Virginias Daniel Rodriguez: From Football Hero to War Hero . . . and Back?

After serving bloody combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the 23-year-old Stafford native and
Bronze Star recipient is trying to fulfill his dream of playing college football.

By Brett Haber
Maybe you had a guy like Daniel Rodriguez on your high school football team. He wasnt much
to speak of physically (five-foot-six, 140 pounds his senior year), but what he lacked in size, he made up
for with a set of intangibles that makes guys like him coaches pets wherever they materialize: uncanny
football instincts, an indomitable will to win, and a motor that could power a Mack truck. Second and
third strings across America are littered with guys like Danielgood teammates, valuable practice
players, occasional subs, but most often relegated to the bench to cheer for players with more prolific
physical tools.
But not Daniel.
Despite his diminutive size, he became a three-year starter at Brooke Pointe High School in
Stafford, Virginia, and he did it all. He played safety and cornerback on defense, and slot receiver and
backup quarterback on offense; he returned kicks and punts on special teams. In 2006, his senior season,
he was named a captain and helped lead the Blackhawks to a 64 record, a share of the district
championship, and the schools first state playoff game in nearly a decade. Daniel was becoming well
known in Virginia football circles, and it got him thinkingif he could just bulk up a little, he might
legitimately have a shot at playing college ball.
But just as Daniel's future was taking shape in his mind, fate, as often happens, authored a rewrite.
During his junior year, Daniel endured the heart-wrenching separation of his parents. This
included his mother moving away from their home in Virginia to live with relatives in Texas. Then a year
later, with the wounds from that ordeal still raw, his father, Ray, suffered a heart attack and died, just four
days after Daniels high school graduation. This series of devastating events understandably took a deep
emotional toll on Daniel. He found himself unable to finish his college applications, and spent the
summer after high school sorting through his grief and devoting his energy to his relationship with his
mother.
If I told you thats where Daniels story ended, Im guessing you would be sad, but at the same
time understanding and unwilling to pass judgment. The kid went through a tough time, after all. Perhaps
he would regroup at some point down the road.
Daniel regrouped exactly two months later.
At the end of the summer, when my friends went off to college, I said to myself, Okay, am I

going to sit around here and be a deadbeat, or am I going to go do something with my life and, you know,
build on it? And thats when I joined the military, Daniel says.
He joined the Army branch to be specific. He went through basic training at Fort Benning,
Georgia, and less than a month later was deployed to Iraq. Private Rodriguez was part of the Bush surge
of 2007. He was an infantryman stationed at the Joint Security Site (JSS) in Sadr City on the outskirts of
Baghdad. As such, he spent five days a week living in an Iraqi police station side-by-side with local
officers. Together they would make rounds of the city for 12 to 16 hours each day, kicking down doors
for high-value targets, patrolling our sectors, making sure nobody was setting out IEDs or any other
roadside bombs, stuff like that, he explains.
He says his small unit got hit daily. He estimates they suffered 20 casualties during his 12month toursome by sniper fire, and others when those very IEDs his unit was trying to identify and
destroy achieved their designed intent.
We were on a road down south in Baghdad called Route Sparrow, and we got hit by a daisy
chain IED, Daniel says. A daisy chain is where they set up multiple IEDs spaced out, and they wait for
the entire convoy to drive within the proximity of where each bomb is set. Then they blow it, so each
truck gets hit.
Daniel survived his 12-month tour in Iraqor as some in the military have cynically come to
label it: War Number One. Daniel would star in the sequel as well.
After just 13 months back home, his unit was once again deployed overseasthis time to
Afghanistan. He again served in the infantry, but when asked if his duties were similar to those he carried
out in Iraq, he answers with a chuckle, Hell no. We were up in the mountains fighting daily. We lived in
huts carved out of the side of the mountains. We were on the Pakistan border, farther north than any US
troops in the war. We were eating one meal a daycompletely different lifestyle. I mean, wed never
shower out there. It was just mountain men fighting.
How often did Daniel encounter the enemy in Afghanistan? He says he and his buddies kept a
rough estimate of 86 TICs (Troops in Contact) over the first six months of his tour. After that, they lost
count. When I asked him to estimate how many times he fired his weapon in battle, he initially tried to do
some math in his head, then laughed and gave up.
On October 3, 2009, Daniel and his unit were at the center of one of the bloodiest showdowns of
the entire war. The Battle of Kamdesh unfolded in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan, and saw a force
of roughly 300 Taliban soldiers ambush an American force one-fifth its size. The US suffered eight deaths
that day; the Taliban lost 150. Daniel caught shrapnel in his legs and neck and took a bullet fragment
through his shoulder. He received the Bronze Star for valor for his acts during that battle, which,
according to accounts, include running 300 meters under heavy fire to take the place of a fallen soldier.

He was treated for his wounds in-country and completed his 12-month tour.
Eighteen months ago, after earning three promotions, Sergeant Rodriguez was discharged from
the military, and he wasted no time fulfilling some of the promise he abdicated during his summer of grief
four years earlier. He took advantage of the GI Bill and enrolled immediately at Germanna Community
College in Fredericksburg. The focus and determination he showed on the high school football field and
in the Army have now carried over to his civilian life.
But one thing had changed since the last time Daniel was a student: his body. Hes now 23, and
estimates hes grown two inches and put on 35 pounds of muscle since his senior year of high school.
Hes now five-foot-eight and 174 pounds, and credits his time in the Army with helping him develop and
keep his body in its best shape ever. He would like to now use that body to fulfill the dream he suspended
shortly after his fathers death.
The dream is to play college football. I would like to stay in Virginia. UVA or Virginia Tech
would be my top two. But, I mean, Im willing to go wherever I get an opportunity, he says.
Daniel has posted a seven-minute biographical video of himself on YouTube. It takes highlights
from his high school football days and weaves them together with photos and clips from his service in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Daniel provides voiceover narration throughout, explaining the genesis of his
college football dream. In addition to the video receiving more than 11,000 hits, Daniel has gotten some
interesting feedback. Dozens of grateful citizens have sent notes thanking him for his service, and a few
college athletic directors from small schools around the country have sent letters of inquiry, but he had no
concrete offers so far.
His YouTube video paid off. The head coach at Clemson University, Dabo Swinney, reached out
to Daniel. I saw a spark in his eyes, determination in his decisions, and I knew this man was fit for my
team, said Coach Swinney. Coach Swinney has used Daniel to build camaraderie among the team; his
leadership and loyalty bring greatness to the team. Although hes not a starter, Daniel recognizes this is
the opportunity hes always dreamed of, and hes working hard to make something of himself.

Young Sons
A mother takes down a photo
And she holds it to her breast
Just has shed done the child it shows
The little boy shed washed and dressed.
She remembers how his hair felt
His soft scent still fills her nose.
And one again she curses,
the path her young son chose.
With boyish smile, and happiness
hed picked the shilling and the gun
she remembered still the fear and dread
when he told her what hed done.
Yet shed smiled and waved him off
as only a loving mother could
If God was good, her smiling son
would return as young sons should.
But then fickle fate, it knows no God
it makes its judgments where it will
and IEDs they dont discriminate
about who they should maim or kill.
So young sons often come home
fulfilling all their mothers fears
Not with happy smiles and laughter
but, draped in flags and mothers tears.
Bill Mitton

Enduring Guilt
Mike Fish
04/22/14
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The wiry, dark-haired financial planner sitting across his office
conference table has lugged around heart-tugging guilt for a decade. I am a good man. I am a
God-fearing man who served and loves his country, wife and young daughters. But I, Steven
Elliott, may have shot another man dead.
Not just any man; an American sports star who evolved into a cultural icon.
Pat Tillman ... Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year at Arizona State University in
1997. ... Helped team to Rose Bowl. ... Seventh-round NFL draft pick in 1998. ... Arizona
Cardinals starting safety. ... Turned down three-year, $3.6 million contract. ... Left his
professional football career and enlisted in the U.S. Army in June 2002 in the aftermath of the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. ... Joined the elite Army Rangers and deployed for combat. ... Died in
the Afghanistan mountains, the result of enemy fire during the war. ... Correction: Died as a
result of friendly fire.
Ten years ago -- several minutes before 7 on the evening of April 22 -- Tillman, the
former NFL safety, was killed instantly by three bullets to the forehead. Sayed Farhad, an allied
Afghan soldier standing 10 feet off Tillman's left shoulder, was killed by an initial burst of fire.
Bryan O'Neal, a Ranger, somehow survived, later walking down a hill traumatized and covered
in Tillman's warm blood.
The simple version of a complex story was written up by investigation after investigation
as a horrific screw-up by Army Rangers, a fact concealed from the Tillman family and the nation
for more than a month, as military leaders pitched a phony script of embellished bravery and
heroism.
Truth is, Tillman's platoon had been ordered divided by superiors just a short time before,
and the two groups struggled to communicate with one another in the steep mountainous terrain.
A deafening ambush ensued. A squad leader in a heavily armored vehicle would mistake the
Afghan soldier for the enemy and open fire, prompting Elliott, then 23 -- a newbie in his first and
only firefight -- and two other Rangers to let loose on shadowy images along a barren ridgeline,
which they would later learn to be Tillman and the 19-year-old O'Neal.
"It is possible in my mind that I hit him," Elliott told "Outside the Lines" in his first
public interview since Tillman's death. "It is very possible that I hit him, but I don't know."

A decade later, the guilt and mental anguish from the most horrific of events resonate not
just with Elliott and the shooters, but also with O'Neal, who stumbled away physically
unscathed, yet disturbed that the pro athlete -- a perceived better man -- wasn't so lucky.
Conflicts may forever linger over how events unfolded that April evening, but the gut-wrenching
stories of the shooters, the survivors, and the Tillmans remain intertwined.
The two new Rangers, ONeal and Elliott, deployed on April 7, 2004, with Pat and Kevin
Tillman and the rest of the Black Sheep platoon to the rugged mountainous terrain of
southeastern Afghanistan. It would be Elliott's only deployment.
For O'Neal and Elliott, the aftermath and haunting reminders have been hell.
A mundane act of walking past a water fountain initially triggered flashbacks for O'Neal:
"The sound it makes when the water is coming out -- that is what it sounded like to me hearing
Pat's blood."
Both ex-Rangers dealt with intense guilt. When things turned darkest, Elliott wished he
had been killed overseas. O'Neal contemplated suicide.
Elliott, along with the other shooters, was booted from the Rangers several weeks later.
O'Neal felt so ostracized that he quit the elite unit for the regular Army. Like others before, they
say they turned to alcohol to drown their pain, imbibing to the point of blackouts.
But Elliott offered up SparkNotes versions soon after his Afghanistan experience. He
made an agonizing trek home and told his mother. He confided in his college friend and fellow
Ranger, Evan Essenburg. He told his future wife, Brooke, on their first date outside a Starbucks
in Tacoma. The couple married in the summer of 2005, and Elliott soon was shipped east to
finish the remaining two years of his Army commitment, while his wife stayed behind with her
young daughter from a previous relationship.
It was easy to blame his struggles on the Army. He lived with the notion that once home
with his young wife and on the job managing clients' money, the bad stuff would go away. He
coped well enough his last two years to juggle his Army job while earning an MBA degree
through Oklahoma State's distance learning program. All the while, though, his demeanor and
mental state deteriorated. As a husband and father, he was miserable, emotionally unavailable.
His all-consuming job as a portfolio manager became his escape and solace from the otherwise
constant pangs of grief and guilt.

O'Neal, who refers to all of the shooters as "meaningless" to him even today, rolls his
eyes when told of the unconventional therapy and broader issue of PTSD. For him, it's little more
than a go-to bromide: "People that say, 'I have PTSD.' I am like, 'Shut up, grow up.' "
Yet he acknowledges his own life only got better because of therapy, and thus he shares a
sense of compassion for what Elliott has gone through.
Whatever Elliott and the other shooters have lived with, though, O'Neal says that he is
certain he experienced worse.
"If I didn't have [counseling] I probably would still blame myself for Pat's death, which I
did for years," O'Neal says. "Three of us went up there, and I am the one that came down.
Nothing happened to me. I didn't get a single injury. Now how I did not, I still -- I don't
understand. I was 19 years old. I had accomplished nothing. Pat was this great man. Brilliant,
athletic and a natural leader. Just devoted so much of his time to helping us. I don't think there is
anything I can do in my life that can ever match what he was. He was just amazing. So for me to
live and him to not -- I didn't get it.
The shooters' stories have evolved over time. Key details ended up massaged through
four investigations. Capt. Richard Min Ho Scott, the officer initially assigned to investigate and
whose draft report the Army said it subsequently lost, suggested during a later investigation that
"stories have changed'' to "help some people."
Lingering still is how far the shooters were from Tillman's position when they fired.
Whether Sgt. Greg Baker, whose initial fire triggered the other shooters to follow, was outside
the vehicle when he fired his M4 carbine on Farhad, the allied Afghan soldier alongside Tillman.
Whether the Humvee drove straight through, or stopped, then repositioned to take better aim.
Whether Elliott continued firing into mud-and-stone buildings just beyond Tillman, making him
the Ranger who hit the platoon's radio operator.
These questions haunt Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, even today. Her mind and words still
race, consistently circling back to the universal question that seems to accompany every
unexpected death: Why? Yet, she also cannot escape the lack of evidence, the silence, and the
inconsistencies that began forming the day she learned her son had been killed, and that have
continued for 10 years.

