Man behind most popular helmet-cam video ever finally speaks. Impact of wounded Army Pfc. Ted Daniels’ firefight video has interesting similarities to firefighter videos.

Jan 28, 2013

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Does this sound familiar? The posting of a helmet-cam video to YouTube causes the videographer’s bosses to question if the clip is appropriate and brings up concerns about the impression it leaves on civilians. The person who wore the helmet-cam also finds out there are plenty of people on the Internet willing to tell him about all the mistakes he made in the video.

We have seen a bunch of firefighter produced helmet-cam videos which have made fire chiefs unhappy, often pushing them to craft new camera policies for their departments. And with each of these fire videos comes online critiques from keyboard incident commanders and others.

Ted Daniels has dealt with these very problems. But unlike the average firefighter helmet-cam video showing flames dancing over the camera operator’s head, Daniels’ clip features bullets whizzing by. These include some of the incoming ones that reach their target. That target was Pfc. Daniels who survived Taliban machine gun fire in Afghanistan last September to share his up close and personal view of the firefight with the world via YouTube. As of this writing the video (above) has 23,301,032 views.

While Daniels’ name surfaced as the video went viral the Army did not allow the former Maryland and Pennsylvania police officer to speak with reporters. That changed recently when The Washington Post’s Greg Jaffe talked with Daniels at Fort Carson in Colorado. You can hear Ted Daniels tell some of his story in the video above, along with Jaffe’s thoughts on the use of helmet-cams in war.

The story with Ted Daniels was published online on Friday and provides a very interesting look at how the military handles the issues surrounding helmet-cams. The article also shows how Daniels is dealing with these same issues and provides context to the dramatic pictures that were captured from atop Pfc. Ted Daniels’ head.