Band of Brooders Presents The Death of Corporal Tillman

By Jim Pangrazio

The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq a couple years later. Both were expected to be walk-over wars for the most powerful country in the world. Instead, in 2004 both easy victories had blown up in the invader's faces. The people we were trying to subdue showed remarkable ingenuity and tenacity. Heavy American casualties were making the already unpopular wars objects of extreme national divisiveness. In addition, our rulers feared that the humiliating experience of not being able to silence guerrilla uprisings against the invasions made the nation look like a crippled giant to the rest of the world. Just at that time of peak concern by our rulers, Patrick Tillman, the NFL player who cast aside the game and millions out of patriotic fervor following 9/11, was about to be discharged from the army. During his three years in both countries he came to understand that both invasions were crimes. He had corresponded with Noam Chomsky, America's foremost dissident, and they planned to meet when he was out to discuss ways they could work together against the wars. The famous football player and veteran, and the famous dissident traveling the country speaking against the wars just when the wars were at their bleakest state was not something our rulers could accept. All physical evidence was destroyed, there were five plus phony investigations, there was a congressional investigation in which all those involved with the military could remember nothing. Everyone knows what happened to Tillman – he was assassinated – murdered by the nation he mistakenly chose to serve. Americans choose to turn away from such searching truths because they demand a response concerning the real nature of the country within which they live, and that generates a silencing fear. In this short play Rick's interactions and conversations with his squad may recount some of what Tillman would have said had his country given him the chance to say them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jim Pangrazio
• Release date: Jun 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311485762

Jim Pangrazio

The general consensus is that change is urgent. Yet those claiming to work toward that end choose illusory paths that serve more as an impediment to the change they profess to seek. It is a closed loop -- a path that follows itself -- a safe at home tour rather than an expedition in search of wherever. My plays attempt to untangle the complex knots created by repeated trips to nowhere by focusing on the fearful simplicity of uncontaminated life where acceptance and rejection meet to hash out what's bothering them.

Book preview

Band of Brooders

Presents

The Death of Corporal Tillman

Published by Jim Pangrazio at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 Jim Pangrazio

ISBN: 9781311485762

Cast: US Army Rangers – Rick, Donna, Ed, Luis.

Scene: Afghanistan – late afternoon. An outpost on a ridge where the unit has been securing a road running through a valley.

(Rick is present – standing, reading a book by Noam Chomsky – others enter – Ed and Luis teasing Donna by tossing a package of tampons beyond her reach until she grabs it. When seated: Luis, Donna, Ed, Rick.)

LUIS: (Mock saluting) Band of brothers plus one neutered sibling reporting!

DONNA: (Surprised. Grabs at Luis' crotch.) How'd it happen? Razor slipped while you were shaving your legs in the shower?

LUIS: Oh, I'd never deprive you of the chance to have a real man.

DONNA: You're real men all right!....of the sort that loves to eat, drink and sleep with masses of their fellow real men...love it so much they can easily spend 20 years doing it!

LUIS: Eddie...you hearing this mouth?!

ED: So what are we? – A Band of Buttfuckers?

DONNA: (She puts her arms around both Luis and Ed) Hey, don't knock it! That release of tension calms you guys and helps us all get along so well.

ED: She thinks we joined a fucking Catholic holy order instead of the army.

LUIS: Well, we are on a mission.

DONNA: Like Jesus who wandered around the desert with a bunch of dudes.

LUIS: I guess that makes you Mary Magdalene. (Grabs Donna – she slaps his arm.)

ED: Or....Maybe those tampons are a prop and she's not even a girl!

LUIS: It's that 'don't ask, don't tell' shit. 'She' doesn't have to tell us.

ED: Come on Ms. Donna Maupin....let's do some close order drillin'! (Gets close to Donna. Gyrates.)

LUIS: Yeah....drillin' for honey! (Doing sexualized pushups)

ED: Privates on parade! (Trying to grab her)

RICK: (After