Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman

Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman Review

Mary Tillman is the mother of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan. She wrote the book Boots on the Ground by Dusk, which detailed her attempt to find out the truth about her son's death and exposed a cover-up by the Pentagon and the White House. Mary Tillman dedicated the book to "all military families, who are seeking to understand the sacrifices their sons and daughters have made. They too are entitled to the truth from their government."

Pat Tillman was arguably the most famous soldier serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was an outstanding professional football player with the Arizona Cardinals, who passed up a multi-million dollar contract to join the U.S. Army in 2002. Tillman's family had a legacy of military service and he felt compelled to fall in step after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack against America.

Tillman had movie-star good looks and an incisive and curious mind. He was a free spirit and a risk-taker. He did not subscribe to any religion, yet he was deeply spiritual. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Marie, and, with her support, enlisted in the Army, along with his younger brother, Kevin. Her two eldest sons advised their mom of their decision on Mother's Day, May 9, 2002.

When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2002, Pat Tillman said, regarding his decision to enlist, "Sports embodied many of the qualities I deem meaningful. 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."

Tillman expected to serve in Afghanistan, but did not anticipate the war in Iraq, where he spent his first tour of duty, although he was uneasy about fighting in what he considered to be an illegal war. Sometime later, while in a canyon in Afghanistan, he was killed by gunfire. His death on April 22, 2004 was first attributed to an ambush by enemy forces. A nationally televised memorial service was then held to honor him on May 3, 2004.

As more details became known regarding the circumstances of his death, it was clear that he was not ambushed by the enemy but was killed by "friendly fire" - fratricide. Official documents later revealed that the Army withheld this information from the public and the family until sometime after the memorial service.

In the intervening years Pat's mom, doggedly searched through thousands of pages of heavily redacted testimony in order to get to the truth. Regarding her tireless search, she observed, "This isn't about Pat, this is about what they did to Pat and what they did to a nation. By making up these false stories, you're diminishing their true heroism. [The truth] may not be pretty, but that's not what war is all about. It's ugly, it's bloody, it's painful. And to write these glorious tales is really a disservice to the nation."

Although the Tillman Story was more well-publicized than many other accounts of war, in the days and months to come more and more soldiers will be returning home. Sadly, some families will be left with only emptiness and grief.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Mary Tillman for her tenacious search for the truth. The book will send a chill up the spine of others whose loved ones were killed or maimed in war. They will be left to wonder if official government explanations have any resemblance to the truth and how high up conspiracies to conceal the truth go.

Despite her tireless efforts to find out how and why her son was killed, Boots on the Ground at Dusk, still leaves us with many open questions, including the most haunting one of all: was Pat Tillman murdered? And, if so, who conspired to do so and why? I don't know if he was or was not murdered but that question clearly hangs in the air as Mary Tillman's quest unfolds in the pages of this book.

Mary Tillman's story, a must-read about finding the truth behind her son's death should remind us all that, in all cases, we owe returning veterans and their families our understanding and support.

Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman Feature

• ISBN13: 9781594868801
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Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman Overview

On April 22, 2004, Lieutenant David Uthlaut received orders from Khost, Afghanistan, that his platoon was to leave the town of Magarah and "have boots on the ground before dark" in Manah, a small village on the border of Pakistan. It was an order the young lieutenant protested vehemently, but the commanders at the Tactical Command Center disregarded his objections. Uthlaut split his platoon into two serials, with serial one traveling northwest to Manah and serial two towing a broken Humvee north toward the Khost highway. By nightfall, Uthlaut and his radio operator were seriously wounded, and an Afghan militia soldier and a U.S. soldier were dead. The American soldier was my son, Pat Tillman.

The Tillman family was originally informed that Pat, who had given up a professional football career to serve his country, had been shot in the head while getting out of a vehicle. At his memorial service twelve days later, they were told that he was killed while running up a hill in pursuit of the enemy. He was awarded a Silver Star for his courageous actions. A month and two days after his death, the family learned that Pat had been shot three times in the head by his own troops in a "friendly fire" incident. Seven months after Pat’s death, the Tillmans requested an investigation.

Boots on the Ground by Dusk is a chronicle of their efforts to ascertain the true circumstances of Pat’s death and the reasons why the Army gave the family and the public a false story. Woven into the account are valuable and respectful memories of Pat Tillman as a son, brother, husband, friend, and teammate, in the hope that the reader will better comprehend what is really lost when our sons and daughters are killed or maimed in war.

In the course of three and a half years, there have been six investigations, several inquiries, and two Congressional hearings. The Tillmans are still awaiting an outcome.

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