![]() ![]() Army Ranger Will Aker, who also fought alongside Tillman, said Tillman did not fit the stereotype of the physical football player turned Army Ranger. ![]() "It just throws you completely off because you look at him and you expect one thing and then you talk to him and you're just like this is one of the coolest guys I've met."įormer U.S. "He is a very intimidating-looking guy but then once you start to talk to him you're like this guy's nothing what he should be like," Jones recalled. Tillman's personality caught many of his fellow Rangers by surprise. It's like having a group of 15 to 20 brothers. Here I sit in a tent, at Baghdad International Airport, surrounded by kids, half the earth away from where I belong on our anniversary."īut once Tillman joined the Rangers, a tight-knit group of elite infantrymen, he knew he made the right choice.įormer Ranger Jones said, "It's a place where you make lasting brotherhoods. ![]() On their first wedding anniversary, May 4, 2003, Tillman wrote from Afghanistan: "Happy anniversary my love!!! A year ago today Marie made me the luckiest man alive and what have I done in return? Schemed up the most absurd way to drastically s***-can our, until recently, perfect existence. In addition to his journal entries about his wife, Tillman sent letters to her regularly and worried about the toll his absence was taking on her. Krakauer, who called their relationship very special, said, "She was the love of his life, without a doubt." since we've been here, and I miss the sound of her voice." "As always, Marie is on my mind," he wrote in a journal entry dated July 20, 2002. Tillman's journals also make clear that the hardest thing for him was being away from his wife. I could definitely see it being a little annoying at times." And probably 80 percent of the guys are from age 18 to 22, and it's just a lot of young testosterone in a confined area. Army Ranger Kyle Jones, who served alongside Tillman, told ABC News, "There are 50 guys in one huge room and you live there together for 14 weeks. Tillman joined the Army at age 25 and found himself utterly frustrated by his surroundings.įormer U.S. Of course, we all understand the necessity of defense but that does not excuse the fact that a young man I would not trust with my canteen is walking about armed." One thing I find myself despising is the sight of all these guns in the hands of children. In his journal entry dated July 25, 2002, Tillman described his fellow soldiers: "They're resentful, ungrateful, lazy, weak and unvirtuous. But Tillman's doubts about his decision surfaced during boot camp, according to Tillman's journal entries. Once her husband's mind was made up, Marie Tillman said, there was no talking him out of it. "This intervention just sort of degenerated into this kind of yelling match and people crying and it was a kind of a disaster," said Krakauer, who wrote the acclaimed "Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Tillman's family organized an intervention. Not everyone in his family agreed with his decision. I'm no longer satisfied with the path I've been following. These last few years, and especially after recent events, I've come to appreciate just how shallow and insignificant my role is. "Sports embodied many of the qualities I deem meaningful: courage, toughness, strength. "For much of my life I've tried to follow a path I believed important," he wrote. ![]() Tillman's personal journals and letters reveal an intelligent, sensitive and loyal man who loved his wife, family and country. For more reasons that I care to list, my job is remarkable. My job is challenging, enjoyable and strokes my vanity enough to fool me into thinking it's important. "It is my belief that I could continue to play football for the next seven or eight years and create a very comfortable lifestyle. "My life at this point is relatively easy," Pat Tillman wrote in a letter to his family dated April 8, 2002. Tillman's personal journals and letters to his wife, Marie, seen publicly for the first time, offer a glimpse into the life of the man that very few people knew. "Who takes a perfectly perfect life and ruins it? A perfectly happy wife and marriage and jeopardizes it? Ahhh! If I do not strangle someone while I'm here, I was touched by an angel." "Who does this?" Tillman wrote in a journal entry dated July 28, 2002. Krakauer pieces together Tillman's story in his new book, "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman," to be released Tuesday. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |