There have been numerous stories on this young man...but he deserves his own thread. Thank you Daniel.
Charleston Post and Courier
Charleston Post and Courier
Clemson?s Rodriguez using football to cope with invisible war wounds
Travis Sawchik
Posted: Saturday, October 20, 2012 12:01 a.m.
Provided by Clemson
Daniel Rodriguez, who earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart as a U.S. soldier fighting in Afghanistan, joined the Clemson football team this season. At top, Rodriguez sits in a U.S. Army base in northern Afghanistan near the village of Kamdesh. The mountains sloped steeply to the narrow valley below where a river flowed from the snowcaps high above. Alongside the river was a road guarded by one of the U.S. Army?s northernmost bases in Afghanistan.
The road led to the nearby village of Kamdesh not far from the Pakistani border, where insurgents gathered and weapons were smuggled into the country. The remote American base was supposed to serve as a deterrent.
Daniel Rodriguez sits in a U.S. Army base in northern Afghanistan near the village of Kamdesh.
The people had long built their villages on the ridges and cliffs for natural defensive positions. In the 19th century, the British army was ambushed and defeated in these barren, lawless mountains. There are remains of villages destroyed by the Soviets during their failed invasion in the 1980s. Now, Americans were in the cross hairs.
Early on the morning of Oct. 3, 2009, U.S. Army Pvt. Daniel Rodriguez walked from his mortar pit position to check his email on the base?s computer. At 5:58 a.m., minutes after sunrise, one mortar crashed into the base. Seconds later, a full barrage began.
Rodriguez scanned the black hills silhouetted against an early morning sky and saw hundreds of sparks that looked like fireflies. They were muzzle flashes from hundreds of enemy fighters in the hills.
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