Word Missing from Gen. McChrystal’s Return to Obama Admin: Tillman It’s been almost 10 months since Michael Hastings’ Rolling Stone profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal led the commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan to step down from his post. Inside of a year, The Runaway General has already been re-commissioned for public service. Gen. McChrystal, according to White House officials, will help oversee a high-profile initiative in support of military families. The former commander will “lead the three-member advisory board for the initiative, called Joining Forces, whose aim is to encourage companies, schools, philanthropic and religious groups and local communities to recognize the unusual stress that is endured by families of active-duty personnel, reservists and veterans, and to strive to meet their needs,” the New York Times reports. This new program is necessary and important. Back in January, when General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, announced that suicides in the Army National Guard more than doubled, he made some simple recommendations. Among those points, he suggested we should be mitigating soldiers’ economic stress, and he also encouraged community organizations to get involved. And that’s partially what this new initiative is designed to do — get businesses and community and charitable organizations “to connect with military families as an act of public service, without being prompted to do so by federal money or tax incentives.” But missing from the coverage of McChrystal’s return is the tragic irony that he’ll be working to alleviate the stress of military families. After all, though it wasn’t front-page news then, McChrystal had a major role in the cover-up of the untimely death of Army Ranger and former football star Pat Tillman. At the time, McChrystal was the head of Special Operations command in Afghanistan. It was McChrystal who approved the paperwork that wrongfully awarded Tillman a Silver Star, despite the knowledge that he died in a friendly fire incident, not as had been reported, by enemy fire. And when McChrystal rose to the top spot in the Afghanistan chain of command, his rubber stamp that hurt the Tillman family so was barely even mentioned by the mainstream media. While the Tillmans continued to griever, continued their quest to find out what really happened to their heroic son, McChrystal moved up the military ladder. The cover-up wasn’t his idea, but he certainly played a serious role in adding to the stress and pain of at least one military family. Author and journalist Jon Krakauer’s book Where Men Win Glory provides keen insight into the Tillman affair, and when Krakauer joined David Gregory on Meet the Press on November 1, 2009, he offered a particularly harsh assessment of McChrystal’s conduct. Krakauer states unequivocally that McChrystal’s explanations upon reflection were “preposterous” and “not believable.” KRAKAUER: After Tillman died, the most important thing to know is that within–instantly, within 24 hours certainly, everybody on the ground, everyone intimately involved knew it was friendly fire. There’s never any doubt it was friendly fire. McChrystal was told within 24 hours it was friendly fire. Also, immediately they started this paperwork to give Tillman a Silver Star. And the Silver Star ended up being at the center of the cover-up. So McChrystal–Tillman faced this devastating fire from his own guys, and he tried to protect a young private by exposing himself to this, this fire. That’s why he was killed and the private wasn’t. Without friendly fire there’s no valor, there’s no Silver Star. There was no enemy fire, yet McChrystal authored, he closely supervised over a number of days this fraudulent medal recommendation that talked about devastating enemy fire. GREGORY: And that’s the important piece of it. And, and he actually testified earlier this year before the Senate, and this is what he said about it. (Videotape, June 2, 2009) LT. GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL: Now, what happens, in retrospect, is–and I would do this differently if I had the chance again–in retrospect they look contradictory, because we sent a Silver Star that was not well-written. And although I went through the process, I will tell you now I didn’t review the citation well enough to capture–or I didn’t catch that if you read it you could imply that it was not friendly fire. (End videotape) GREGORY: Even those who were critical of him and the Army say they don’t think he willfully deceived anyone. MR. KRAKAUER: That’s correct. He, he just said now he didn’t read this hugely important document about the most famous soldier in the military. He didn’t read it carefully enough to notice that it talked about enemy fire instead of friendly fire? That’s preposterous. That, that’s not believable. Watch Krakauer’s MTP appearance here: Perhaps this is penance. Perhaps McChrystal learned valuable lessons from the Tillman affair. Perhaps more than anyone now he is uniquely suited to help military families better. Perhaps this is the second chance we all deserve, the chance to right certain wrongs. But for McChrystal to return to public service to lead a program for military families and for the mainstream media not to mention his role in the cover-up of the death of one of the most famous soldiers of the past few decades is simply astonishing. Slade Sohmer Slade Sohmer is editor-in-chief of HyperVocal and co-host of SiriusXM's daily "Politics Powered By Twitter" program. Tweet him at @SladeHV.
Keyser Soze 11.04.11 @ 7:36 pm My name is Ernest H. Dervishian. I have a friend who committed suicide because of PTSD. His name is Arman Manookian (U.S.M.C.) Rhode Island. I cope with my PTSS by my faith in God. It heals my brain and gives me comfort in knowing that no matter what my actions were in combat, I will be saved. I would like to grieve for Arman and “transport” his shell to sanctified repository as he requested and rest his soul. However, I can’t because he is buried in an unknown / unmarked site in Hawaii. I’ve asked my local congressmen for help, but, he refused because of his military contract / Big Oil slush funds. Apparently, Secretary Gates, the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the President need permission from Turkey, Azerbiajan and GE before I can take him to final rest because Arman’s last name ends in IAN and of his Christian faith. That pains me. Veterans should look to Armenians. They have volunteered thousands of times for suicide missions and have been dealing with PTSD for over 100 years without relief. They have more friends in the after life then the here and now. Veterans can also look to attorney Barry Levine’s (U.S. Army, Bronze Star, Vietnam) book on “Defending Vietnam Veterans With PTSS.” Barry’s manner of suicide and self sacrifice was meant to send a message to everyone living. We Americans are tired of giving blood for the bottom lines of Chevron (Conda-Lisa Rice, Turkey, Azerbiajan), BP, Exxon, Shell, Haliburton (Cheney), and GE. Nor do we appreciate the media manufacturing consent for these syndicates mentioned or news executives or politicians coming out and serving on their boards. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist: and like that……..puff………he was gone. Arman, Victor “Transport” Maghakian , The Tarawa Twins, and Harry “K-BARR” Kizirian are some of the Marines guarding “Heaven’s scenes” in the Marine Corps Hymn. Their souls, their names and fame are intertwined with the Marine Corps history of self sacrifice for the betterment of mankind. I know this because I’ve seen those scenes. It is one thing to have these men sacrifice their lives for U.S., however, is quiet treacherous indeed to ignore their contributions and place them in the Ken Burns memory hole. A poem for your thoughts by the novel “1984″: “Under the spreading Chest nut tree, I sold you and you sold me, There lie they, and here lie we, Under the spreading Chest nut tree.” “When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way….” CSN For those politicians who have placed these Marines in the Ken Burns memory hole, I say this: Semper Fi Macbeth!
Jan Moyer 13.04.11 @ 1:23 pm Thank you! I am the mother of an active duty Marine and I have been searching high and low for someone to talk about this! A slap in the face for military families who want the truth from the military and the government. Especially distressing, no doubt, to the Tillman family! Thank you again!