US Army Ranger Pat Tillman

Hon­or­ing a life of Courage, Humil­ity, Gen­eros­ity and Integrity

Last month our nation mourned the death of Pat Till­man, a for­mer NFL player who at the peak of his career left foot­ball to vol­un­teer for the Army.  Pat Tillman’s death has made a pro­found impact.  We mourn his death because it brings home the real­ity that in war young lives are often taken, and we ques­tion if such a war is just.  Many feel a sense of loss in that Pat Till­man rep­re­sented true man­hood and the best of our nation: a will­ing­ness to dream, per­se­ver­ance in pur­su­ing his dreams, and most impor­tantly integrity and courage in pur­su­ing what he felt was his true call­ing.  In this les­son, we won’t focus on Pat Tillman’s death, rather we will focus on his life, and how his focus on the virtues helped him to achieve his dreams and to live a ful­fill­ing life.         

A dream and hard work

Pat’s dream was to play in the NFL, but although a star foot­ball player in high school, his under-​​average size (5’10″, 200 lbs.) and less-​​than-​​lightning speed did not attract col­lege recruiters. Till­man refused to accept rejec­tion.  He per­se­vered by com­mit­ting him­self to rig­or­ous work­outs to over­come the obsta­cle of his smaller size.   His hard work paid off when he was accepted on the Ari­zona State University’s foot­ball team as a non-​​scholarship walk-​​on.  

He quickly dis­tin­guished him­self by his intel­li­gence and appetite for rugged play, lead­ing ASU’s defense to an unde­feated sea­son and a trip to the Rose Bowl.  He later earned the Pacific 10 Defen­sive Player of the Year.  

More than just a jock

 Tillman’s hard work and dis­ci­pline were not restricted to foot­ball alone, as he car­ried a 3.84 grade point aver­age through col­lege and grad­u­ated with high hon­ors in 3 1/​2 aca­d­e­mic years with a degree in marketing. 

As a seventh-​​round draft pick in 1998, Tillman’s chances of NFL fame appeared slim. But the Ari­zona Car­di­nals took a gam­ble on him, and were rewarded.  In the 2000 sea­son Till­man set a fran­chise record of 200 tack­les.  His suc­cess attracted the atten­tion of the Super Bowl Cham­pion St. Louis Rams, who offered him a nine-​​million-​​dollar con­tract.  Feel­ing a sense of duty and loy­alty to the Car­di­nals for giv­ing him his first break in the NFL, Till­man choose to stay with Ari­zona for less money.  This sense of loy­alty and appre­ci­a­tion likely played into his later deci­sion to join the Army Rangers.  

When the dream comes second

After the Sep­tem­ber 11th ter­ror­ist attacks, Pat dis­cussed how he felt it was his duty to use his phys­i­cal tal­ents to pur­sue ter­ror­ists, instead of play­ers on the foot­ball field.  In May of 2002, Pat Till­man shocked the sports world by walk­ing away from pro­fes­sional foot­ball and a $3.6 mil­lion three-​​year con­tract, to join the Army Rangers where he would earn just above $1000 a month.

Tillman’s deci­sion to join the Army demon­strates so many virtues-​​ obvi­ously courage in will­ingly meet­ing dan­ger, gen­eros­ity in giv­ing his tal­ents for the ser­vice of oth­ers, and integrity in stead­fastly fol­low­ing his own eth­i­cal code and sense of duty regard­less of the cost.   “Pat knew his pur­pose in life,” said for­mer Car­di­nals head coach Dave McGin­nis. “He proudly walked away from a career in foot­ball to a greater call­ing.”  

Chris­t­ian manhood 

Pat was a sol­dier even before he signed on with the Rangers. Two flags are fly­ing in the world: one of self­ish ambi­tion and one of Chris­t­ian man­hood. Pat chose to fight on the side of humil­ity, sac­ri­fice and courage, oppos­ing the temp­ta­tion to join the side of fame, com­fort and power. For Pat, life was a bat­tle, and going to Afghanistan was just another spe­cial mission.

