I received this book for Christmas in 2010. In December 2011 I realized I had better start reading before anyone noticed. I asked for the book because I thought the death of Pat Tillman and the resulting cover-up would be interesting, especially since he was from a "red" state. Krakauer tells the story using two threads. The first discusses the events immediately before, during, and after the firefight that took Pat's life. The other covers his athletic career. The football line does reveal information about Pat's character. He was a free thinker, wasn't driven by money, and had a definite sense of loyalty. The book contains a bit too much detail about plays in individual games. While football dorks might be into that, I found myself thinking, "yeah, yeah, yeah, get back to Afghanistan." As for Tillman's death, he was killed by friendly fire. Basically a group of soldiers split up because of a broken vehicle, and headed in different directions. Then the second group turned around, caught up with the first, and opened fire on them after hearing a shot in the dark. All levels of command worked to cover up the event, destroying evidence and ordering people to keep quiet. No one was ever punished with anything like a dishonorable discharge. The book did change my image of one "public" military official, General Stanley McChrystal. You might remember he was fired by Obama after blabbing a bit too much to a Rolling Stone reporter. Amongst others, McChrystal took action to cover-up the real reason behind Tillman's Death, and accelerated the process to award Pat with the Silver Star. In return for the cover-up, General McChrystal was given another star. [Some of this information was added in the second edition of the book]. Tillman's death came after the Iraq invasion (Pat actually served in both theaters). If Iraq taught us nothing it was that the Bush Administration would make up lies to support patriotic war stories. I've come to realize the US Military manages scandal in the same way the Catholic Church handles pedophiles. Burying the truth because it might damage the image of the organization, rather than dealing with the problem.