Pat Tillman's life story could not have been told by a better author.
"Turning the page on history" is a phrase that takes on a new meaning in Krakauer's latest gripping and shocking triumph. True to form established by his other masterpieces, Into Thin Air & Into the Wild, Krakauer probes deeply into a story that ended in tragedy, laying the gruesome facts out for all to see. Just as when we watch a violent movie, we know what to expect, but often wince and reflexively look away.
In the book, it is clear that Krakauer has a profound respect for the person that Tillman was. He uses his gifts as a journalist/author to get to the truth, no matter how heart-wrenching they may be.
Below the fold are excerpts & a brief summary of this powerful literary effort that clearly belongs near the top of all "Top 10 Books of 2009" lists.
The tragic story of Pat Tillman consumed many headlines over the course of the decade. He eschewed fame & fortune as a pro athlete to serve in the army, where he was killed in action. Although it was obvious to all servicemen present that Tillman was killed by friendly fire, the truth was not told to the family for many months. In fact, many years and multiple official inquiries later, the whole truth has still not been confessed by the U.S. government. Fortunately, Krakauer tells the public what we deserved all along.
Thanks to cooperation from Marie Ugenti Tillman, Pat's widow, Krakauer shares the intimate details found in Tillman's eloquently-written journals. Marie also provides the author with the only on-the-record interview by a family member. Krakauer does credit Tillman's family for their relentless pursuit of the truth, "without which...most of what is known about the fratricide and subsequent cover-up would never have been revealed."
• Who Pat Tillman Really Was •
After a brief prologue summarizing the events that led to Tillman's death, Krakauer devotes several chapters exploring Tillman's youth. In fact, it is fully 142 pages into the 344-page book before Tillman informs his NFL club he is joining the army. The reader quickly becomes enchanted with this sad story's protagonist.
Whenever someone tragically dies, the posthumous interviews seem to wax poetic about what a great person the deceased was. In Tillman's case, it truly feels like these types of sentiments have never been truer. He was a man average in physical stature who was superlatively large on the qualities that make a human being a good person.
An oft-repeated narrative about Tillman walking away from the NFL for the army uses the figure $3.6 million in reference to the contract that was on the table with the Cardinals when he enlisted. What I didn't know was that Tillman had previously refused a NINE million dollar contract to sign with another team (the St. Louis Rams). This little-known tidbit revealed in the book is typical of Krakauer's writing and attention to detail as a journalist. It is important in trying to understand who Tillman really was. Yes, he felt strongly about serving his country in the army. But just one NFL season earlier, he felt strongly enough about the Arizona Cardinals franchise (primarily because they had drafted him) to turn down nearly three times as much money as he did when he chose military service over the NFL.
Tillman revealed in his journals that he suspected his choice would be politicized. It was primarily due to this prophetic belief that he never once spoke to the media after making his decision.
Although it wasn't Tillman's intention, when he left the Cardinals to join the Army he was transformed overnight into an icon of post-9/11 patriotism. Seizing the opportunity to capitalize on his celebrity, the Bush administration endeavored to use his name and image to promote what it had christened the Global War on Terror. Tillman abhorred this role.
It is patently clear from Tillman's journals that he had very little respect for the political leadership at the time he enlisted, but he never let others' action dissuade him from what he believed was the right thing to do.
• The Jessica Lynch Saga •
To be honest, I knew very little about the drama surrounding Jessica Lynch before reading Where Men Win Glory. I was living in a remote locale overseas at the time of the Iraq invasion and therefore missed the U.S. trad med frenzy.
It is a shocking tale. Krakauer goes into great detail about the events that killed 18 Marines and led to Lynch's "capture."
Roughly one thousand troops were mobilized for the planned rescue of Lynch from what from all accounts was an unguarded hospital where she had been treated extremely well.
..(the Iraqi) hospital personnel even donated two pints of their own blood to give to (Lynch)
Pat Tillman was involved in the "dramatic rescue" of Jessica Lynch. Turns out Tillman was smarter than most; he saw right through the sham it turned out to be before it even happened.
As Pat & Kevin Tillman [Pat's brother] got ready for the mission, its massive scale - unlike anything they'd seen since arriving in the Persian Gulf - puzzled them...Pat wrote in his journal on March 30...
This mission will be a POW rescue...As awful as I feel for the fear she must face, and admire the courage I'm sure she is showing, I do believe this to be a big Public Relations stunt. Do not mistake me, I wish everyone in trouble to be rescued, but sending this many folks in for a [single low-ranking soldier] screams of a media blitz.
How insightful these words proved to be. The strict controls of information about these events and virtually all things related to the U.S. military under G.W. Bush were orchestrated by "perception managers" & planted "experts".
Krakauer then looks at the results of the military inquiry.
