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Veteran Spotlight

courtesy of Journal Pilot Newspaper

Dan Tillman was raised in Hancock County, Illinois, but has called Keokuk, IA home since he married his wife Angie in 2005. Tillman’s father was in the military as was a grandfather and an uncle, and he’s always been very patriotic, so after graduating from La Harpe High School, he took the standard military test to see how he would do. “I wanted to fly, but you needed a college degree to be an Air Force pilot. I also wanted to be a cop.” His test scores were exceptional, so he signed a contract with the Army to go in at an advanced rank to train to be a military policeman at Fort McClellan, Alabama.

He made rank quickly and was a specialist in a year. “I did my job well and the Army gave me a lot of opportunity,” he said. “I did a lot of things: sniper, firearms instructor and driving instructor, squad leader, and interrogator. I was stationed with the 503rd MP Battalion of the 16th MP Brigade at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and was chosen to take part in a covert operation during the Iran-Contra Affair.”

On Guard in Honduras

That assignment was confidential at the time, and he wound up on top of a mountain in Honduras, where he could literally see El Salvador on one side and Nicaragua on the other. “We were to guard this area against intruders and had a 50-caliber machine gun and a lot of other arms in our outpost, and we were surrounded by a lot of concertina wire,” he recalled.

“We were a six-man team and basically worked six hours on and then six off, when we could get some sleep. After a few days we would head down one side of the mountain while our relief team was hiking up the other side to replace us. We never met, and that way nobody knew who was on duty – we had very little information in case we were captured.”

Tillman admits to having a “superman complex,” at the time. He had a respected position as an MP, carried a .45 caliber handgun on his side, and had a lot of training and responsibility. That feeling was challenged in the middle of a night shift on the mountain. “Somehow three insurgents got through our wire and we alerted to them. We set up a flare that lit up the whole area, just in time for me to get stabbed.

I took care of my attacker and turned to see Frank (a fellow MP) take four rounds from a second insurgent. Frank died where he fell.”

Most Americans never experience such horrific things. Most never hear the distinctive sound of AK-47 rifles being fired at them like the MPs heard that night. Most don’t get stabbed in the line of duty. But Tillman did.

Back at Bragg

“Back at Fort Bragg, I volunteered for funeral duty, as it got me off post to perform at military burials and to think,” he stated. “I received a Purple Heart from the Army for my stab wound, and a couple of other medals, and I had returned to the States. Frank didn’t.”

After receiving his honorable discharge, he married his first wife. They had three children before a divorce changed their lives. He thought seriously about going back into the Army when 9/11 hit and got so far as being ready to sign an enlistment contract that would have sent him to the Middle East when “reality sunk in,” he admitted. “I had three children to think about. I had the experience of watching Frank die and had been in several small skirmishes involving being shot at while serving in Honduras, but I was still in the superman mode then. Now I had children to think about.”

Settling Down in Keokuk, IA

Instead of returning to the Army, he remarried and settled down in Keokuk, IA with his bride Angie, who works for John Wardall, CPA, in Hamilton. He is the parts manager at Midwest Honda, but that’s only the tip of his iceberg. He is the chief of the Keokuk Volunteer Emergency Corps, is a Keokuk civil commissioner involved with the personnel testing done by the Keokuk police and fire departments, and is the security director at Faith Family Church in Keokuk, IA.

He is also the owner-operator of Security Operations Group, LLC. “I can evaluate businesses, residences, or any other places for potential security problems. I can recommend where cameras should be installed and even install them. I also teach environment awareness and self-defense, instruct in firearms proficiency, and help organizations with establishing defense teams.”

The world seems increasingly violent, but the Tri-State area has escaped most of it so far, or so it would seem. Tillman knows better. He drove for the Keokuk High School show choir when his daughter was in it eight or nine years ago, when he experienced a random act that changed his viewpoint.

“I was at a rehearsal one evening when someone fired three rounds into the building,” he said. “I realized then that nobody is entirely safe anywhere, anymore.”

Things may not be as safe as they once were, but he admits to loving America and being a super-patriot. “I won’t even touch an American flag without saluting it,” he firmly stated. “I have two places for flags on my boat, one for the American flag and the other for the POW/MIA flag. Even though he was killed and not captured or missing, that one is for Frank.”

Tillman concluded with his deepest thoughts, “I know that it was the grace of God and instincts that kept me alive. Now, I’m sharing what I know with others to help keep them safe.”

Dan Tillman as a US Army military policeman. He served at Fort Bragg, NC, and on a mountain top in Honduras during the Iran-Contra Affair where his job was to guard against insurgents from both El Salvador on one side of the mountain and Nicaragua on the other. What he experienced there shaped his future.

Dan's parents are Robert and Barb Tillman from Webster.