Is that what it was?
Probably initially
Kevin Tillman was in a convoy behind his older brother, a former NFL star, on April 22, 2004, when Pat Tillman was mistakenly shot by other Army Rangers who had just emerged from a canyon where they'd been fired upon. Kevin Tillman didn't see what happened. O'Neal said he was ordered not to tell him by then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey, the battalion commander who oversaw Tillman's platoon.
"He basically just said, sir, that uh, 'Do not let Kevin know, he's probably in a bad place knowing that his brother's dead,'" O'Neal testified. "He made it known that I would get in trouble, sir, if I spoke with Kevin."
Or was the command trying to cover their collective asses?
As i stated lies have a tendency to take on lives of their own. The lifespan of the lie was less than thirty days. So yeah some folks tried to cover their ass, but that doesn't change what was perhaps the original motivation for the omission of facts.