War is like Tears

Rifleman Naresh Kangmang
Wiping off the brook of tears
Flowing incessantly from her eyes
I pick up my baggage with a heavy heart
Heaving a loud sigh of grief
She throws her hands tightly around my waist
There is still a lot more time for dawn to begin
My son - deep in his sleep
Moths huddling around the lamp
Colliding over the same lamp
Some spreading their legs injured
While others are already dead!
Few drops of her tears
Trickle over my boot
And shimmer at the brightness of light
I close my eyes
And open them a while
To look at the boot
The teardrops flowing from my boot
Had vanished somewhere into the carpet I think The life we lead as soldiers
Is like tears!
'Please do not go to the war
Let us go back to our own country'

'Don't say that, my dear!

I have promised the Union Jack - two
times
How would I say
I am not going to Afghanistan?
Its my duty to go to war
Unknowingly my arrogance slips out
I think - of my dear old parents
I see - my sleeping child
My dear wife shed into tears
Uff!
How would my heart allow me
To go to war at this time?
There is a heap of dead moths
Over the carpet
I start hearing
Soundless music
Pouring an incessant river from the eyes
And, putting a garland of flowers around
my neck
With her shivering hands,
She says:
'Return from the war
Like the way you are going today'
I feel
There are many things to say
But words don't come out
Getting speechless
I step out of my quarter
And slam loudly
The door of farewell!

--------------1. In a paragraph (or more if needed), write about the TONE of the poem, the
THEME of the poem, discuss the meaning of the title, and discuss the effect of the
figurative language used (how do they add detail, emotion, etc.).
2. Highlight and label the literary terms used in this poem.

Fianc in Afghanistan
Abi Townsen
Step by step they take great care,
Fear and frightened eyes red like despair,
Shock and horror to hear Man Down,
So many soldiers like toys fall to the ground,
Yet one by one they struggle through,
Scared and thinking he may not pull through,
Soaring temperatures are rapidly rising,
Scarce special medics is not surprising,
With no mercy just bitter aggression,
Shooting the injured is the Talibans mission,
Please save our partners, family and friends,
Bring this war to its final end,
Our hero, our soldier, their brother, their friend,
Our honor is with you as you battle the end,
Back at home we will wait alone,
To hear you slightly on the phone,
Unsettled nights and dead dreams,
Imagining all those nasty scenes,
R&R I hope is soon,
To have our candle lit dinner under the moon,
Come and gone now back to the warily war,
To fight the Taliban and find their core,
Wrapping parcels and special gifts,
The happiness it brings and the joy it lifts,
To all the soldiers that made through the tour,
Salute to those with us no more,
No game or sport can comprehend or compete,
The strength our soldiers go to defeat,
Queen or president the fact still remains,
Our soldiers out there is just insane.

---------------

1. In a paragraph (or more if needed), write about the TONE of the poem, the
THEME of the poem, discuss the meaning of the title, and discuss the effect of the
figurative language used (how do they add detail, emotion, etc.).
2. Highlight and label the literary terms used in this poem.