Jesus Christ gives us the great­est exam­ple of true man­hood. He stood for the real truth about God and about man. Christ was not afraid to live his val­ues, no mat­ter the con­se­quences, nor to give his life for God and oth­ers. Christ was a man of pro­found char­ity and sac­ri­fice. He is a true and loyal friend, and head of our Fam­ily, the Church.

A call­ing

Every per­son has dif­fer­ent tal­ents, not always as glam­orous as Pat’s ath­letic abil­i­ties. Yet like Pat, we all have to find the greater call­ing for each one of us. This is an impor­tant part of being young. God has a unique plan, a spe­cific mis­sion, for each per­son and we should try to dis­cover, to dis­cern, God’s will for us. 

The best way to know is to ask him directly, in prayer, but with our hearts and minds open to really lis­ten to what he wants and to look at the needs of the world around us. If we are patient, his answer will come in the quiet of our hearts, or some­times through the ordi­nary events and nor­mal peo­ple we see every day. 

We may not be called to give our lives as Pat Till­man did, but our mis­sion will be great, to work with God in a beau­ti­ful and pow­er­ful way that will bring us deep hap­pi­ness now, and help us receive the gift of eter­nal life.

The ulti­mate sacrifice

On April 22nd Pat Till­man died lead­ing a team of Rangers up hill to attack enemy forces that had ambushed another group of Rangers.  The Army has awarded Pat Till­man the Sil­ver Star announc­ing that he was killed while fight­ing “with­out regard for his per­sonal safety”. 

Did he die for a just cause?

Some peo­ple have said that Pat Till­man was a fool who died in an unjust war. The Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church (2309) out­lines the cri­te­ria to judge if a war is just.  

• First, the dam­age that the aggres­sor will inflict must be last­ing, grave and certain.
• Sec­ond: War should be the last option, only if every­thing else is imprac­ti­cal or ineffective. 
• Third: There should be a seri­ous chance of suc­cess in win­ning the war. 
• Fourth: Due to the fact that mod­ern weaponry can be highly destruc­tive, the army must be care­ful to limit them­selves in its use, so that they do not pro­duce more evil or dam­age than the threat of the enemy that they are fighting. 
• Finally: Those who are respon­si­ble for civil pro­tec­tion have the role of eval­u­at­ing these conditions. 

It is clear that the world has to be pro­tected from ter­ror­ism. It is not easy to find the right way to do this, espe­cially when it requires using lethal force. How­ever, in order to restrain evil peo­ple and evil sys­tems, it is some­times necessary. 

Sim­ply doing his job

Pat Till­man wanted to pro­tect his coun­try against ter­ror­ism, and thus he died for a just cause. He did not claim to have all the answers, but tried to do what he could to help his country. 

The lead­ers of our gov­ern­ment have the respon­si­bil­ity of judg­ing if the war against ter­ror­ism fol­lows the cri­te­ria of a just war. In seek­ing the advice of the Vat­i­can, the Bush admin­is­tra­tion was told to first try all forms of dia­logue, and was warned of long-​​term prob­lems of a U.S. inva­sion in the Mus­lim world. How­ever, the Vat­i­can did not offi­cially con­demn nor approve the deci­sion of the United States. 

Pres­i­dent Bush was glad that the Vat­i­can did not offi­cially take sides, because he did not want it to seem like a reli­gious war of Chris­tian­ity against the Mus­lims, when his real aim was to fight against terrorism.

A Trib­ute to Pat Tillman

We mourn the death of Pat Till­man, but cel­e­brate his courage and integrity in fol­low­ing his life’s call­ing.  His death reminds us of all of the sol­diers, famous and face­less, and can awaken within us a sense of com­pas­sion for them and their fam­i­lies. Car­di­nals wide­out Frank Sanders said, “What we do is a game, what they do is real, and as a cit­i­zen it makes me appre­ci­ate the men and women in our armed ser­vices that much more.” Pos­si­bly the best way we can pay trib­ute to Pat Tillman’s life is to fol­low his exam­ple, by com­mit­ting our­selves to pur­su­ing and achiev­ing our true call­ing in life, no mat­ter the cost.

