Review of The Tillman Story (2010) by Walter M — 29 Dec 2011

What the documentary "The Tillman Story" does very well is in filling in the gaps of the life and death of Pat Tillman, a professional football player for the Arizona Cardinals, whose reading list ranged from The Book of Mormon to Noam Chomsky. Enlisting in the army six months after 9/11, he died in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in 2004 that is told in horrifying detail here that explains clearly why giving 19-year olds guns may not always be a good idea, even in the military where you would expect greater discipline.(I would have liked a little information on friendly fire incidents in general to get an idea as to how common they are.) With the Army initially lying over his cause of death, his parents work tirelessly to get to the bottom of the cover-up.

So far, so good. However, sadly, I did not find the Army cover-up that surprising or shocking and it is here where a little historical context would have gone a long way. Start with Vietnam being a public relations disaster(not to mention more importantly a running war crime) which informed the military's future need to control every aspect of information that is dispensed, so as to create a narrative in their favor. Going back even further, pretty much to the beginning, is the need for heroes in wartime that fulfill a need for bright shining faces on recruiting posters.