Former Ranger: 'I may have killed Pat Tillman' - How should this be handled?

CPT Aaron Kletzing — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 14:27:40 -0400

<div>Almost ten years after the friendly fire death of former NFL star turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman, a fellow ranger admits that he may have been the one who fired the fatal shot.<br></div><div><br></div><div>People have varying opinions as to how this should be handled from this point forward, due to the sensitivity of the issue.</div><div><br></div><div>What do you think?  Cast your vote here and then describe why.</div><div><br></div>Full article: http://rly.pt/Tillman-death <div class="pta-link-card"><div class="pta-link-card-picture"><img src="http://media.washtimes.com/media/image/2008/07/14/tillman.jpg"></div><div class="pta-link-card-content"><div class="pta-link-card-title"><a target="_blank" href="http://rly.pt/Tillman-death">Former Ranger breaks silence on Pat Tillman death: I may have killed him</a></div><div class="pta-link-card-description">Almost ten years after the friendly fire death of former NFL star turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman, a fellow ranger admits that he may have been the one who fired the fatal shot.</div></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="pta-box-hide"><i class="icon-remove"></i></div></div>

Response by CW2 Joseph Evans made Apr 20 at 2014 2:42 PM

CW2 Joseph Evans — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 14:42:37 -0400

The Pat Tillman incident was handled badly by the Army and Special Operations Command. 10 years after their first botched effort we can not truly expect them to do it right a second time. We all know it was a friendly fire incident, the story has been told a million times. If the Ranger is truly at odds with is actions on that day, he owes an apology to Pat's parents and family, not to the anybody else. If he really wants to make amends beyond that, there are avenues for him to tell his story, "Hi, I'm the guy that shot a national hero because I couldn't be bothered to identify my target before opening fire, this is my story.... of guilt and attempt at redemption."<br>

Response by MSgt Keith Hebert made Apr 20 at 2014 3:23 PM

MSgt Keith Hebert — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 15:23:05 -0400

Between him and the family

Response by Cpl Christopher Allen-Shinn made Apr 20 at 2014 3:39 PM

Cpl Christopher Allen-Shinn — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 15:39:06 -0400

No good can come from further military investigations; the Army has botched its attempts. The only civilian option would be a civil (as opposed to criminal) trial ("lawsuit"). Let the Ranger vent if he must, but the media should be respectful of the Tillman family, as should Mr. Elliot.

Response by SFC William Swartz Jr made Apr 20 at 2014 4:17 PM

SFC William Swartz Jr — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 16:17:31 -0400

After watching the interview, the Soldier is still hurting and tormented by the possibility that he is the one that fired the round that killed Pat. No one on this site was there, that I am aware of, and knows not what the full extent of the circumstances were that day. None of us has the right to make any assumption on the actions of any of the individuals involved that day, including Pat and the other 2 individuals that were with him on that bit of high ground. The Army and Spec Ops Command screwed the pooch badly with their handling of this whole incident, just as it did in the Jessica Lynch ordeal. If the family wants more info and wants to meet with the individuals involved and those individuals are not against it, then so be it, otherwise I think out of respect for Pat, his family and the other Soldiers that were there and involved, we should let things be.

Response by SSG Daniel Rosploch made Apr 20 at 2014 8:53 PM

SSG Daniel Rosploch — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 20:53:29 -0400

Friendly fire is the worst way to lose a Soldier. Not only do you lose the one shot, but the shooter as well. And from my experience, friendly fire is never truly intentional and almost always has to do with leader error.

The one incident that I remember the most is when a friend of mine was walking point on a simple presence patrol and walked right into a small kill team's field of fire. Neither group knew about the other and when the bullets started flying, my friend was the only one killed. The cover up ensued and no one knows he was killed by friendlies and both the LT's in charge of each element are now commanders somewhere. My buddy was a SGT and the shooter was just a PFC. But if it ever comes out, you know who's going to take the worst of the punishment and I guarantee its not going to be an officer...