SO I WAS A COFFIN
Gerardo Mena
They said you are a spear. So I was a spear.
I walked around Iraq upright and tall, but the wind blew and I began to lean.
I leaned into a man, who leaned into a child, who leaned into a city. I walked
back to them and neatly presented a city of bodies packaged in rows.
They said no. You are a bad spear.
They said you are a flag. So I was a flag.
I climbed to the highest building, in the city that had no bodies, and I smiled
and waved as hard as I could. I waved too hard and I caught fire and I burned
down the city, but it had no bodies. They said no. You are a bad flag.
They said you are a bandage. So I was a bandage.
I jumped on Kyle's chest and wrapped my lace arms together around his torso and
pressed my head to his ribcage and listened to his heartbeat. Then I was full, so
I let go and wrung myself out.
And I jumped on Kyle's chest and wrapped my lace arms together around his torso
and pressed my head to his ribcage and listened to his heartbeat. Then I was full, so
I let go and wrung myself out.
And I jumped on Kyle's chest and wrapped my lace arms together around his torso
and pressed my head to his ribcage but there was no heartbeat. They said no. You
are a bad bandage.
They said you are a coffin. So I was.
I found a man. They said he died bravely, or he will. I encompassed him
in my finished wood, and I shut my lid around us. As they lowered us
into the ground he made no sound because he had no eyes
and could not cry. As I buried us in dirt we held our breaths together
and they said, yes. You are a good coffin.
--------------1. In a paragraph (or more if needed), write about the TONE of the poem, the
THEME of the poem, discuss the meaning of the title, and discuss the effect of the
figurative language used (how do they add detail, emotion, etc.).
2. Highlight and label the literary terms used in this poem.

Midnight Movie
Mike Subritzky
A quiet night in the barracks,
around midnight he starts it again,
he's yelling about some damned ambush,
and calling some Viet woman's name.
He always yells out he's sorry,
so sorry for all of the pain,
but every night around midnight;
he kills her all over again.
His life's in a kind of a freeze frame,
he can't move on from the war,
and every night just after twelve,
he's back in the Nam once more.
Back with the old 'Victor' Company,
back in that same Free-Fire-Zone,
and no bastard told those young Kiwi Grunts;
they patrolled near a woodcutter's home.
When the Lead Scout signals it's Charlie,
the Platoon melts quietly away,
the 'Immediate Ambush' signs given,
and the Safety Catch slips onto 'play'.
There's five in the group in pyjamas,
as black as a midnight in May,
and the Killing Ground moves into picture;
then the Gun Group opens the way.
Black figures are falling around him,
now he's up on his feet running through,
and they're sweeping the ground where they dropped them,
as he 'double taps' a screaming torso.
At the Re-Org his fingers are trembling,
the Platoon Sergeant gives him a smoke,
then it's back to the bodies to check them;
and his round hit a woman in the throat.

There are blood trails leading behind them,

and entrails are spilled on the track,
but the woman who screamed once is silent,
two rounds exit right through her back.
The jungle seems silent and empty,
as they dig down and bury the mess,
then it's check ammunition and weapons;
and don't dwell on the past just forget.
Another night in the barracks,
and Jimmy is yelling again,
it's that same old Vietnam movie,
that's spinning around in his brain.

--------------1. In a paragraph (or more if needed), write about the TONE of the poem, the THEME of the poem, discuss the
meaning of the title, and discuss the effect of the figurative language used (how do they add detail, emotion, etc.).
2. Highlight and label the literary terms used in this poem.

War Time
George Fraser Gallie
It is quiet here now, the valley no longer speaks.
Only the birds and the stream have their voice,
The twittering, bubbling sweet sounds of nature.
Apart from this silence which nothing destroys.
The smell is a faint one of morning and pine trees,
Of bracken and water, of woodland and stream,
The sight is of rushes, of mill house and lime trees.
The feel is of peacefulness sweet as a dream.
But at one time this valley, this valley of heaven,
Became a most torturous valley of hell.
For the fighting was bitter like an expired candy,
Regardless of losses, and many men fell.
For the British came north and the silence was shattered,
By rifle machine gun trench mortar grenade.
The Messerschmitt diving bought sickening terror,
The valley vibrated with Deaths serenade.
But the British advanced and the valley was taken,
The fighting moved northward as Gerry moved back,
And the only remains to give proof of the fighting,
Are freshly dug graves at the side of the track.
Again it is peaceful, the valley is silent,
Only the birds and the stream have their noise,
The twittering, bubbling sounds of nature.
Apart from this silence which nothing destroys.
--------------1. In a paragraph (or more if needed), write about the TONE of the poem, the
THEME of the poem, discuss the meaning of the title, and discuss the effect of the
figurative language used (how do they add detail, emotion, etc.).
2. Highlight and label the literary terms used in this poem.