General faulted for awarding Tillman medal

The general picked to command U.S. forces in Afghanistan privately warned superiors in 2004 that Army Ranger Cpl. Patrick Tillman may have been accidentally killed by his comrades, even as he approved a Silver Star recommendation that inaccurately portrayed the ex-football star as having died from enemy fire, documents show.

Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was cited by a Defense Department inspector general’s report for being “accountable for the inaccurate and misleading assertions” contained in the medal citation, but he escaped punishment in an episode that scarred the Pentagon’s credibility and upset the Tillman family.

Now five years later, the late soldier’s father wants Congress to demand answers of Gen. McChrystal as part of his ascension to a new role on one of America’s most important battle fronts.

“I still don’t have all the facts,” Patrick Tillman Sr. told The Washington Times in a short phone interview on Friday.

Mr. Tillman said he has “very serious concerns” about Gen. McChrystal’s selection and whether the general played a role in hiding information about his son’s death. Mr. Tillman also said nobody from Congress has asked him to testify about his concerns, but added, “I’d be happy to show up.”

Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where Gen. McChrystal currently is director, told The Times in an e-mail that “senior [military] leadership remains satisfied - as they were in the past - that Gen. McChrystal’s conduct merited no corrective action and remains firmly convinced that he has both the character and experience to lead the fight in Afghanistan.”

Geoff Morrell, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, added that Mr. Gates “believes our troops in Afghanistan deserve the very best leadership we can provide, and Gen. McChrystal is the very best the military has to offer.”

Gen. McChrystal won accolades in the past for overseeing the forces that captured Saddam Hussein and killed the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi.

He was named last week by Mr. Gates to oversee U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. If confirmed, Gen. McChrystal would replace Gen. David McKiernan, who was fired after the Obama administration decided it needed new leadership to conduct a war that U.S. forces do not seem to be winning.

Many have applauded the appointment, citing hopes that the former Green Beret and three-star general will be able to re-invigorate the hunt for Osama bin Laden and reverse Taliban advances. The Tillman controversy, however, continues to linger over his military record.

Documents gathered in the inspector general investigation published in 2007 show that on April 24, 2004, Gen. McChrystal approved a recommendation that Cpl. Tillman posthumously receive the Silver Star for dying during an enemy firefight a week earlier on a hillside outside the town of Khost.

Just one day later, however, Gen. McChrystal sounded a different sentiment in a special memo, known as a P4, to the then-commander of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid.

“It is highly possible that Cpl. Tillman was killed by friendly fire,” he warned, urging senior military officials and even President Bush that they risked embarrassment if they embraced the account that Cpl. Tillman died by enemy fire.

He cited “reports that [the president of the United States] and the Secretary of the Army might include comments about Cpl. Tillman’s heroism … in speeches currently being prepared, not knowing the specifics surrounding his death.”

Gen. McChrystal said he was writing to “preclude any unknowing statements by our country’s leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman’s death become public.”

Story Continues →