"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." General George S. Patton
My brother was a Marine that went to Afghanistan at the beginning of Enduring Freedom. Every family who has family in harms way fears this day. RIP. Thank you for all the sacrifice. All our troops.
And Pat Tillman didn't want anymore attention than the rest of those partiots were getting either. This guy stepped away from money from the StL Rams out of loyalty to the Cards. He then stepped away from 9+ million out of loyalty to his country. It's men like him who make this country great, and who make us all step back and think about what's really important in our lives. + RIP, Mr. Tillman. Too bad I can't say "Real American Hero" without images of GI Joe appearing, because you really were an American hero.
Ted Williama was another one. The one I had the greatest respect for in this regard was actor Jimmie Stewart. He not only left Hollywood at a time when he was becoming one of it's top stars, but unlike almost every other celeb, he turned down the opportunity to make patriotic fils, etc. and instead went in for one of the riskiest positions: bomber pilot. Anyone who's seen Memphis Belle can tell you how much people wanted to get their time in and get out alive ( statistically it was unlikely that you would fly all your missions and make it out unharmed). Steart finished his quota...and re-upped. Incredible. But that's not what I respect the most about him. As unbelievably courageous as his actions were...he allowed no publicity to be made about his actions, and had it written into his film contract that the studio could never even mention his military service, let alone use it for PR. On top of all that, unasked, he sent his agent the requisite 10% every month...of his military pay. Guy would be too good to be true, except he was. Stewart, Tillman, Williams...there are real life heroes out there, hard as it sometimes is to believe.
All due respect to both Tillman and all of the soldiers overseas but that is a poor definition of hero. Many very bad people in the world devoted their lives to what they thought was right. I am in no way trying to say that Tillman is one of those bad people, just stating that a hero has to do (or at least attempt to do) good in the world. Tillman and all of the soldiers overseas have done so and definitely qualify as heroes in my mind.
R.I.P Pat Tillman.........your actions make us all proud to be American's, just like you were and will forever be.
If I remember correctly, he was pretty serious about not wanting to get special attention because he was NFL guy. He didn't want people to praise him for joining army just because he gave up millions. He'd probably not want special attention now. He'd want the same coverage the other soldiers that died get. I respect him a lot for what he did.
+ Very sad. I was listening to Jim Rome this afternoon and he mentioned that Simon Rice riped Tillman for joining the military. Does anybody know what he said?
I think he just said he wasn't a great player. I got choked up a few times listening to the show today.
http://www.jimmy.org/memories/content/demandingrole.html . . . After Stewart's death in 1997, Air Power History published a memoriam that included this little-known item: "In 1966, during his annual two weeks of active duty, Stewart requested a combat assignment and participated in a bombing strike over Vietnam. Stewart's stepson, 1st Lt. Ronald McLean, was killed at age 24 in the Vietnam War.
I think I also read that Stewart also took part in a daring behind enemy lines air rescue of the unit his son was in in Nam while he was over there.
Amazing guy. I don't follow football much, so I had never heard of him. To quote Isabel: "it doesn't seem fair". To quote Max, "it really puts a face on the conflict". RIP
i heard that interview about a year ago. rome asked rice what he thought of his former teammate quitting football to join the army and rice said he really wasnt that good of a player anyway and that he had some kind of rambo-sylvester stallone thing. he watched too many rambo flicks or some crap. it was really condesending towards tillman and made me think that there must have been some bad blood b/t the two. immediately after the interview people were calling and emailing the show and rightfully tore rice up. my cousin is a army ranger in afghanistan and while i knew it was no picnic, this is really the first time that i realized exactly what kind of danger he is in over there. even though im sure he likes to hear about all the b.s. going on over here, all my emails to him about going to see this band or whatever i did last weekend seem pretty insignificant now.
Nice tribute: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37982-2004Apr23.html Life Is No Life to Him That Dares Not Die By Sally Jenkins Saturday, April 24, 2004; Page D01 Pat Tillman would probably want to be commemorated by nothing more than the simple hush we devote to other lost infantrymen we didn't know. He no doubt would have preferred that we dwell instead on the photographs of those caskets draped in flags coming home from Iraq. He would surely disapprove of so much attention diverted to a single serviceman, simply because he played football. In the two years since he abandoned his NFL career and enlisted to become an Army Ranger, he steadfastly declined interviews and refused to use his military experience for renown or profit. Instead, he embodied the words of an anonymous war poet: "I was that which others cared not to be. I went where others feared to go and did what others failed to do. I asked nothing from those that gave nothing . . . " War poets may be the only voices capable of speaking to the loss of Tillman, who gave everything. "Tilly" to his friends, he was killed in action in Afghanistan on Thursday because, as he put it, his life as a football player was privileged and he needed, he said, to "pay something back." While he wished to be just another soldier, he never was, because he made the war personal to us. For better or worse we imagine an intimacy with our hero-athletes. Sacrifice now has a face, and a voice. Tillman had luxuriant surfer hair, and he said "dude" a lot, and he liked to climb to the top of stadium light towers, where he would sit and think deeply. So now we feel the war, and it's high time, in this leisurely part of the newspaper devoted to games. Why did it take the death of Tillman for meanings to be restored, for play to become just play again, and war a soul-torturing affair, instead of bad metaphor? . . .
gr8.. that's pretty respectable. You gotta admire him for not trying to put himself above the rest of the soldiers.. he could have gotten a lot of attention and marketing attention if he wanted to, but from day 1 he make himself just an ordinary soldier.. and his brother was a minor leaguer and joined too.. thats a pretty amazing family.. im sure his parents were proud... obvoiusly every other soldier we all mourn for.. it's just a little closer to home when it's a name you recognize
