SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF ATHEISM: THE ASSASSINATION OF PAT TILLMAN 

 Atheists: Overlooked by Sociology? by Michael E. Marotta, Eastern Michigan University, Sociology 405: Senior Seminar, Dr. Ron Westrum, Summer 2007.

Patrick Daniel Tillman (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004) played professional football for the Phoenix Cardinals, which, as a cum laude graduate of ASU (in 3½ years), he considered his hometown team.  In college, Tillman was a linebacker, the key position often called “the defensive quarterback.”  In May 2002, he resigned from the Cardinals and joined the U.S. Army where he (and his brother Kevin Tillman) qualified for the elite Rangers.  Tillman was killed in action in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004.  His death was reported in headlines, especially in the world of sports.  Eventually a national controversy erupted in the wake of inconsistencies in the reports from the military.[1] 

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Matthew Beevers said Saturday that Tillman was killed Thursday night in a firefight at about 7 p.m. on a road near Sperah, about 25 miles southwest of a U.S. base at Khost.

After coming under fire, Tillman’s patrol got out of their vehicles and gave chase, moving toward the spot of the ambush. Beevers said the fighting was “sustained” and lasted 15-20 minutes.   Beevers said Tillman was killed by enemy fire, but he had no information about what type of weapons were involved in the assault, or whether he died instantly.[2]

In fact, Tillman was killed by friendly fire.  That, in itself, is disturbing, though always a known risk.  The problem lies with the Ranger code of honor.  Honesty is always a value, but elite forces are held to a higher standard.  Yet, the truth was not immediately forthcoming.  Moreover, Tillman’s lack of religion became an issue.  The record is not clear about what he said to whom in those last minutes.  Furthermore, and more disturbing, at least one Army spokesman disparaged the Tillman family values.

            Much went wrong.  The infantry column was pulling a disabled vehicle.  The column was split in two, forward and back.  The forward position came under fire, returned fire and moved uphill.  The rearward troops moved into position and engaged.  In the firefight, the forward troops were trapped by friendly fire.  Among the first casualties was one of their Afghan allies.  Shouting did no good.  Tillman threw a smoke grenade to mark their position as “friendly.”  He came from behind a boulder, stood up and took three hits to the head and probably other hits as well.  That much seems accepted now.

“I thought I was praying to myself, but I guess he heard me,” Sgt. Bryan O'Neal recalled in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press. "He said something like, ‘Hey, O'Neal, why are you praying? God can't help us now.’”

                Tillman's intent, O'Neal said, was to “more or less put my mind straight about what was going on at the moment.”

                “He said, ‘I've got an idea to help get us out of this,’” said O'Neal, who was an 18-year-old Army Ranger in Tillman's unit when the former NFL player was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004.

                O'Neal said Tillman, a corporal, threw a smoke grenade to identify themselves to fellow soldiers who were firing at them. Tillman was waving his arms shouting “Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat [expletive] Tillman, damn it!” again and again when he was killed, O'Neal said.

                A chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman's death later described this exchange to investigators conducting a criminal probe of the incident. But O'Neal strongly disputes portions of the chaplain's testimony, outlined in some 2,300 pages of transcripts released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

                The chaplain told investigators that O'Neal said Tillman was harsh in his last moments, snapping, “Would you shut your [expletive] mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ...”

                “He never would have called me ‘sniveling,’” O'Neal said. “I don't remember ever speaking to this chaplain, and I find this characterization of Pat really upsetting. He never once degraded me. He's the only person I ever worked for who didn't degrade anyone. He wasn't that sort of person.”

                The chaplain's name is blacked out in the documents.[3]

Tillman’s status as a sports figure undoubtedly propels ESPN to continue the investigation by reading transcripts and interviewing commanders.  Among those who have spoken to ESPN on behalf of the Army is Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich. 

“But there [have] been numerous unfortunate cases of fratricide, and the parents have basically said, ‘OK, it was an unfortunate accident.’ And they let it go. So this is — I don't know, these people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs.”

                In a transcript of his interview with Brig. Gen. Gary Jones during a November 2004 investigation, Kauzlarich said he'd learned Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother and fellow Army Ranger who was a part of the battle the night Pat Tillman died, objected to the presence of a chaplain and the saying of prayers during a repatriation ceremony in Germany before his brother's body was returned to the United States.

                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.” [4]

It is easy to embrace a hero.  Like other interesting people, Pat Tillman was complicated. He has been described as a political liberal, even a leftist, given to conspiracy theories.  Nominally an opponent of the war – at least given to questioning its purpose publicly – he volunteered to fight it in, seeking out an elite combat unit.  Said to have enlisted “in the wake of 9/11,” he actually signed on about 15 months later, telling friends and family that he was inspired by a great-grandfather who died at Pearl Harbor.  Contrasted with the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, playing football seemed unimportant.  Unlike baseball – which his brother, Kevin, played for an Indians farm club – football is an intensely team-oriented sport.  There is no “i” in team.  Yet, his last words were “I’m Pat Fucking Tillman, damn it.”  Did his army buddies find him hard to take?  It has been noted that some of them were in their first live combat and they were being attacked.  Mistakes happen – or did someone capable and well-trained, a natural born warrior, take an opportunity?  Pat Tillman was awarded a Silver Star and an increase in grade to corporal, (both posthumously, of course) though no one else engaged that day received a similar honor.  Moreover, apparently no Silver Star has ever been awarded to anyone killed by friendly fire.  And then there are the remarks of Lt. Col. Kauzlarich and the dubious report by the anonymous chaplain.  Was it an accident or murder or a random event to be read like a Rorschach test or simply an ex post facto character assassination?