What happened to Pat Tillman?

As far as tragic sports stories go, Pat Tillman is one of the more heartbreaking ones. He’s often referred to as a “patriot” or an “American Hero,” and he is, but like most things in life, the truth is a little more complicated than that simple description would have you believe.

He was originally reported to have died at the hands of enemy fire in Afghanistan in 2004, but later reports confirmed that wasn’t the case at all. Read on to learn all about former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman and what happened to him that fateful night when he was killed.

The obvious and most difficult part of Tillman’s story is the manner in which he was killed. There are still questions as to how it happened, and it’s possible the whole truth may never come out. What we do know is after he died, army commanders and members of the cabinet of George W. Bush tried to cover up what really happened.

Pat Tillman’s early life

Tillman was born on Nov. 6, 1976, in San Jose, California. He was the oldest of three boys and a natural leader to his younger brothers. He was always athletically gifted and a natural leader, and he excelled at sports despite being small in stature. He led his high school to a Central Coast Division I championship, even though he was repeatedly told he was too small to ever excel at the game.

From there, he attended Arizona State University, where he earned a selection to the Pac-10 All-Academic Football Team three seasons in a row. He also won the NCAA’s Post-Graduate Scholarship for academic and athletic excellence. He wasn’t just a good athlete, though. Tillman graduated Summa Cum Laude from ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business in less than four years with a B.S. in Marketing.

After that, the NFL came calling. The Arizona Cardinals picked Tillman in the 7th round of the draft in 1998. Again, many said he was too small and could never make it in the NFL, but like he did with everything, he proved everyone wrong. He became the Cardinals’ starting safety and in 2000 he set the team’s record with 224 tackles. Despite his success, he still drove the same truck he had in college to games and eschewed the use of a cell phone, preferring to read and develop relationships with those close to him.

When he wasn’t in football season, he would run marathons and triathlons while pursuing a Master’s degree in History. He always knew the importance of someone with his gifts and talents giving back to the community, so he volunteered with the March of Dimes, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and traveled to different schools in the Phoenix Valley area to talk to kids about their futures.

Why did Pat Tillman join the Army?

On Sept. 11, 2001, two commercial planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York City and changed America forever. Tillman, with his instilled sense of duty, decided that his country gave him so much and it was now his turn to step up and defend it. He decided to put his career as a professional football player on the back burner and enlist in the U.S. Army along with his brother Kevin.

“Sports embodied many of the qualities I deem meaningful,” he said in 2002. “However, these last few years, and especially after recent events, I’ve come to appreciate just how shallow and insignificant my role is . . . It’s no longer important.” He finished up the 2001 season, and his decision caught the attention of the media as a whole. Why was this man, who had it all, sacrificing his career to go to war? People couldn’t understand it when he turned down $3.6 million from the Cardinals and went on his way.

He trained to join the Army Rangers and was assigned to the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Lewis, Washington. He served several tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq but was killed in action on April 22, 2004, under mysterious circumstances.

Pat Tillman’s mysterious death in Afghanistan

On the fateful April day, Tillman and about 40 other soldiers in his platoon were deployed in eastern Afghanistan’s Khost Province, near Pakistan. It was one of the most dangerous places in the country, if not the world, and not one that many would travel to voluntarily. Then came a strange order from the commanders in a base far away: Split the platoon into two convoys. The men on the ground objected to this and so did their superiors, but you have to follow orders. That’s how it works.

Tillman was in the first convoy and ordered to accompany his convoy through a steep canyon to get to a village at dusk. Once there, they were to search the village for enemy contraband. His brother Kevin was in the other convoy and was supposed to follow a different route and pick up a damaged Humvee. This is when things went awry.

The first convoy was unaware that the second convoy mistakenly followed the same path the first convoy did. Then the second convoy was ambushed. When Tillman and two others in his convoy heard gunfire, they followed him to a ridge, which looked back at the canyon and the fighting. Tillman was with Afghan militiaman Sayed Farhad and fellow platoon member Bryan O’Neal. Farhad was about 10 feet from Bryan with an AK-47, which both the military and the enemy used in battle.

When the second convoy made it out of the canyon they were greeted by an Afghan with an AK-47 and didn’t know Farhad was on their side. They fired. Tillman started shouting and threw a smoke grenade to tell his fellow soldiers he was friendly. It didn’t help. Farhad and Tillman were fired on and killed. Then the cover-up started.

The main narrative was that Tillman was killed during a barrage of “devastating enemy fire.” In a memo to the Pentagon and the White House, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said officials should avoid using that particular language. His brother wasn’t even told how he died.

Eventually, after Tillman’s mother diligently pressed for answers, those involved were cited for “gross negligence.” Four investigations took place including a congressional hearing. It took a long time for the truth to come out, but it eventually did.

Tillman’s mother, Mary “Dannie” Tillman, commented on what she wanted her son’s legacy to be: “That he was a human being. That he’s not some square-jawed guy in a beret, even though he was beautiful. But he was a human being. And he was funny. … He died doing something that he volunteered to do. It has brought attention to what the government, political people and military people, what they’re capable of. Because Pat is not the only one. He’s not the first one. And he’s not the last.”

Though it has been decades since her son passed away, Mary continues to live by her life’s mission — to not let anything manipulate or erase the details of what really happened to her 27-year-old son.