Tillman’s Mom Writes Book in Search of Truth

After four years, several investigations and two congressional hearings, Mary Tillman has come to an unhappy but necessary conclusion.

There's probably nothing more she can do to get Pentagon or White House officials to say why the Army tried so hard to cover up the circumstances of her son's death on an Afghanistan hillside four years ago.

Nor does she expect anything more from Congress, where Democrats and Republicans alike have shown little interest in really getting to the truth.

"And there's only so much we can do as a family without beating our heads against the wall," Mary Tillman told Military.com during a May 9 interview about her just-released book, Boots on the Ground by Dusk, My Tribute to Pat Tillman.

Since Pat Tillman was killed on April 22, 2004, Mary Tillman has left it to others to speak for the family, including her son, Kevin, who served with Pat in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger.

"Boots on the Ground," which Mary wrote with journalist Narda Zacchino -- a former associate editor for the Los Angeles Times and the deputy editor of the San Francisco Chronicle -- is her testament to the tragic incident. And she uses the book to make the case the government has no business lying about how American soldiers die to fit a particular narrative.

"Soldiers enlist to fight, to serve their country, knowing pretty quickly they could be killed, could be wounded, could be diminished physically or emotionally," Mary said in the interview. "But they don't expect the government to disrespect their service by lying to them about what happened to them. And no one should be used as a propaganda tool."

And this is the story Mary details in her book -- of how her pro-football-player son walked away from a million-dollar career and marched into the Army after the 9/11 attacks. It is also about how her son turned down soft-duty for the life of an enlisted Ranger, fought first in Iraq and finally in Afghanistan, where he was killed by his fellow Soldiers by accident.

Nor is it only Pat Tillman that the Pentagon has lied about, she Mary claims. "Boots" also notes the story of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was turned into a young female Rambo by the Pentagon spin machine looking to create Iraq war heroes, and of Army Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey and 2nd Lt. Andre Tyson. Their families were told the two were killed by insurgents during an ambush, though the Army's investigation concluded they were murdered by Iraqi trainees looking to collect bounties for killing Americans.

To Mary, it appears the Pentagon and the White House is attempting to script the war as it unfolds.

And though a friendly-fire death would have done nothing to diminish Pat Tillman's sacrifice or example, someone somewhere -- no investigation has yet revealed who, she says -- began manufacturing for Tillman a heroic, blaze-of-glory death against the enemy, in which he displayed extraordinary courage under fire deserving of the Silver Star.

Instead of the truth, the Army gave Pat Tillman's family at his widely watched, media-covered memorial service a flag, a medal and a myth.

But then the myth began to unravel, and a different picture began to emerge -- one of Soldiers firing at unidentified targets and at populated houses along a ridgeline, all the while with no enemy fire coming in.

Eventually, several senior officers were singled out for having a role in the medal story, inadequately investigating the shootings or not being able to control the Soldiers' fire during the incident.

But no one was seriously disciplined, even though the initial investigation indicated not only that rules of engagement had been broken, but the possibility that war crimes may have been committed.

For example, Soldiers' testimony indicated they saw Tillman and the other Soldier waving their arms as if saying to cease fire, but the Rangers continued firing anyway. Testimony also revealed that Soldiers fired on civilian homes though there was no evidence of any fire coming from them.

But this testimony, Mary Tillman says in the book, was dropped. A later regimental investigation came to different conclusions. Mary says in her book that the Soldiers who testified earlier were allowed to change their stories.

By the time Mary met with Army Secretary Pete Geren in August 2007 to go over the Army's last investigation, the narrative had changed dramatically.

"[Geren] insisted the rules of engagement were not broken," she said. "They were shooting at men waving their arms, and it didn't matter if they didn't recognize them as friendly or enemy. In fact, when they asked what they looked like they were trying to signal, one Soldier said, 'hey, it's us.' But they continued firing anyway."

The Defense Department simply does not have the will to pursue the truth, she said, probably because so many senior officials knew that Pat died as a result of friendly fire, but had all been willing to go along with the fabricated story.

She quotes former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, in the book as saying it was common knowledge among the generals how Tillman died. He made this statement to a Congressional committee one day, and then the next day denies he ever said it, Mary said in her book.

But the hearing, led by Democratic California congressman Henry Waxman last year, has also done nothing to dislodge the truth from the Pentagon or White House, which Mary Tillman also believes was quickly informed of her son's death.

She says the Democrats were unprepared and seemed nervous about hearing testimony from former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, while the Republicans "could have cared less."

"I don't foresee them doing anything, to be honest," she said. "The only thing we can do at this point is present the book, allow the public to see, possibly understand what we've been subjected to, along with the other families out there being lied to about what happened to their Soldiers."

If there is ever to be any real progress made to get at the truth, she believes, it will have to be demanded by the public.

"I feel we've done something responsible and dignified" in writing the book, she said. "Hopefully we can open the public's eyes, because I feel the public has some culpability here. We all do."

Boots on the Ground, My Tribute to Pat Tillman, was released in April by Modern Times. Retail price on the hardback book is $25.95.