Pat Tillman

Pat Tillman was an American football player for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League who gave up his sports career to enlist in the United States Army Special Operations in May 2002, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. A first-team All-American at Arizona State in 1997, he played four seasons in the league before joining the Army Rangers and serving combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was killed in the mountains of Afghanistan in April 2004 at the age of 27. The Army first reported enemy fire, but a month later the Pentagon told his family he had died by friendly fire. He was posthumously promoted to corporal and received the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.