Tillman case; a failure of duty

Posted by Philip Barron at 11:35 AM on March 27, 2007.

The Army's belated and begrudged findings of responsibility in the case of Army Ranger Cpl. Pat Tillman should satisfy no one. They certainly do not satisfy Tillman's family, which responded with a statement calling for a Congressional investigation:

The characterization of criminal negligence, professional misconduct, battlefield incompetence, concealment and destruction of evidence, deliberate deception, and conspiracy to deceive are not "missteps."

These actions are malfeasance.

In our opinion, this attempt to impose closure by slapping the wrists of a few officers and enlisted men is yet another bureaucratic entrenchment.

The official insult atop the grevious injury done this military family well warrants a cold and justified anger.

In three years of struggling with the Pentagon's public affairs apparatus, we have never been dealt with honestly.

We will now shift [our] efforts into Congress, to which we appeal for investigation.

Perhaps subpoenas are necessary to elicit candor and accuracy from the military.

Candor and accuracy which even the Army admits is the very least that it owes to service familes:

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren apologized to Tillman's family for the delay in letting them know about the circumstances of his death.

"We as an Army failed in our duty to the Tillman family, the duty we owe to all families of our fallen soldiers -- give them the truth, the best we know it, as fast as we can," he said.

It is just possible, however, that this one family's painful struggle can give light to other families (as we have discussed here) laboring in the darkness of misinformation, deception, and disregard by the military.

We do not think that Pat's notoriety - about which Pat himself was self-effacing - gives him a special qualification for Congressional attention.

But if that notoriety can serve as a catalyst to open dozens of cases - many of the families known to us - of troops who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan by fratricide, and whose families, like us, were deceived about the circumstances of these deaths.

We believe Pat would approve of this.

It will take many voices together - yours and mine - to provide that needed catalyst toward truth. Begin now by signing the LaVena Johnson petition, and learn more about her story and actions you can take on behalf of her family. And, again, thank you.

Tagged as: iraq, army, afghanistan, pat tillman, lavena johnson

Philip Barron is a St. Louis writer and author of the blog Waveflux.