Hero or Victim?: Expert Panel Discusses Biography of Pat Tillman

On Thursday morning, Upper School students were treated to an enlightening panel discussion that included two Boston Globe writers, a Harvard history professor, and a U.S. Army Colonel.

This annual assembly is tethered to the all-school summer reading book, which this year was John Krakauer’s Where Men Win Glory, a biography of Pat Tillman, the professional football player who quit the sport to serve as a member of the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, where he was killed in 2004. Reports originally said he was “killed by enemy fire,” resulting in being awarded a Purple Heart, but subsequent investigations revealed that he was shot by friendly fire, spurring accusations of a military cover-up.

The panelists at the Upper School assembly were Colonel Jim Bullion P ’10 ’12, Harvard Professor of History Erez Manela, Boston Globe freelance reporter David Filipov, and arts journalist Loren King. Head of Upper School Patricia Carbery served as moderator, asking several questions of the panel about the book and Tillman’s complex story. There was also enough time for a Q&A segment towards the end of the hour-long discussion.

The conversation proved to be informative and passionate. Colonel Bullion, who was involved in reconstruction efforts in Iraq and reported directly to General David Petraeus, praised Tillman for his dedication to service and for enlisting in the Army when he could have continued on his life of luxury and public adulation in the NFL. Other panelists focused more on the controversial aftermath of his death, citing the strong political incentives for the military to bolster U.S. morale by, in Manela’s words, “painting [Tillman] as a hero rather than the victim of a tragic accident.”

King, who conducted a Globe interview last month with Amir Bar Lev, the director of the documentary “The Tillman Story,” admitted to being angered by the alleged cover-up while also being quite moved by the soldier’s accomplishments and character. “I initially thought it was just the story of a macho guy who traded his football helmet for a gun, but it was much more complicated than that,” she said. By Krakauer’s accounts, Tillman was a quiet, intelligent young man who always carried a book with him and often insisted that he not be used as “a poster boy” for the Army.

In the closing comments, English teacher Mac Caplan read a letter from Dave Donahue ’03, a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps in Afghanistan, who encouraged his fellow Red Wings to do their part to serve their country in some form. Filipov and Manela, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of processing information and the sources dispensing it, from government agencies to journalists. “You high schoolers are our future, and will be running this country when I’m old and grey,” Filipov said with a smile. “There are thousands of ways to tell a story. I implore you: Ask. Doubt. Question.”