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“It’s all about teamwork and that you want the person next to you giving 100 percent,” explained 21-year-old sophomore, secondary special education major Chris Daniels.
Daniels was comparing being a member of the Millsaps Majors football team and being a member of the “Big Red One” – the Task Force 177th First Infantry Division in Iraq. For the past five years, Daniels has been a member of the 4th Alabama Army National Guard and the 167th Infantry.
A very philosophical statement that can be applied to many walks of life by Daniels, who returned last summer from a tour of duty before enrolling at Millsaps. What makes his story really hit home is that Daniels has plans to return to Iraq for another tour of duty in the spring.
A very determined young man who likes to win and a native of Foley, Ala., Daniels is the eldest of three sons of Staci Presley.
Prior to Millsaps, Daniels was a multi talented athlete at Foley high school. He was a three-year letterman in football at running back/linebacker and also played golf and baseball.
In addition to those sports, Daniels also ran track. He competed outdoors in the 800, 1600 and 3200-meters, and it wasn’t until midway through his junior season that he suffered his first loss. His senior season, Daniels moved indoors and made it all the way to the state championships, where he competed in the 400m.
Daniels joined the Alabama National Guard at the age of 17, went to Fort Jackson for Basic Training and then endured Advanced Individual Training at Fort Gordon. After returning home to Foley for a month, Daniels knew there was a strong chance that he might be deployed.
That day finally arrived at the age of 19, and five days later he was sitting in Baghdad International Airport awaiting his assignment to a troop. Daniels was issued a rifle with no ammunition, so fellow soldiers each took a round from their clip and gave it to him.
“I got motivated our first night there,” Daniels said. “Our camp was attacked by mortar fire and I wasn’t sure what had happened. Two fellow soldiers grabbed me and took me to the floor and I put on my Kevlar.”
Daniels’ day-to-day mission was to work radios and go on patrols and convoys. Every day for two weeks, he walked around in Baghdad to a sight that he describes as “what you see on CNN.”
Several days later, he and other members of his troop were picked up by a Blackhawk and flown 60 miles north to Balad LSA, Anaconda, an area known to the armed forces as “Mortaritaville.”
After arriving, Daniels said he witnessed the residents practicing rituals of Ramadan. “I had heard, but did not believe how life was sort of double or nothing,” Daniels said. “There was trash everywhere. You would see a house with no doors or windows, but surprisingly they would have a TV satellite. I felt sorry for people trying to raise a family and just trying to make it. The residents there had no control over the people next door.”
“When I first went to Iraq, it was a huge culture shock,” Daniels said. “But when I returned home after my tour of duty, it was an ever greater culture shock. I owe a lot to the football team and to my fraternity, they have really helped me adjust not only to Millsaps but to being back in the United States.”
There were many other incidences that Daniels has elected to keep to himself, and those are the moments that he said allowed us to live here in the United States as we do.
“I want people to stop hating the soldiers,” Daniels said. “People must understand that we don’t have any control over where we go or what we do. We’re just doing our job. We all just want to come home alive.”
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