While the story generated much media interest at the time Tillman was wary of becoming too much of a cause celebre and refused to do any interviews after enlisting, adamant that he was simply one of many putting their lives on the line and shouldn't be singled out for any special attention.

After serving a tour in Iraq in 2003, Tillman was redeployed to Afghanistan where he died on this day four years ago. The initial story went that he had died a hero's death during an ambush outside the village of Sperah, 40km southwest of Khost near the Pakistan border. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart.

But about a month after his funeral, the US Army released the information that Tillman had died in a friendly fire incident.

Further investigations revealed that there was no hostile forces involved in the incident at all.

Tillman's Regiment had been split into two groups for a search and sweep operation. One group, containing Tillman's brother Kevin, changed their direction without informing the other. The upshot was that when they accidentally detonated a mine, chaos and a firefight ensued, with two groups of the same regiment firing wildly at each other in a narrow canyon. Two soldiers died, one of which was Tillman, shot three times in the head.

Many high-ranking officials were perfectly aware of the circumstances surrounding his death, but they buried the information and not even Tillman's family were aware of the truth until over a month after the memorial service.

Patrick Tillman Snr, furious at how the whole affair had been handled, commented, "After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this. They purposely interfered with the investigation; they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realised that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out.

They blew up their poster boy."

A sad and pointless end for a truly original character.