Crossing Paths With Heroes: Todd Beamer, Pat Tillman

During my lifetime I have sometimes crossed paths with people who were destined for greatness. Probably most of us have known someone who went on to do remarkable things. My friend Dag at No Dhimmitude once met the mother of Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist Garry Trudeau.

In the 1960's my father owned a music store in San Jose, California and sold guitars, amplifiers and other equipment to rock groups and kids who aspired to rock groups. Three of those customers are now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Jorma Kaukonen, lead guitar for the Jefferson Airplane (I eventually met all of the members of that band, but had an actual face to face acquaintance with Jorma - be bought a guitar from my dad); Tom Fogerty, rhythm guitar for the Creedence Clearwater Revival and Stu Cook, bass player for the same group. I also met Jack Casady, bass player of the Airplane, and saw Janis Joplin perform one night in a San Jose club before she was famous (she performed with Big Brother and the Holding Company). I didn't like her singing (she screamed a lot) and thought she dressed way too frumpy.

My wife, as an insurance claims adjuster, once adjusted the claim for a NFL Hall of Famer Quarterback, but I can't mention his name for ethical reasons. Alas, though she visited his home to inspect damage, she only dealt with his attorney and his security guards. He was off making commecials and being a TV announcer. She never met him.

My oldest son's claim to fame is that, when he attended Oak Grove High School in San Jose, California, he had a typing teacher named Mike Holmgren. Mike wanted to be a football coach, but Oak Grove already had a darned good one and there was no room for Holmgren. So Mike Holmgren left Oak Grove to coach at another high school. He kept getting better and better jobs, until one day he found himself the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. He was the coach of the NFL champion Green Bay Packers and just this past January was head coach of the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Sometimes it's good to change directions when your life lacks sparkle. Holmgren no doubt finds his new job more exciting than teaching typing classes.

As Confederate infantry soldiers (extras) in the movie "Gettysburg" my brother and I met and chatted with actor Martin Sheen, who played General Lee, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in August 1992. Don't care much for his politics, though. As a bizarre aside, the opposing attorney that my wife dealt with in the Quarterback insurance claim was one of my fellow Confederates at Gettysburg. We have a picture together looking like dirty Civil War soldiers waiting for Pickett's Charge. Life has many strange coincidences and bizarre connections that I often think are some kind of science working itself out, a force we do not yet understand. Hmm, very strangely, a few years later my sister and her husband found themselves in a hotel room right next to that of Martin Sheen, so she met him and chatted with him too. Did I mention I don't like his politics?

Yes, I've met a few people who became somewhat famous, but I consider none of them heroes. That term is reserved for others, like two men who lived near me in the San Francisco Bay Area, namely, Pat Tillman and Todd Beamer.

Pat Tillman was the NFL Cardinals defensive player, who gave up a $3 million professional football contract to join the army and fight the Taliban and later died in Afghanistan, tragically killed by "friendly" fire. I knew Pat's parents and lived in the same suburb of San Jose. The other hero is Todd Beamer. We lived within easy driving distance from one another though I never met Todd.

First, my connection with Pat Tillman is that I knew his parents, Pat Tillman Sr. his father, and Danny (perhaps short for Danielle) Tillman, his mother. I also knew his little brother Richard Tillman. Pat Sr. was the coach of my son's Pony League baseball team in Almaden Valley, in 1994 and 1995, an affluent suburb of San Jose, California. Richard was a member of the team (and also the star of the team). My youngest son was also a member of the team. Oddly enough, the team was the Cardinals and their colors red and white, the same mascot and colors of the NFL team Pat Jr. would play for in a few more years. When I knew the Tillmans, Pat Tillman was just beginning his studies at Arizona State University, where he played football for the Sun Devils.

Pat had played in high school at Leland High in Almaden Valley, just three blocks from our home. He was the league's most valuable player as quarterback of the Lancers in 1993. I never met Pat Tillman, though I did see him once, when he came out to the baseball field to help his father warm up the team. He had longisth blonde hair, or actually light brown with the top sun bleached blonde, and had a square jaw, a huge neck and pecs that spoke of many hours pumping iron. He looked like he could kill you with his bare hands. I remember thinking that I sure wouldn't want to mess with that guy. I suppose my youngest son's brush with fame is that Pat Tillman probably hit him a few grounders on that one day of baseball.

Pat Sr. and Danny were very proud of their sons. I sat many times in the bleachers talking to Danny during games, a very lovely, young-looking woman who one would never guess was the mother of three strapping brutes like the Tillman boys. Danny was a school teacher at Brett Harte elementary school in Almaden Valley. When my youngest son applied for admission to Bellarmine College Preparatory, a 150 year old, exclusive, high standards private Catholic prep school, Pat Tillman Sr., his coach, was gracious enough to write a recommendation for him. My son was accepted and graduated with the Class of 1999.

My wife and I often saw Danny at the local Starbuck's on Camden Avenue and would say hi. However, we haven't seen any of the Tillmans in years and are no longer in contact with them. We were very saddened, of course, at hearing the news of Pat Tillman's death and anguished at the pain this caused his parents.

Todd Beamer moved to California from Ohio just before his senior year, which he spent at a high school local to me, Los Gatos High School. Oddly enough, another hero of United Flight 93, Mark Bingham, was also an alumnus of Los Gatos High School. Another strange coincidence, since Todd and he didn't know each other, yet stepped onto that same fatal flight from New Jersey on September 11, 2001, a continent away from their alma mater.

Los Gatos is a small town whose borders touch those of San Jose, and the high school has been there since the 1920's. My own high school often played them in sports when I was a kid, and I admired Los Gatos High. It would have been my second choice had I not been able to attend Camden High, my alma mater. Los Gatos' mascot was the Wildcat, with black and orange as the school colors. The school has had some notable people associated with it, like alumnus Olivia De Haviland, one of the stars of the movie epic "Gone With the Wind." She graduated sometime in the 1930's.

Another inspiring character was Charlie Wedemeyer, the Coach of the Los Gatos High varsity football team in the 1980's. While a coach, Charlie was stricken with ALS, also know as Lou Gehrig's disease, a disorder of the nervous system. Charlie began to lose motor function in his arms and legs and was considered a terminal case, but he wouldn't give up. On a breathing tube and strapped upright in a golf cart, he led the Wildcats to a football championship, defeating St. Francis High by a point. In 1988 a TV movie was made to tell his story, "Quiet Victory." Everywhere you look, Los Gatos High seems suffused in heroes. I have always admireed Charlie Wedemeyer as a courageous soul who just wouldn't quit.

Another small connection I feel to Todd Beamer is that he was a representative of Oracle Corporation, who makes Oracle, the ERP (Economic Resources Planning) software, a fancy name for corporate accounting software. As a financial consultant to public corporations, I am familiar with Oracle. It is one of my two favorite ERP's, the other being SAP.

The next time I drive by Los Gatos High school, I think I will park my car and walk the pathway to the front door, past the spacious and famous front lawn, just so I can walk in the footsteps of Todd Beamer and Mark Bingham. Both of them were young enough to be my sons and I have sons in their age group. Since they have no graves to place flowers upon, it would be my way of communing with their souls so I can say "Thank you, and well done."