Pat Tillman's Fictional Heroic Death: Did Bush Know?

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2007 — -- The Bush administration and the Pentagon came under fire today for creating false myths of military heroes, and the criticism came from unlikely sources -- one of the heroes, and the family of another.

Former Army Ranger Kevin Tillman, who enlisted in the military along with his pro-football star brother, Pat, in 2002, charged the Pentagon with telling "deliberate and calculated lies" after his older brother was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004. And he speculated that the facts were known by the White House long before his family learned the truth of Pat's death five weeks after it happened.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing was titled "Misleading Information From the Battlefield, and it began with Private Jessica Lynch saying that administration stories about her war heroics were false. Despite stories leaked to the media that she went down fighting when she was captured in March 2003, in reality her weapon jammed and she prayed for help

"I'm still confused as to why they chose to lie and try to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary," Lynch said in her testimony this morning. "The American people are capable of determining their own ideals for heroes, and they don't need to be told elaborate tales."

Kevin Tillman was far more critical, as was his mother, Mary Tillman. He read an abridged version of the Silver Star award his brother was awarded posthumously: "Above the din of battle, Cpl. Tillman was heard issuing fire commands to take the fight to an enemy on the dominating high ground. Always leading from the front, Cpl. Tillman aggressively maneuvered his team against the enemy position on a steep slope. As a result of Cpl. Tillman's effort and heroic action, the trail element of the platoon was able to maneuver through the ambush position of relative safety without suffering a single casualty." Tillman said that the story "inspired countless Americans, as intended. There was one small problem with the narrative, however: It was utter fiction."