A week before he was to go away to college on an ROTC scholarship, Zachary Boyd shocked his parents: He wasn't going.

He wanted to enlist in the Army, he said, to fight in the war so others might not have to deploy multiple times. Some of his high school teachers had been in the National Guard and had been deployed, and he had seen the toll it took on them and their families.

AP

U.S. soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry took defensive positions in Afghanistan's Kunar Province after receiving fire from Taliban on May 11.

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Nearly a year after serving in Afghanistan, the soldier unwittingly became an iconic image of the war after an Associated Press photograph showed him in a firefight, wearing “I Love NY” pink boxer shorts, a red T-shirt and flip flops. Although he was ribbed by fellow soldiers and worried he might get in trouble as the picture ran in newspapers nationwide in May, he was praised by many — including Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

But Boyd, now an Army specialist, said he was just doing his job as a soldier.

“I don't want any extra attention than the guys I served with because we all experienced the same stuff together, so I don't feel like I should get any extra recognition,” Boyd, 20, said Saturday after recently returning from his yearlong deployment.

Besides media attention, Boyd has received messages of support on social networking sites from hundreds of people across the world, including China and Austria. Some young women have commented on his physique, he said, grinning.

That day, Boyd had jumped up from a nap to help a unit that had come under attack by the Taliban. He said getting dressed or changing from his bright red shirt would have wasted precious time, because “every second counts,” so he just grabbed his helmet, vest and rifle and took his station behind sandbags.

“The enemy already knew where I was,” Boyd said, referring to whether his red shirt made him a target. “If they want to shoot at me, then that's less fire they put on the guys that are pinned down, so that's fine with me.”

All of the members of his unit made it back safely that day, he said.

As far as his wardrobe, his boxers are now headed to the 1st Infantry Division Museum at Fort Riley, Kan., he said.

Boyd had bought the boxers during a layover in New York, and chose pink because he thought his friends would laugh, he said.

Boyd's shirt was from Woolley's Frozen Custard near his Fort Worth home, and on Saturday he donated it to the store. Co-owners John Woolley and Brett Allen said they would display it proudly behind a glass case, and they gave him four more shirts — including a pink one.

Boyd had bought the $12 shirt during a two-week leave in March. He said he intended to have a candid picture of himself wearing the shirt in Afghanistan placed on the store's bulletin board, which shows photographs of employees and customers wearing the shirts on their various trips.

After spending a few days at home with his family, Boyd must return to Fort Hood near Killeen, where he is on active duty until February 2011. Boyd said he plans to start training to become a helicopter pilot but would not be worried if he is deployed again.

“Afghanistan is definitely a different fight than Iraq,” he said. “It's definitely a winnable fight, but we need to throw more resources at it.”