OF PATRIOTS AND PAWNS: Carolyn Baker Reviews Mary Tillman's 'Boots On The Ground By Dusk'

[Tace]

By Carolyn Baker

(World News Trust) -- I was taken aback to receive a package from New Almaden, California nearly a month ago. I didn't know where the town was nor at that time, anyone there. Even more astounding was the discovery that the package contained Mary Tillman's book "Boots On The Ground By Dusk," her personal account of her son Pat's death and its impact on the Tillman family. As I opened the book and read Mary's inscription and her enclosed card, I was flooded with memories of working closely, in 2006, with Mike Ruppert and Stan Goff as they completed their heroic and herculean investigative report "The Tillman Files" for From The Wilderness.

Not only had I closely followed "The Tillman Files," but many interviews of Mary earlier in the past year, most notably in my opinion, the ones by Emily Wilson of Alternet and last year, Keith Olbermann's spectacular interview which I had watched on March 28, 2007. Now holding Mary's book in my hand, I thought there might not be much more to say about it, so I contacted her to see if I might interview her not specifically about the book but about how she's coping these days and the awarenesses she's come to.

True to the mother's loyalty that exudes from every paragraph of her book, Mary Tillman does not want the focus to be on her. She's tired of being in the media limelight and simply wants the world to know Pat's story-who he was and how he and his family were betrayed. So after completing Mary's book, I was drawn to focus on her process of discovering the truth about Pat's death and the meaning of her discovery for all of us.

Mary Tillman was a school teacher at the time of Pat's death, and like most working Americans, she was very busy and had little time to research the dark side of the United States government. Nor was she inclined to do so with two sons enlisting in the Army shortly after 9/11. As is the case with many individuals who begin digging deeper, it wasn't until a tragedy erupted in her life that she embarked on her personal mission to examine the innumerable layers of the system in which she grew up and in which she previously took pride.

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/wnt-reports/commentary/of-patriots-and-pawns-carolyn-baker-reviews-mary-tillman-s-boots-on-the-ground-by-dusk.html

[MinM]

1. K'n R .. Carolyn Baker had an interesting take on "The Good Shepherd"

too:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/MinM/74

:kick:'n R