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 20 at 2014 9:25 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 21:25:34 -0400

They should do a 15-6 investigation just to be sure that the Ranger is not faking this story for some kind of publicity as well as ascertain this new information.

Response by MSG Karl Arrington made Apr 20 at 2014 10:04 PM

MSG Karl Arrington — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 22:04:39 -0400

I disagree with reopening the investigation of Pat Tillman's death. Other than identifying who fire the fatal rounds, not much can come of it. The Army should already have a ballistics report and/or other information to determine that. very little or no defining information can be determined from a new investigation. Everyone intimately involved in that incident will be dealing with it for the rest of their lives. The two men in the video are clearly still affected by it. The media should be kept as far away as possible. I'm not confident about how much help they can provide.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 20 at 2014 11:04 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 23:04:37 -0400

Opening this up in the public view is not going to change what happened. If the Army continues to investigate, in order to be able to tell someone they did not shoot him, great. Aside from that, the only good that continued investigation will do will be to figure out how and prevent it in the future.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 21 at 2014 12:22 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:22:11 -0400

First, every Soldier who has ever enlisted or been commissioned, takes a chance that they will be in the thick of battle - combat arms MOSes especially. Second, when you are in battle, there is a high likely-hood that you are either going to kill someone, or be killed by someone. Friendly-fire is no exception.

Unfortunately, since time began, and humans began waging war, we have killed our own comrades, usually accidentally, occasionally deliberately.

Today's military, has gone to great lengths to reduce the number of friendly-fire incidents, but it is impossible to completely eliminate them.

Situational awareness, rattled nerves, shock, anger, miscommunication, disorientation due to blasts, surprise, and probably half-a-dozen other reasons I have not listed, can lead to a friendly-fire incident.

There is no 100% effective way to completely eliminate friendly-fire except for humans to stop fighting each other. Since that isn't going to happen anytime in the next millennium, you can expect more friendly-fire incidents in the future battles that we will fight.

This Soldier should be allowed to grieve. He needs to find peace with the possibility that his actions may have caused the death of a fellow Ranger, and he will need to do that on his own terms. It sounds to me like he truly regrets his decisions on that day, and opening a 15-6 into something that has already been laid to rest is not going to solve anything or bring Pat Tillman back. The Soldiers who opened fire in Pat's direction had either no SA that he was in that area, or they panicked and fired blindly/wildly. As I understand it, Pat Tillman put himself in the line of fire when he failed to communicate that he was moving up the hill.

Response by SSG Robert Burns made Apr 21 at 2014 1:24 AM

SSG Robert Burns — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 01:24:54 -0400

ESPN is running a segment on this right now with the Ranger involved. It is brutal.

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 21 at 2014 6:21 PM

1LT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 18:21:53 -0400

I don't like any of the choices. Unless there is substantial evidence beyond mere feeling of guilt about the possibility of having been responsible for friendly fire, the matter may well best left to rest without any further inquiry. None of us know the background state of mind of the servicemember expressing these feelings. Media should remain silent perhaps not so much for the sake of the family as much as not further inflaming what is must be a the very difficult, troubling, and fragile state of mind of this servicemember.

Trial by massively over the top speculation . . . particularly by the so called experts appearing on what was once a pretty decent news network . . . should not be focusing so harshly on individuals who may just be troubled.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 22 at 2014 10:44 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 10:44:35 -0400

Honor the family. Honor the fallen. Stand with the survivors.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 28 at 2014 10:52 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 28 May 2014 22:52:47 -0400

Keep it private, I knew a couple of folks in Regiment & Group who told me some things that were interesting about Pat Tillman and his time in Regiment. Let's not open up another can of worms

Response by CPT Robert Boshears made Jul 12 at 2016 1:17 AM

CPT Robert Boshears — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 01:17:46 -0400

I don't believe the Army would reopen this case, as they already screwed the pooch, and dishonored Pat Tillman and his family with a flimsy coverup.