109 HCON 452 IH: Expressing the sense of Congress that the
U.S. House of Representatives
2006-07-20
text/xml
EN
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Whereas Patrick Tillman was an American football player
who left a successful sports career to enlist in the Army in May 2002 following
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001;
Whereas Corporal Tillman served in the second battalion of
the 75th Ranger Regiment;
Whereas an Army spokesperson stated that Corporal Tillman
was killed on April 22, 2004, while his unit was attacked in an apparent ambush
on a road outside of the village of Sperah, Afghanistan;
Whereas on May 28, 2004, his family, and the American
public, learned that he died as a result of a friendly fire incident;
Whereas Army officials had misled the Tillman family about
the details of his death without justification;
Whereas his family and other critics allege that the Army
unduly delayed disclosing the truth about Corporal Tillman’s death until weeks
after his memorial service in order to protect the image of the Armed
Forces;
Whereas the Tillman family requested Brigadier General
Gary M. Jones to produce a report on the circumstances surrounding Corporal
Tillman’s death;
Whereas the report received media attention and revealed
that, in the days immediately following Corporal Tillman’s death, investigators
and senior officers, including General John Abizaid, the commander of the
United States Central Command, were aware that Corporal Tillman was killed by
friendly fire;
Whereas the Army awarded Corporal Tillman the Silver Star,
a Purple Heart, and a posthumous promotion to corporal;
Whereas the citation report accompanying these awards
indicated that Corporal Tillman was killed by enemy forces and contained a
false account of a battle that members of Army leadership knew had never taken
place;
Whereas military officials have admitted inaccurately
describing the deaths of other members of the Armed Forces, including
Specialist Patrick R. McCaffrey, Sr., of Tracy, California, and Second
Lieutenant Andre D. Tyson of Riverside, California;
Whereas the deaths of Specialist McCaffrey and Second
Lieutenant Tyson were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near
Balad, Iraq, on June 22, 2004;
Whereas Specialist McCaffrey and Second Lieutenant Tyson
were actually killed by Iraqi forces who were being trained by the United
States military and who had fired at United States soldiers twice
before;
Whereas before his death, Specialist McCaffrey reported
the inappropriate actions by the Iraqi security forces to his superiors;
Whereas the Army waited nine months after completing an
investigation into their deaths before notifying relatives the soldiers were
killed by Iraqi troops; and
Whereas military officials have misled or failed to
disclose details regarding the deaths of other members of the Armed Forces in a
timely manner: Now, therefore, be it
That it is the sense of Congress
that—
(1)the Secretary of Defense should ensure that
the military provides full disclosure regarding the details of the deaths of
members of the Armed Forces to their families at the earliest possible date;
and
(2)any member of the Armed Forces or a
civilian employee of the Department of Defense who intentionally misleads,
misrepresents, fails to act, acts in an unreasonably dilatory manner, or is
complicit in a conspiracy to withhold from the families of the fallen heroes of
the Armed Forces a thorough, timely, and accurate explanation as to the
circumstances and time of that member’s death should be prosecuted for every
offense under Federal law that applies, including offenses under chapter 47 of
title 10, United States Code (the Uniform Code of Military Justice), as
applicable, and if convicted should be punished to the maximum extent that the
law allows.