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Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman Manufacturer: Anchor List price: $15.95 |
| The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man’s haunting journey. Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan. Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman’s own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman’s wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman’s name to promote his administration’s foreign policy. Long after Tillman’s nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had “probably” been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible. In Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research on the ground in Afghanistan to render an intricate mosaic of this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death. Before he enlisted in the army, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. With his shoulder-length hair, outspoken views, and boundless intellectual curiosity, Tillman was considered a maverick. America was fascinated when he traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a buzz cut. Sent first to Iraq—a war he would openly declare was “illegal as hell” —and eventually to Afghanistan, Tillman was driven by complicated, emotionally charged, sometimes contradictory notions of duty, honor, justice, patriotism, and masculine pride, and he was determined to serve his entire three-year commitment. But on April 22, 2004, his life would end in a barrage of bullets fired by his fellow soldiers. Krakauer chronicles Tillman’s riveting, tragic odyssey in engrossing detail highlighting his remarkable character and personality while closely examining the murky, heartbreaking circumstances of his death. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer’s storytelling, Where Men Win Glory exposes shattering truths about men and war. From the Hardcover edition. |
| Book Description The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man’s haunting journey. Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan. Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman’s own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman’s wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman’s name to promote his administration’s foreign policy. Long after Tillman’s nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had “probably” been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible. In Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research on the ground in Afghanistan to render an intricate mosaic of this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death. Before he enlisted in the army, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. With his shoulder-length hair, outspoken views, and boundless intellectual curiosity, Tillman was considered a maverick. America was fascinated when he traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a buzz cut. Sent first to Iraq—a war he would openly declare was “illegal as hell” —and eventually to Afghanistan, Tillman was driven by complicated, emotionally charged, sometimes contradictory notions of duty, honor, justice, patriotism, and masculine pride, and he was determined to serve his entire three-year commitment. But on April 22, 2004, his life would end in a barrage of bullets fired by his fellow soldiers. Krakauer chronicles Tillman’s riveting, tragic odyssey in engrossing detail highlighting his remarkable character and personality while closely examining the murky, heartbreaking circumstances of his death. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer’s storytelling, Where Men Win Glory exposes shattering truths about men and war. Amazon Exclusive: Jon Krakauer in Afghanistan
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Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
Customer Reviews / Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
| Krakeur certainly has a knack for telling the amazing, but twisted, story of Pat Tillman's life and death. I was pleasantly surprised to be provided with an in-depth history of the khost region, and a factual explanation of the situation the US has delved into in this region. There's no one better than John Krakeur to tell this one! |
| The harsher side of Pat Tillman is revealed - High School bully,(felony charges for beating & hospitalizing a minor !!), the Judge reduced Tillmans charges for the God-Almighty-Football Scholarship .... UGH! What a stomach-turning revelation!
As a side note.....Author forces his political view on the reader by re-hashing George Bush/Al Gore Presidential election. Not Jon Krakauer at his best. |
| I'm a big fan of Jon Krakauer's writing. He's one of these great writers who can pull you into the action and immerse you in his world. Here he captures the issues and context around the death of Pat Tillman well but is so caught up with the details and issues that he fails to really draw the reader in.
There's no arguing that Pat Tillman's death was tragic made even worse by the government's cover up of how it happened. But there's just not enough story to make it a real compelling book. After you get through the basics of what happened and the history of both Afghanistan and Pat Tillman there's mot much else to be explored. This story could have easily been captured in a Men's Journal article or even in Rolling Stone, as written it just isn't enough of a story to make a great book. I do think the beginning of the book where Krakauer traces the roots of the conflict in Afghanistan is interesting, but his light tough of the info just doesn't do it justice. That part of the book felt like it needed a hard news reporter who really dug into the info vs. a top level overview which we get here. Perhaps in the end Krakauer is simply out of his element and bungled the ball trying to balance telling a personal story and a exposing a political cover up. |
| At the bare-bones level, "Where Men Find Glory" tells the true story of how Pat Tillman left the NFL for the Army Rangers after 9/11, was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, how the Army and White House covered up the truth and how his family fought to learn the truth about how he died. Jon Krakauer sketches Pat's youth and the misadventure that landed him in jail, transforming him from a shallow jock to a disciplined and hardworking athlete and scholar. As background to Tillman's story, Krakauer gives one of the most succinct and accessible accounts of the birth of the Taliban and of Osama bin Laden's rise to prominence. He is also unsparing yet truthful about the Bush Administration's march to war and its willingness to divert public attention from bad war news with concocted stories of heroism in the field. It is one of the story's many ironies that Pat Tillman was peripherally involved in the mission to save Jessica Lynch, who was made into a Iraqi-killing, clip-emptying heroine with the help of the White House political machine.
