The gripping video has been seen by more than 23 million people on YouTube and the soldier behind the helmet cam is speaking out.
Pfc. Ted Daniels was fighting Taliban forces in Kunar, Afghanistan when his team came under fire in the remote province, according to CBS News.
On the video, Daniels can be heard telling his team that he was “moving down.”
WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE
The soldier said that he purposely made himself a target to protect the seven other men in his unit, according to the report.
“You know, tactically, it was not a sound thing to do. But I also remember Murphy’s Laws of Combat. If it’s stupid, but works, it isn’t stupid,” Daniels told the station.
With the firefight raging around him, Daniels is seen continuing his downward trek.
On the video, Daniels is heard crying out “I’m hit – help me!” after his gun was shot out of his hand.
“It was almost like if you took an aluminum baseball bat and hit a metal pole with it,” Daniels said. “That’s what my hand felt like. I was actually afraid at first to look down at my hand, wanted to make sure I still had all my fingers and everything else.”
Daniels was peppered with fragments after shots hit nearby rocks. Then his camera battery died.
Daniels said he then ran down the hill to rejoin his unit.
“A round had hit the corner of my eye protection,” Daniels said. “They blew right off of my face. And I had another round skip off the side of my Kevlar helmet.”
Daniels said it was a mistake that the video ended up going viral online but that, in the end, “We made it. We made it, you know. We all made it out and we all made it to fight another day. It felt good.”
In an interview with the Washington Post, Daniels said he had a difficult time watching the video at first.
“I don’t know if I held it together, but I tried to,” he told the Post. “I put my a– on the line for other guys. I still functioned even though I was scared to death.”