Angels Fan Daniel Foster Will Get A Silver Star For Bravery In Afghanistan Saturday At Angel Stadium

Former Army specialist Daniel Foster (Don Bartletti / LA Times)

Former Army specialist Daniel Foster’s girlfriend is Danielle aka Chip, Kevin & Bean Show assistant and KROQ.com contributor. We’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with him on several occasions and Daniel is the real deal.

Reprinted by permission.

Angels fan Daniel Foster will get a Silver Star for bravery in Afghanistan in a ceremony Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

By T.J. Simers

The past few days it has sounded as if fans choosing to go to Dodger Stadium deserved medals for bravery.

It has a ridiculous sound to it, doesn’t it?

But a medal will be given Saturday to a baseball fan, Daniel Foster choosing to receive the Silver Star in a ceremony before the game with Toronto at Angel Stadium.

Foster, a 22-year-old Army specialist, served 14 months in Iraq before deploying to Afghanistan, and while some might conclude he still doesn’t have enough training to take on Dodger Stadium, he explains, “I’m an Angels fan.

“And here’s hoping the Angels kick their butts,” he says, and probably not a good idea to argue.

There must be 50 ways to love your Angels.

Foster’s Army buddy Tom Boldon, who lost a leg in Afghanistan, is coming from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to personally present him with the Silver Star for extraordinary courage displayed in combat.

“ I was just doing my job, helping my buddies out.
” “When people talk about valor,” Foster says, while sitting in the Costa Mesa home of his parents, “I think of Forrest Gump carrying like 20 or 30 dudes out of the woods or some guy falling on a grenade. That’s medal stuff.

“I was just doing my job, helping my buddies out.”

It’s the early hours of May 21 last year, still May 20 back in Chicago, where the Angels are playing while Foster stands guard in a tower in Afghanistan.

“It’s routine, guard duty every day for six to eight hours,” he says, and he’d give almost anything to listen to an Angels game to make the night go faster. “I would make lists of things to think about before going on guard duty.”

It’s almost time to change guard shifts when gunfire begins. But it doesn’t seem threatening.

“This cargo truck pulls slowly around the corner leading down the road to our compound,” Foster says. “I’m thinking maybe he’s just trying to get out of the way of the gunfire. That’s understandable. But then I hear him revving the engine.

PAGE 2 Gunfire and explosions. Read on.