Krakauer shows Pat the man rather than the icon. Tillman was remarkable, and unusual for our times, with a profound sense of self and a devotion to ideals - love of country, family and truth. His relationship with his mom, brothers and fiancée, Marie, show him as almost too good to be true - sensitive, smart, skeptical, inquisitive, welcoming risk and defending the downtrodden. Ironically, again, it was those ideals that caused Tillman, after 9/11, to leave the Arizona Cardinals and to do what he felt what was right -- defend his country. The book really takes off when Tillman joins the Army. He grapples with the absurdities of military life. At age 25 - a seasoned professional, college grad and disciplined worker - he bristles at the immaturity of the aimless 19-year-olds who joined along with him. Army life -- which rewards rank, obedience and longevity rather than courage, experience and results -- rubs him the wrong way. He sincerely disagrees with the war in Iraq. Krakauer's reconstruction of Tillman's last mission is full of the chaos and stupidity of battle - politically-driven strategies, pointless military objectives, errors in judgment and tactics, and the panic of unseasoned soldiers firing wildly at unseen enemies. Tillman's death (or someone's) was all but inevitable. What was avoidable, however, was the Bush administration scrambling to make political hay of Tillman's sacrifice. Almost as soon as the fighting was over, the Army concocted a story more favorable to its interests and conspired to ensure that Tillman's fellow soldiers would go along. It's a testament to the love of soldiers for each other that the truth leaked out after only a few weeks. But it still took years for Tillman's family, in the face of Army stonewalling and slow release of the facts - to get to something close to the truth. "Where Men Find Glory" tells us the truth about Pat Tillman's life and death. The book about self-interested military officers and politicians who are not ashamed to use the devotion, selflessness and sacrifice of others to advance their personal causes. But as Jessica Lynch said after her own experience, there's so much real heroism in battle that there's no need to invent it. If there is a larger meaning in the book it is that Americans who embody truth and courage still exist. Our nation is hugely diminished when those values are faked or conveyed upon the craven and the mendacious. |
| Where Men Win Glory is another well written narrative by Krakauer about real events in our history. The story of Pat Tillman is not a feel good story but a story of how our government used Pat Tillman and others like Jessica Lynch to generate popular support for the war in Iraq. From the president on down, the propaganda created to make hero's of those two warriors is breathtaking. The coverup of Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire however is even more breath taking. If there is one person who is the true villain in this remarkable tale, it is then Brigadier General Stanley McChrystal who was at the center of the coverup, and yet still managed to keep his job, because after all he was the darling of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who felt he was the best general we had in the Middle East. McChrystal made it easy for the lower ranking officers of the U.S. Army to participate in the coverup and even extend it to fellow Ranger friends of Tillman who knew the truth but were told to keep their mouths shut. The only person who really got reprimanded over this incident was the Lt. General in charge of the Rangers, but then he was already retired by this time, so it was easy to make him the scapegoat. Another truism of war and the military is even when you follow orders you know are wrong, you can still be criticized later for carrying them out, especially if your superiors all of a sudden get amnesia about the orders they gave. If there is one criticism with Krakauer's book it is that he took an awful lot of pages to cover material about the history of terrorism against the U.S. and not enough about the aftermath of Pat Tillman's death and the impact of that on the country. Part of the reason could be that he did not have the cooperation of the Tillman family other than Pat's brother Kevin and his wife Marie. So there were gaps in the narrative during the most explosive part of this story. Another key theme in this story were Pat Tillman's personal belief system which put him at odds with the U.S. Army. He was a liberal and an athiest, and he had no qualms about questioning authority even in the military. There is a strong Christian fundamentalist viewpoint in the Army that did not care for Tillman's athiest views and they thwarted his explicit request not to have the military or religion involved in any aspect of his funeral. The hero of this story is Pat Tillman and this story of his life makes him even more so. He was an idealist who had a strong love for his country and for the underdog. He put little value in money and turned down a lucrative multi-million dollar contract with the L.A. Rams out of loyalty to the Arizona Cardinals. He also turned down a chance to get out of the Army early to resume his career in professional football. Tillman believed in loyalty and committments. No wonder the U.S. Army was to use him for their own ends. Be warned: if you think you're country can do no wrong, this is not the book for your. If you're a free thinker like Pat Tillman this is an honest accounting of a horrible event. |
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
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