Was Tillman Fragged?

That's what is sounds like.

SAN FRANCISCO - Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.[SNIP]

Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman's comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident. [SNIP]

• In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop "sniveling."

Several high-ranking officers have recently been disciplined for covering up the now-known circumstances surrounding Pat Tillman's death; that discipline includes the demotion of at least one general.

The fact that Pat Tillman died was always heart-breaking to most people. The notion that he die accidentally at the hands of his comrades was worse. Now, the possibility that his comrades may have taken him out on purpose is a gut-blow.

If the last is true, the only redeeming facts about this incident is that those who did it will pay and that those who covered it up will pay. Oh, and one more thing is redemptive about this story: Pat's honorable and very voluntary service.

Can we contrast this saga with the stories that Scott Thomas Beauchamp put out to the reading public? As Tillman's (and other) military sagas prove, the US military is composed of humans who, like all other humans, are prone to do two things: make mistakes and commit purposeful crimes.

What the Tillman story proved, however, is that, with the proper system in place, the truth will come to light and that the guilty and/or negligent will usually be punished.

What do this have to do with the Beauchamp saga? It's this: If the stories related in "Shock Troops" are true, Beauchamp never initiated the actions which would have allowed the system--the same system which will punish those in the Tillman case--to get started.

RIP, Pat.