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Jon Krakauer delivers two riveting examinations in "Where Men Win Glory, The Odyssey Of Pat Tillman" (Doubleday, 344 pages).

The author describes an authentic American hero Pat Tillman, 27, a strong safety in the National Football League who turned down a $3.6 million contract to fight for his country.

"Where Men Win Glory" also details the incompetence of the U.S. Army and how fratricide, or friendly fire, killed Tillman in Afghanistan.

Tillman was a deep-thinking, under-sized athlete who overcame the odds to make big-time football at Arizona State University and the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.

Told he was too small for football, Tillman worked that much harder to earn high school honors in California and a college scholarship. Krakauer doesn't sugarcoat Tillman's life, noting a felony assault charge (later reduced to a misdemeanor) in high school likely changed his life.

After a few solid seasons in the NFL, the World Trade Center destruction on Sept. 11 triggered Tillman's desire to enlist in the United States Special Operations Forces. His brother, Kevin, also joined the cause.

"Pat Tillman was special," said his agent Frank Bauer. "He was a man of principle. He was a once-in-a-lifetime kid."

In May 2002, Tillman signed on with the military.

Two years later, Tillman was killed in eastern Afghanistan by his own men.

Krakauer, who won't win any applause from President Bush backers, explains the history of Iraq and Afghanistan in a manner that doesn't overwhelm the reader. If only more history books had such a to-the-point style.

Tillman and his brother were preparing to join the other Rangers in the well promoted rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch in Iraq. Krakauer's book throws cold water on any heroics from Lynch, who was found in a lightly-guarded hospital. One report had the rescue postponed 24 hours to set up a video crew.

"I do believe this to be a big public relations stunt," Tillman wrote in his journal.

"Details of Lynch's ordeal were extravagantly embellished," Krakauer writes.

Tillman made the "ultimate sacrifice" hollering at his fellow Rangers to stop shooting. He was shot in the forehead from 120 feet - the distance from home plate to second base in baseball.

Krakauer notes the first three members of the American military to die in Afghanistan were victims of friendly fire. Seventeen Americans were killed by U.S. Air Force jets on the fourth day of the Iraq War.

If Tillman's manner of death isn't enough to make one sick, the U.S. Army's tap dance with the family on how it happened is also appalling.

"Military investigations of friendly-fire incidents have a well documented history of obscuring the truth more than revealing it," Krakauer wrote.

Pat Tillman leaves a loving wife, Marie, who put up valiantly with her husband's decision. For their first anniversary, Pat Tillman was at Baghdad International Airport.

"This last year has given me the opportunity to see just how amazing, how tough you really are," Tillman wrote to Marie, who supplied Krakauer with her late husband's journal and letters.

Krakauer impressed many readers with "Into The Wild," a story involving a troubled but gifted young man in Alaska with family ties to Dickinson County.

Krakauer's ""Where Men Win Glory" will hit home with many and, hopefully, with the military establishment that seems to have made so many errors in judgment.