Bible Blurbs

• “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid  his  for us. And we ought to   our lives for our broth­ers.” 1 John 3:16
• ” What good will it be for a man if he  gains the whole world, yet for­feits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26
•  “I have fought the good , I have fin­ished the , I have kept the faith.” 2 Tim­o­thy 4:7

Saints and Heroes

Father Vin­cent Capo­danno  was born in 1929, in Staten Island, New York. After attend­ing a year of col­lege, he entered the Mary­knoll Mis­sion­ary sem­i­nary in 1949. After his ordi­na­tion he was sent to Tai­wan for sev­eral years. As the com­mu­nists began take over more of Asia, he requested to serve as a chap­lain to the Marines in Viet­nam. He felt he was needed to be help the young sol­diers spir­i­tu­ally in the moments of great­est dan­ger. The young marines (usu­ally nick­named “Grunts”) loved him dearly because he always accom­pa­nied them on the most dif­fi­cult and dan­ger­ous mis­sions, and gave them the sacra­ments and his friend­ship.  On Sep­tem­ber 4, 1967, his Marines became engaged in a fierce bat­tle. Even though the pla­toon was pinned down under enemy fire, Fr. Capo­danno crawled, crept and ran among the wounded and dying, giv­ing last rites and help­ing the injured. Wounded twice, he kept going until he was killed while tak­ing care of one of his men. In 1971 he posthu­mously received the Medal of Honor for his self­less sacrifice. 

Vocab­u­lary

Courage: The capac­ity to meet dan­ger with­out giv­ing way to fear; to have the courage of one’s con­vic­tions; to be will­ing to put one’s opin­ions into practice.

Com­pas­sion: Feel­ing of sym­pa­thy for the dis­tress of oth­ers, with the desire to help them.

Cit­i­zen­ship: The sta­tus of a cit­i­zen with respect to his duties, rights, and priv­i­leges; and hav­ing the desire to make his state/​country a bet­ter place  

Gen­eros­ity: Freely giv­ing of our time, tal­ents and resources 

Humil­ity: free­dom from pride and arro­gance; a mod­est esti­mate of one’s own worth

Integrity:  Stead­fast adher­ence to a strict moral or eth­i­cal code.  The state of being unim­paired; sound­ness.  The qual­ity or con­di­tion of being whole or undi­vided; completeness.

Jus­tice: The qual­ity of being just, impar­tial, or fair; the prin­ci­ple or ideal of just deal­ing or right action

Loy­alty:   Stead­fast alle­giance to one’s home­land, gov­ern­ment, or orga­ni­za­tion you par­tic­i­pate in.  Faith­ful to a per­son, ideal, cus­tom, cause, or duty. 

Per­se­ver­ance: Try­ing hard and con­tin­u­ously, despite obsta­cles and difficulties

Pru­dence: The abil­ity to gov­ern and dis­ci­pline one­self by the use of reason

Sol­i­dar­ity: Unity (as of a group or class) that pro­duces or is based on com­mu­nity of inter­ests, objec­tives, and standards

Discus­sion Questions

1. What do you think defined suc­cess for Pat Till­man?  Do you think most peo­ple today would agree with his cri­te­ria for suc­cess? How would God judge a person’s life to be suc­cess­ful or not?
2. Do you think most peo­ple look for their true call­ing in life, or just pur­sue mate­ri­al­is­tic goals?  Do our cul­ture, our com­mu­ni­ties and our schools encour­age ide­al­ism or mate­ri­al­ism? Do they empha­size dis­cov­er­ing one’s call­ing in life, or just mak­ing your life what you want it to be? How can you know what your call­ing is, what God has given you for your spe­cial mis­sion? What hap­pens if you choose not to fol­low it?
3. Why is it impor­tant for Chris­tians to express cit­i­zen­ship, to do some­thing to improve our coun­try? If there is some­thing that the gov­ern­ment does that is in oppo­si­tion to our Chris­t­ian beliefs, what should a Chris­t­ian do? Do you think Pat Tillman’s sac­ri­fices for our coun­try are a rare excep­tion, or are there mil­lions of Amer­i­cans mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions and sim­ply going unno­ticed? What are some other ways to express cit­i­zen­ship, besides join­ing the military?
4. Why did Till­man go to such an extent to stay away from media inter­views?  Is it more impor­tant to be part of a team or a star player? Why does the Army empha­size such a sense of unity that it is called an “army of one”? What are some other ways of express­ing this sol­i­dar­ity over individualism?
5. How did Pat live the virtue of humil­ity? What are some other ways to live humil­ity, or to define this virtue? How did Jesus give us an exam­ple of humil­ity? Even though peo­ple in the world do not usu­ally like the word, every­one is attracted to a truly hum­ble per­son. How does humil­ity help us in our rela­tion­ships with other peo­ple and with God?

