Who is Ralph Kauzlarich?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Kauzlarich

Kauzlarich is a 1984 graduate of Grants Pass High School, Grants Pass, Oregon and of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1988.

In recent years, Kauzlarich has come under attack for his alleged handling of the treatment of death of one of his soldiers, Pat Tillman, as well as his strategy on one occasion during which he divided his forces in a relatively unusual way.<2> The investigative reporter, Mike Fish, did not mention who was in charge of the fateful mission on which Pat Tillman was tragically killed before publishing his article. His article portrayed Kauzlarich as Tillman's commander, when at the time he was a Regimental-level staff officer - not in charge of any on-the-ground tactical decisions, nor in command of Soldiers. Weeks after Tillman's death, Kauzlarich was appointed by his commanding officer to conduct a second investigation into the cause of Tillman's death. His finding of fratricide has never been challenged, withstanding four subsequent investigations into Tillman's death.

Kauzlarich was heavily criticized for comments he made to ESPN over the death of soldier Pat Tillman, in which he blamed the Tillman family's complaints over the handling of the investigation into their son's death on their atheism.<3> Those comments led Rep. Henry Waxman, at that time chair of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to request the Pentagon to discipline Kauzlarich for conduct unbecoming of an officer.<4>.

Kauzlarich also "concluded that everyone had acted appropriately" after 11 Iraqis were murdered in 2007 by soldiers shooting from a helicopter. The shooting, which killed Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, took place on July 12, 2007, in a southeastern neighborhood of Baghdad. None of the members of the group were taking hostile action, contrary to the Pentagon's initial cover story; they were milling about on a street corner. Two children were severely injured and their father was killed when he stopped his van to help those initially shot by the soldiers. A video of the incident was released to WikiLeaks in April 2010. <5>