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During his tour of duty, he stepped on a land mine during a patrol and was evacuated to the United States. In 1965, he was sent to South Vietnam as a Special Forces advisor to an Army of the Republic of Vietnam infantry regiment. Once qualified and accepted, he became a member of the 5th Special Forces Group and the Studies and Observations Group (SOG). Army Special Forces īenavidez returned to Fort Bragg and began training for the elite Army Special Forces. In 1959, he married Hilaria Coy Benavidez, completed Airborne training, and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In June 1955, he switched from the Army National Guard to Army active duty. Military career US Army īenavidez enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard in 1952 during the Korean War. He dropped out of school at age 15, in order to work full-time to help support the family. Benavidez and his younger brother Roger moved to El Campo, where their grandfather, uncle and aunt raised them along with eight cousins.īenavidez shined shoes at the local bus station, labored on farms in California and Washington, and worked at a tire shop in El Campo. Five years later, his mother died from tuberculosis as well. When he was two years old, his father died of tuberculosis and his mother remarried. He is a descendant of the founders of Benavides, Texas and was the son of a Mexican farmer, Salvador Benavidez, Jr. Benavidez was born in Lindenau near Cuero, Texas in DeWitt County. Times staff writer David Zucchino contributed to this report.Roy P. " I can still have my relationship with him and my feelings about the impact that his life had on me and sort of bring all those things together.” who he was, affected many, many people,” Marie Tillman said. “The impact of his decisions and the way he lived his life and just. She has remarried but says Pat’s legacy is always close by. In an interview with the Arizona Republic, Marie Tillman said this month that she’s found a balance in her life. Now, Tillman’s widow, Marie Tillman, runs a foundation in his name that awards education scholarships to veterans. After a month, however, the Army disclosed he had been killed accidentally by U.S. His death at age 27 drew national attention, and he was hailed as a hero who had been killed by enemy fire. He had conducted previous patrols in the Spera district, and in one village, he became known as the soldier who handed out small sums of cash - $2 for children and $10 for men - and small, hand-cranked radios. Tillman’s patrol was charged with killing or capturing suspected “high-value” Taliban and Al Qaeda targets along the border with Pakistan. Tillman, an NFL defensive back, was celebrated as a hero after declining a contract extension from the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army eight months after the Sept. “Their lack of taking that five seconds to really understand what they are shooting at - two people died and it changed my life.” “To forgive them would mean I have to acknowledge they exist, and to me, they are nothing. O’Neal told ESPN in a televised interview that he wasn’t ready to think about or to forgive the Rangers who fired at him and Tillman. Tillman and his companions had been firing at an enemy position, but Elliott’s truck of soldiers misinterpreted the gunfire, Army investigators determined. “I still fired on a friendly position and that wouldn’t change my sense of responsibility.” “Even if somebody else was identified through forensic science as to have fired the ‘fatal shot,’ that doesn’t change how I feel,” Elliott said in the interview. Months later, he and the others who mistakenly fired at Tillman were demoted out of the elite Rangers unit. He said he was speaking out because he wanted to give hope to other soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.Įlliott said the incident was his first firefight. Elliott, discussing the incident in the media for the first time, said he has been able to cope with the April 22, 2004, tragedy because of therapy. “It would be disingenuous for me to say there is no way my rounds didn’t kill him, because my rounds very well could have,” Steven Elliott said in an interview with ESPN that aired Sunday. But one of the three Army Rangers who opened fire says he can’t shake the fact that he might be at fault.
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Ten years after Pat Tillman’s death by friendly fire, it’s still not certain who shot the NFL player-turned-Army-corporal in Afghanistan.