Writ­ing Activities

• Let’s write about our own tal­ents and inter­ests.  In your jour­nal, make a list of the good qual­i­ties and tal­ents that you have. Next, write out your inter­ests, and then look­ing at your tal­ents and inter­ests state some goals for your life. Lastly, write out some of the obsta­cles to reach­ing your goals, and ideas about how to over­come these obsta­cles.  In your writ­ing on how to over­come obsta­cles, include a dis­cus­sion of which virtues you think will help you to succeed.     
• Write about the val­ues and virtues that are impor­tant in your own life. Exam­ples can be the virtues in this les­son, and val­ues such as rela­tion­ships with fam­ily and friends, ser­vice work, edu­ca­tion, art, and so forth. Write about which virtues and val­ues you would like to focus on in your life. 

Res­o­lu­tion Ideas

1. Watch a movie that focuses on the impor­tance of team­work over indi­vid­u­al­ism  depend­ing on the age level: Newsies, The Mighty Ducks, Hoosiers, or Mir­a­cle). Have the stu­dents keep a score­card dur­ing the movie to rate each char­ac­ter for their com­mit­ment to the team over them­selves. Also have them record the quotes that encour­age teamwork.
2. Orga­nize a voca­tions week in the school, bring­ing in sev­eral speak­ers from dif­fer­ent voca­tions (priest, mis­sion­ary, nun, mar­ried cou­ple), and pro­fes­sion­als who are com­mit­ted to their careers as a call­ing (doc­tor, lawyer, teacher, police offi­cer, etc.). Make posters and hand-​​outs to encour­age stu­dents to dis­cover their call­ing in life, and to go for their goals. A resource for inves­ti­gat­ing a pos­si­ble call to priest­hood or con­se­crated life is www.vocation.com. 
3. As a class, brain­storm on ideas of what it means to live true Chris­t­ian man­hood, espe­cially look­ing at the exam­ple of Christ, who was the true and most per­fect man. Write these ideas on the chalk­board, and then give the stu­dents time to write per­sonal Father’s Day let­ters to their dads. They should tell their dads how he is an exam­ple to them of true man­hood, and thank him for fight­ing to live that way.
4. To offer con­do­lences to Pat Tillman’s fam­ily and to learn more about his life please see:  http://www.azcentral.com/sports/cardinals/tillman/tillman_tribute.html
5. Orga­nize a debate to encour­age stu­dents to fur­ther research, and to express their own opin­ions to rest of the class, or to the whole school.  Explore the issue of just war, or whether the United States should inter­vene in inter­na­tional mat­ters with mil­i­tary force, look­ing at the exam­ple of Iraq. Some resources for research on this topic are:

• www.zenit.org - When Can Nations Inter­vene Mil­i­tar­ily in Other Nations?
• Nicholas Wheeler. “Sav­ing Strangers: Human­i­tar­ian Inter­ven­tion in Inter­na­tional Society”.
• William F. Schulz, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Amnesty Inter­na­tional USA, 2001 book “In Our Own Best Interest.”
• Michael Walzer, 1999 third edi­tion of his book “Just and Unjust Wars”.
• Decem­ber 2001 report “The Respon­si­bil­ity to Pro­tect,” pub­lished by the Inter­na­tional Com­mis­sion on Inter­ven­tion and State Sov­er­eignty. Chaired by Gareth Evans and Mohamed Sahnoun.
• Pope John Paul II, World Day for Peace mes­sage of Jan. 1, 2000, para­graphs 7-​​12.
• Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church, 2307-​​2317.