MAKING OFFICIALS TAKE NOTICE.

Byline: Posted by Carol Rock

valleynews.com user

Truth: the first casualty of war.

It's the best-known line from Aaron Sorkin's brilliant play "A Few Good Men" -- and everyone does their best Jack Nicholson impression as they spit out, "You can't handle the truth."

Would that life didn't imitate art so closely. A Pentagon report released Monday recommended that nine Army officers be held accountable for errors in reporting the friendly-fire death of Cpl. Pat Tillman, who was killed April 22, 2004.

The Army knew it was friendly fire right away. His parents, Pat and Mary Tillman, found out five weeks later, after a nationally televised memorial in which their son was lauded as a hero for his bravery on the battlefield, struck down by enemy fire while nobly defending his country.

I consider any person who puts on a uniform to stand up for America as a hero. What strikes me as less than heroic is the way this country's alleged leaders -- from the battlefield commanders all the way up to the alleged commander in chief -- took this incident and manipulated the truth to serve their own selfish and terribly wrong purpose of popularizing the war in the Middle East.

Nine officers might -- just might -- be held to answer for their actions. Pat and Mary Tillman's son is dead forever.

What happens in the heat of battle is unpredictable, passionate and often out of anyone's control. Tillman, like the 3,615 other troops who have died in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, might have died as a result of a tragic mistake. As parents, we accept that these things can happen, and as parents, have a reasonable expectation that the truth will come from those who command our sons and daughters.

How dare they think less of those who sacrifice at home, worrying and waiting? We live with death standing on the sidelines every day, and if it comes, they owe us the real information, no matter how painful that might be.

There is simply no excuse for the Army's withholding of the real circumstances from the Tillmans or the country.

I took an interest in this story when it happened for two reasons -- one, because I had a son who served in Iraq, and also because I went to school with the elder Tillman brothers -- Pat's father, Pat, and uncle, Hank. We grew up in the same Northern California community and were friends, but lost touch with each other, never knowing we had the common bond of a child in harm's way.

When Tillman was killed, I told my son that I couldn't believe it happened. His knee-jerk reaction was that the former football player was getting all the attention because he was a sports figure, not because he was any more heroic than the thousands of others who were killed or injured and never made the front page of the paper.

When I told him why I was concerned, he backed down. When a friend's child dies, it doesn't matter that you may not have talked with them for decades; the hurt is almost as raw as if it had been your own.

But, as reality played out, my son's reaction proved to have merit. The national attention, the hero's reception, the way the Tillman family was abused, all overshadowed the reality that the death toll continues to mount.

Pat and Mary Tillman's persistence, keeping this issue on the front burner, vowing to take the Army's wrongdoing to Congress, makes me proud. Their sons, Pat and Kevin, are heroes for their service; Pat and Mary are heroes for making sure those who don't trust parents with the truth are held to answer.

Those nine officers have to sleep at night knowing they caused unnecessary pain to a family already reeling in grief from their loss. Whether they are punished -- by the government or at their own hand -- remains to be seen.

What makes me wonder is how many other families -- those whose children didn't leave behind lucrative sports contracts or whose death doesn't serve to make the Army look good -- have been given a spun version of their child's demise?

It's ironic that Tillman's last touchdown might be holding the Army accountable to those who foot the physical and fiscal bills of war. Only a hero could make the Army stop lying to the American people.