(pg. 204)
Despite the destruction of the cockpit tapes and other shortcomings of the investigation, the available facts clearly indicate that at least seventeen of the deaths were the result of fratricide. When General Hodgkins's investigating board released its report, however, it refused to acknowledge that any of the deaths were attributable to friendly fire.
The brazenness of the board's dishonesty was breathtaking.
It turns out Krakauer included the details about the Lynch saga not so much due to Tillman's involvement as to illustrate the extent to which covert manipulation of the media was central to the Bush-era military operations.
(pg. 180)
The bogus story was based on information fed to gullible reporters by anonymous military sources.
(pg. 181)
...the guy who deserves top billing for creating the myth of Jessica Lynch, in other words,- was a White House apparatchik named Jim Wilkinson.
(pg. 182)
It was Wilkinson's job to divert attention from this alarming setback lest it undermine the homeland's overwhelming support for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Later we are exposed to more exploitation of a soldier by the Bush administration.
(pg. 211)
The Jessica Lynch hoax worked so well, in fact, that the White House would recycle the same tactic 13 months later, almost move for move, when it was confronted with another series of potentially disastrous revelations.
Of course, we know that it is Tillman's sacrifice which is later revealed to have been co-opted for pure propaganda value.
• A Matter of Faith •
Krakauer calls Tillman "a true iconoclast." Tillman's family raised him to have an open mind; he was a free thinker who led by example. His actions in life persevere as a shining template to follow for all who knew him. No one in his right mind questions the outstanding leadership and profoundly good example he displayed during his too-brief years on this earth.
A stunning take on the events regarding Tillman's death came in an interview with ESPN by Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich. I lifted this quote from gchaucer2's 2007 diary:
Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.
In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."
This quote also appears in the book, and Krakauer actually refers to Kauzlarich as "evangelical." The fact that people charged with revealing the truth to the family could sink to these depths reveals an appalling and twisted view of the military. It suggests the need to review some of the great work Troutfishing has done here revealing how religion, particularly evangelical Christianity, has come to dominate our armed forces.
• The Unprecedented Posthumous Medal •
Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal approved the Silver Star citation on April 28, 2004, which gave a detailed account of Tillman's death including the phrase "in the line of devastating enemy fire", but the next day he sent a P4 memo warning senior government members that Tillman might actually have been killed by friendly fire.
This type of action has never before happened from what anyone can gather. Not only was this clearly yet another attempt to glorify Tillman's death for maximum propaganda value, but it diminishes the value of such medals for fallen soldiers and other brave heroes who have earned such honors in the line of duty.
• The Vast Right-wing Conspiracy •
General Stanley McChrystal has been in the news quite a lot lately. Why he wasn't in the headlines more in the months after Tillman's death speaks volumes to the effectiveness of the military's ability to cover their tracks. The very same McChrystal who is now in charge of advising the Commander-in-Chief about Afghanistan was also the person behind much of the obfuscation of the truth about Tillman's death.
Krakauer flatly states McChrystal was "the point man" in the cover-up and that no admission of guilt or specific apologies in this regard have been issued except the Mistakes were made type statements. The fact that the man who is primarily to blame for the phenomenal FUBAR situation was repeatedly promoted after these events does not provide much confidence in the current state of affairs within the U.S. military.
Meteor Blades recently described the profound dishonesty of our government's armed forces, and the utter failure of our media to see through it.
In wartime, it is said, truth is the first casualty. In our permanent state of war, which now is designated the "Long War," wartime means always. And steady flow the lies, big lies, little lies, all of them together creating a pernicious narrative that typically requires considerable effort to unravel.
Happily, some of the same upstart media that transmit the lies can subvert them; sadly there always seem to be more liars than diggers for truth.
Krakauer drives home the awful truth with one stinging and devastating sentence as only he can.
(pg. 305)
All of them seemed to be reading from the same patently disingenuous script, rejecting a series of self-serving rationalizations intended to justify what was actually a very calculated effort to deceive not just the Tillman family but also the American public - who of course was the real target of the misinformation campaign.
__
For more discussion about the book, see also:
• Jon Krakauer interview with Melissa Block on NPR's All Things Considered
Tillman's uniform and body armor were burned, says Krakauer, and his weapon, helmet, even a part of his brain, which fell to the ground after the attack, disappeared. Army officials told the medical examiners that Tillman had been killed by the Taliban — and they stuck by this story when they reported the death to his family.
• Jon on Jon action on The Daily Show. You will never see another Jon Stewart interview with fewer laughs or moments of jocularity.
• Jon Krakauer interview on the Diane Rheem show (Windows Media player or Real Player)
• Overall there hasn't been a tremendous amount of interest here on Daily Kos recently about this story from what I can gather. The best diaries I could find on the subject were written by jimstaro around the time of the book's release.
__
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (Amazon, Powell's)
by
Jon Krakauer
__