Posted by Peter W. Schramm
Passing through nature to eternity, "I am Pat Tillman, damn it!", was the last thing he said. Steve Coll writes the first of two pieces for the Washington Post on the death of Pat Tillman.
11:55 AM / December 5, 2004
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I don’t think the whole poem applies to Pat (for one thing I think he did love those he guarded), but reading of his tragic death made me think of the last four lines from Yeats’s "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death":
I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.
The whole poem is at https://www.bartleby.com/148/3.html
Here is the whole of "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death."
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
All of his fame and deferred fortune didn’t do him much good against his own comrades. I noticed there wasn’t much followup here at NoLeft Turns about his death, the military’s reaction and what they told his family, etc. I guess you don’t wanna do anything to shatter the mythology of Pat Tillman, All-American Hero. It just SOUNDS SO MUCH BETTER when he gets hit by ENEMY bullets, right??