Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

After focusing most of their attention on Iraq since driving the Taliban out in 2001, the U.S. military sends more troops to the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan to regain control where the Taliban quietly rebuilt their forces and intensified their attacks on American outposts. The Tillmans head here as part of Operation Mountain Storm: “The Rangers’ job would be to find and eliminate pockets of Taliban support in remote border villages occupied by two rabidly xenophobic Pashtun tribes” (270). These tribes act as protectors of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, their area a dangerous maze.

Tillman’s final journal entry describes a pleasant scene where he is pets a cat that lives at the airfield. Although he recognizes that his mission will take him straight into the hot spot, he also vaguely questions how rough it will actually be. They depart for Spera District in Humvees to begin their rounds of foot patrols, searching villages along the Pakistan border the next morning. Despite intelligence of planned Taliban attacks, no conflicts arise. 

On April 20, a Humvee breaks down. They’re ordered to tow it to FOB Salerno after clearing one last village called Mana. They’re not happy with these orders. Five months earlier, a roadside Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detonated as Rangers passed by, destroying one Humvee and killing the driver along the dangerous stretch of road Tillman’s unit is about to travel. Policy changed after this to permit travel on the roads only at night, a policy they have direct orders to violate.

Their pace is extremely slow, putting them in even more danger of attack. The inoperable Humvee is nearly destroyed in the five miles they traverse. They stop at a village and request either a heavy wrecker to tow it or a helicopter to take it out, calling FOB Salerno. Given that there are no helicopters available and the wrecker can only make it to the end of a paved road, they’re ordered to continue towing it the 16 miles to that location. They pay a local to tow it with his jinga truck, a five-ton diesel rig.

They discuss options about their mission to Mana, with all leaders of the platoon strongly opposed to splitting the unit so that one half could accompany the Humvee and the other could complete the mission. Major Hodne grows impatient, ordering Captain Saunders to split the platoon against his better judgment. Hodne later denies giving this order.

Lieutenant Uthlaut receives the order and argues it as much as he can, eventually acquiescing and giving them the coordinates of both units’ travel to receive air support. Orders are for half the unit to reach Mana by nightfall and to merely camp there, clearing the village in the morning once the rest of the platoon rejoins them after delivering the inoperable Humvee.

The urgency of their mission reflects the strict adherence to arbitrary timelines set by Rumsfeld and other higher ups whose priority is to mold the public’s opinion on the war, rather than rely on intel. Preparations to leave take many hours, and villagers overhear the entire plan and the routes the split units will take. Some young men observe from a distance. 

Standard procedure before embarking on a mission is for commanders to explain the mission exactly to their platoon, detailing the routes, tasks to be accomplished, and procedures to follow in case of enemy attack. A few of these standards are to begin responding to an enemy attack with a rush of gunfire, then to slow down considerably; to positively identify targets as enemy combatants before firing; and to always follow the unit leader.

Because one unit is hurrying to reach Mana before nightfall, they don’t brief the platoon on the mission or remind them of standard procedures. Only the commanders know why they split the platoon. Before they depart, one soldier recalls Tillman reading an excerpt from his journal about the seemingly feminized qualities of the Afghan men being a response to prolonged isolation from women.

When the convoy gets to the fork in the road, Serial One, containing Tillman, turns off toward the canyon that leads to Mana. Serial Two, containing Kevin, goes the other direction, toward a particularly treacherous mountain road. Although the road was deemed impassable after they’ initially traversed it, Uthlaut believes this is the route by which they should return. The Afghan hauler of the inoperable Humvee, however, balks at this route. He insists they take the same road Serial One just took through the canyon, reaching the paved road in quicker time and with less danger. Therefore, Serial Two turns around and follows Serial One into the canyon.

A few minutes after entering the canyon, Serial Two is hit with mortar fire. The jinga truck is in the front of the progression, blocking them in the kill zone. A soldier finally jumps into the cab of the truck and makes the terrified driver move. They progress along the rough canyon road slowly, under enemy fire throughout. The jinga driver stops, delaying progress once more. They shoot at men running along the top ridge. Near the end of the canyon, they see Tillman, although they don’t know he’s one of their own.

