General Faces Demotion in Tillman Probe

A retired three-star general may be demoted for the role he played in providing misinformation about the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger and six other high-ranking Army officers are expected to receive reprimands four months after two reports concluded that officers fudged the facts on the details of Tillman’s death.

Tillman’s death became big news because he had walked away from an NFL football contract to join the Army after 9/11. The original U.S. News account,  published in April 2004, reported that Tillman “was killed in southeastern Afghanistan when his vehicle patrol came under fire in an ambush.”

It was later revealed that the fire that Tillman came under was not from the enemy but from U.S. forces. 

If Kensinger receives the expected punishment, officials said it would be a “stinging and rare rebuke” for the man who once headed Army special operations.

--Nikki Schwab