality to break through.

People start asking questions...

...and then all of the sudden, the Tillman story changes.

I've talked about it with my dad actually, and it was just like:

"It'd be really neat to have a statue of Pat where he's laughing his ass off."

You wanna make him a myth?

Go ahead and make him a myth, just be accurate with it.

You know, if he could walk on water in these myths...

...then let him have a beer every once in a while...

...and let him hang out with friends and let him be gracious...

...and let him be sensitive and let him be funny...

...and let him be all the things that he was.

When I talk about Pat--

And everybody is sort of on the same page, at least, you know, the family.

That when you talk about Pat, he's sort of like sitting in the room with you.

I mean, and that's such a-- That says so much about him.

I can conjure his face, I can conjure his laughter.

You know, he just had this quality to him that he so loved life...

...and he would want us to, you know, move on, move forward.

I feel like, at least I've done what I can for him.

And now, it's just the idea of just kind of moving on...

...and just kind of bringing him with us, sort of.

A few more seconds.

- That's it, we're done. - All right.