Pat Tillman: Remember his name.
Being that this is in the news again this seems worthwhile. There are three times in a man's life when it is acceptable to tear up. 1) The death of a loved one. 2) Watching the final scene of Field of Dreams or "that part" in Old Yeller. 3) Reading this.
This story makes you proud to be an American simply because Pat Tillman was. It should make you angry to see what happened after his death just for the sake of public relations.
Even as a boy Pat Tillman felt a destiny, a need to do the right thing whatever it cost him. When the World Trade Center was attacked on 9/11, he thought about what he had to do and then walked away from the NFL and became an Army Ranger...Remember his name. (Sports Illustrated)
One day, God willing, Russell Baer was going to tell his son this story. One day, after the boy's heart and brain had healed, he was going to point to that picture on the kid's bedroom shelf of the man doing a handstand on the roof of a house, take a deep breath and say, Mav, that's a man who lived a life as pure and died a death as muddy as any man ever to walk this rock, and I was there for both. That's the man, when your heart stopped for an hour and they slit you open neck to navel, who I prayed to because ... well, because you wouldn't exist if he hadn't died, and I wouldn't be half of who I am if he hadn't taught me how to live. That's Pat Tillman, the man you take your middle name from, and I've been waiting for you to ask since the day you were born.
