User:SheldonLeroyBrown1776/sandbox

Steven Elliot
Early Life:

Steven Elliot grew up in Hays, a town located in the northwestern region of Kansas. He belonged to a single mother and his childhood is described as being a “normal small-town Midwestern existence”. Elliot was an active member in athletics in his community and enjoyed hunting quail and pheasants. As a young adult, Elliot attended Oral Roberts University, a Christian university, graduating with a 3.9 GPA. Soon after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001, Elliot decided to join the United States Army. Instead of being directly deployed, “the army delayed his entry until after graduation” and helped to pay for his student loans. On April 7 of 2004, Steven Elliot was deployed to a mountainous terrain in southeastern Afghanistan, along with Pat and Kevin Tillman. This was Elliot’s only deployment. Steven Elliot believes himself to be the person responsible for shooting professional football player, Pat Tillman, three times in the head, effectively ending the life of his own teammate in war.

Pat Tillman:

Pat Tillman was a professional football player on the Arizona Cardinals who played three years in the National Football League before enlisting into the United States army following the 9/11 attacks. A conspiracy about his death broke loose when the United States government announced that Tillman died a hero, being “rewarded a silver star for his ‘gallantry in action against an armed enemy’”. It turns out, Tillman was declared, months later, to be killed by friendly fire.

Pat Tillman Incident:

On April 22nd, 2004, Elliot was set out to take on his first and only firefight of his life. The mission took place in a mountainous southeastern Afghanistan. This particular event occurred on a foggy day between a canyon, one susceptible to an ambush. Following the breakdown of one of the Army’s Humvees, Tillman’s platoon was split in half so that they could work to get the Humvee out. The two groups were not able to communicate well with one another when an enemy ambush broke out. Elliot described the situation as follows, “‘We'd all been firing our weapons at various positions, up to that point, effectively enemy positions’” and that at this point, “‘The sun had been set for roughly 20 minutes, so the lighting conditions were poor to say the least’”. Tillman’s platoon had moved up in order to provide protection to Elliot’s platoon. When Elliot’s group mistakenly thought an Afghan ally was an enemy the group engaged, “killing the Afghan and prompting Elliott and two other Rangers to fire upon what Elliott called shadowy images, later learned to have been Tillman and then-19-year-old Bryan O'Neal”. This is when Elliot believes, due to his continued engagement, that he took the life of his fellow soldier, Pat Tillman.

Effects of War on Steven Elliot and Bryan O'Neal:

Bryan O’Neal treated therapy a bit differently than Elliot. He “rolls his eyes” at the talk of the ongoing problem of PTSD and trying unconventional therapy tactics. Although he does not fully believe or trust in these sessions, “he acknowledges his own life only got better because of therapy”. O’Neal believed he was to blame for Tillman’s death before his therapy and stated, “‘If I didn't have [counseling] I probably would still blame myself for Pat's death, which I did for years’”. O’Neal as well as Elliot developed an alcohol problem after the incident with Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. About three to four years after the death of Tillman, O’Neal describes himself, “at his worst, as a ‘pretty good functioning alcoholic’” and stated that he ‘would drink in his room alone’. Later, O’Neal attempts to return to the army but is unable to trust any of his fellow soldiers due to the incident that occurred in the past. These two situations are examples of posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

PTSD:

PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder, is a mental illness that occurs to individuals who have been exposed to life threatening situations or situations deemed more traumatizing from the ordinary. The general person with PTSD will have trouble sleeping, or doing regular daily activities such as “going to work, going to school or to spend time with people you care about. Scientists researched the amount of people with PTSD to also develop alcoholism, they found that “52% of men with PTSD abused alcohol. The rate in women was 28”

Citations:
 * https://www.recoveryranch.com/articles/trauma-and-ptsd-articles/the-link-between-ptsd-and-alcoholism/
 * http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/10816260/pat-tillman-enduring-guilt
 * https://medlineplus.gov/magazine/issues/winter09/articles/winter09pg10-14.html
 * https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/04/22/305969203/soldier-speaks-up-a-decade-after-pat-tillmans-friendly-fire-death
 * https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-really-happened-to-pat-tillman/