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Tillmans, Jessica Lynch to testify on Hill

Cpl. Pat Tillman’s mother and brother, along with former Pvt. Jessica Lynch, are scheduled to testify Tuesday at a congressional hearing that will focus on the initial and inaccurate reports of Tillman’s friendly fire death in Afghanistan and Lynch’s capture and rescue in Iraq.

“Misleading Information from the Battlefield” will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 2157 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

During the hearing, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will examine why inaccurate accounts of those two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate officials have been held accountable, according to the committee’s Web site.

Tillman, 27, was killed by friendly fire April 22, 2004, near Manah, Afghanistan. He had turned down a $3.6 million professional football contract to join the Army.

His family initially was told that he had been killed by enemy fire. It wasn’t until after his nationally televised memorial service that military officials revealed he had been killed by his comrades.

Findings from a Defense Department review released in late March cited four generals and five other officers in Tillman’s chain of command for mistakes made in reporting his death. The officers have been referred to a four-star Army general for further review and possible punishment for providing misleading or inaccurate information regarding the way Tillman was killed.

Seven soldiers, both officers and enlisted men, have received nonjudicial punishment for what happened the day Tillman was killed.

Tillman’s family has rejected the Pentagon’s findings, and they called for congressional investigations into what they see as broad malfeasance and a cover-up.

Lynch was badly wounded and captured March 23, 2003, when the 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed in Nasiriyah, Iraq. She was later rescued and hailed by Defense Department officials as a hero who fired her weapon during the ambush on her convoy until she ran out of ammunition and was captured.

That information was later found to be inaccurate when Lynch spoke out, saying she never fired her weapon and that, because of her injuries, her memory of that day’s events are unclear.

Mary and Kevin Tillman, Pat Tillman’s mother and brother, will be asked to testify about their communications with Army officials after their loved one’s death and about the information provided to them concerning the circumstances surrounding the incident, according to documents posted on the committee’s Web site.

Lynch was asked by the committee to talk about her capture and rescue, and the information that was disseminated about her and the incident.

Dr. Gene Bolles, who was chief of neurosurgery at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany when Lynch was treated there, also is scheduled to testify. The committee has asked him to talk about whether there was medical evidence that Lynch had been shot, tortured or abused during her captivity.

The fifth person scheduled to testify is Thomas Gimble, the acting Defense Department inspector general. Gimble’s office conducted the recently released review into Tillman’s death; Gimble will be asked to talk about the findings of that review and any work his office might have done to investigate what happened to Lynch.

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Tillmans, Jessica Lynch to testify