When they hear the first mortar shots fired, Uthlaut sends most of Serial One back to provide cover for Serial Two. Uthlaut and Jade Lane, his radio operator, stay behind to radio for air support, intending to follow later. Tillman establishes a space for his team with cover for the firefight. Bryan O’Neal and an Afghan soldier named Sayed Farhad join him. He reports to his commander that he will engage with enemies across the canyon from his team’s position at the boulders.

Sergeant Weeks of Serial One tries to reach Serial Two, but there’s so much interference from frantic Serial Two soldiers trying to communicate that he never makes contact. Many rounds from an unknown source are shot at Serial One as they move into position. Some of these rounds come from an M203 grenade launcher, a weapon the Taliban and al-Qaeda do not possess. Later, Serial One soldiers testify that a drone is overhead. A private contractor stationed nearby testifies that he picked up the video feed from this drone in real time, capturing the entire fight. The Army denies that this video exists.

The jinga and a Humvee come to a stop beneath Tillman, O’Neal, and Farhad’s position at the low boulders. They shoot up at them a few times and Tillman’s crew wave and shout “cease fire.” The shooting peters out and they think they’re safe. Farhad stands a little below the boulders, providing cover for Tillman and O’Neil from the enemy fire across the canyon. The unit leader of the leading Humvee, Baker, shoots from the moving vehicle, hitting Farhad in the chest. Although Farhad is wearing traditional dress for the region and has a dark beard, he is clearly wearing an American-allied uniform. Baker later testifies that he saw the uniform but assumed Farhad was an enemy because it seemed he was shooting at them, rather than toward a target above.

Once they clear the canyon, the driver sees Serial One’s vehicles and knows they’re his fellow men up on the hill. Before he can give the gunners this information, however, they begin relentlessly shooting. O’Neal curls up and prays in desperation. Tillman asks him what prayer could do for him. The panicked gunners spray bullets indiscriminately. A SAW gunner from Serial One later reflects that he briefly considered shooting them all just to make them stop.

After radioing for air support, Uthlaut and Lane find cover by a village hut and are subsequently fired upon by Baker’s Humvee, thinking it’s the Taliban shooting at them. Larson is shot in the knee. Uthlaut’s face is badly injured by shrapnel. When the Humvee rounds the corner, Lane finally realizes they’re being shot at by their own men. Because the esteemed Baker gave the order, the men didn’t hesitate to shoot in the direction he shot, per protocol, regardless of if Baker positively identified the target—which he obviously didn’t, in another lapse in protocol.

Later testimony reveals not all the soldiers were so understanding of Baker’s Humvees’ errors, calling them trigger-happy and reckless: “You could see the whole fucking platoon right there. And I’m sorry, but they were pretty obvious. It was dark, yeah, but it wasn’t that dark […] Nobody was being shot at by any Taliban at that point” (314).

The soldier on the powerful SAW gun on Baker’s Humvee is Trevor Alders. His testimony changes five times over the next two years as to what happened, but it’s clear from the autopsy that Tillman is killed from a round from Alders’s SAW. He first says he saw the soldiers’ arms up in the air but didn’t perceive them as gestures of surrender. A later testimony states he didn’t see anyone there until the last minute after he already began to fire. Other members of the platoon find Alders an insecure, chest-beating, pathetic soldier. Only Tillman gave him any respect, even inviting Alders to spend a free weekend with him and Kevin once while on base in the States.

Three rounds from Alders’s SAW blow Tillman’s brain out the back of his head, killing him instantly. The firefight lasts 14 minutes. After the shooting stops, the soldiers realize what happened. O’Neal is hysterical, drenched in Tillman’s blood, brains, and bone. Other troops are overcome with emotion when they see Tillman’s body. They wrap up the remains of Tillman and Farhad without telling Kevin yet that his brother is dead.

Kevin knows something is amiss. He asks over and over where his brother is until someone finally, matter-of-factly, tells him that Tillman’s been killed. Helicopters take the bodies and the injured to Salerno. The next day, the rest of the platoon clears the village. During the day, the inoperable Humvee travels overhead, carried by a helicopter. One Ranger remarked later, under oath, that “perhaps if our leadership had done their job right in Bagram and had gotten that helicopter to U.S. like we asked, none of this would have happened” (325).