Former NFL player Pat Tillman "was killed Thursday while serving as an Army Special Forces soldier on a mission in southeastern Afghanistan, Pentagon officials have told CNN.
Tillman, who walked away from a $3.6 million contract as a safety with the Arizona Cardinals to join the military after the Sept. 11 attacks, was in an area where numerous U.S. troops have been killed in battles with suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
He was serving as an Army Ranger, part of the Army’s Special Forces. Tillman played for the Cardinals from 1998-2001." To say that I am sorry to hear this is a massive understatement. "It is held that valour is the chiefest virtue and most dignifies the haver." RIP
Devotion. Committment. Sacrifice.
Hero.
RIP
Well said John. Mr. Tillman is the epitome of what an American should be in my opinion.
May we demonstrate a fraction of the courage and commitment to our country as he did.
Tillman is actually pretty typical of the young people that we train here at
Fort Hood. They don’t think of the sacrifice, yet they seek out their
opportunity to contribute.
Pat Tillman was a Great American, and not very different at all from the
many others that we work with.
Concerning the amount of "Tillman’s" the military has is not in question. There are undeniably thousands of men and women who feel as he did. And they serve proudly every day around the globe. I served in the Marines for 10 years and am currently on active duty in the Air National Guard, so I have had the honor of serving beside similiar (similiar in ideaology (sp?))individuals as Mr. Tillman. What sets him apart, was he didnt have the potential for a big time contract playing sports, he had it. And gave it up to serve his country without being drafted. In my eyes anyway, he raised the bar, so to speak. For all of us.
I am humbled at Mr. Tillman’s sacrifice and patriotism. And, if he is not all that different than the other guys that the American military trains, then I am going to sleep even better tonight! I wish I had a fraction of the patriotism, selflessness, and determination. He may not have been a Marine, but the words from the Iwo Jima Memorial are but an insufficient memorial to him - "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."
I think this Latin quote (which I will hopefully spell properly) is most appropriate:
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
(It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country).
RIP, SPC Tillman
Yes, an appropriate quote. Unfortunately, Wilfred Owen called the statement "the old lie" in the verse before. Perhaps it seemed a lie in the senseless slaughter of the battlefields of the Western Front in World War I, but it is not lie when applied to such an admirable man.