Punahou School sophomore Daniel Dangaran yesterday received a handful of patches from the 25th Infantry Division that he'll carry down Pennsylvania Avenue next week during the inauguration of Barack Obama — and was surprised to be handed them by a soldier who had been shot by a sniper in Iraq.

"I got chicken skin," said Dangaran, 15, who is a staff sergeant and squad leader with Punahou's Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program.

Dangaran is one of 17 Punahou cadets who will carry dozens of patches and pins from active-duty military units and other Hawai'i organizations — including Honolulu police and fire departments — that they plan to return to the groups when they come back from Washington, D.C.

But the weight of all of the people he will represent struck Dangaran yesterday morning when he was presented with the patches by Army Staff Sgt. Joseph Ryker, 32, who was shot in the upper buttocks by a sniper in Baghdad on Sept. 18.

"It didn't really occur to me until I saw his face and got to meet him," Dangaran said. "The moment will be much more real now. I'm starting to feel it now and I'm really proud to do it. Having him give it to me really made a difference. ... I got chicken skin at Schofield Barracks. Over there (in Washington), with the chills of the weather and everything, it'll be even much deeper chicken skin."

Dangaran received three gray battle dress patches of a taro leaf and lightning bolt representing the 25th Infantry Division, and three yellow and red patches designed for the Army's Class A dress uniforms.

Dangaran will get to keep one set of patches. Another will be framed and hung in the 25th Infantry Division's museum, said Lt. Col. Randy Wardle, rear detachment commander for the 25th. The third set will be presented to Ryker.

"I told him the patch represents not just soldiers in Hawai'i, but all the soldiers of the 25th infantry in Alaska and the state of Washington," Ryker said. "I told him it was great he was taking them to Washington. The opportunity he's been given is pretty big for a kid."

Ryker is already thinking about what he will do with his patches that Dangaran will carry when Barack Obama is sworn in as America's 44th president.

"I get one set and that's going to be pretty amazing," Ryker said. "I think it's really neat to have something like that. I never thought I'd have patches from the 25th that have walked through Washington, D.C., on that day."

Dangaran made quite an impression on Wardle when Daniel showed up at Schofield Barracks yesterday morning in his Class B uniform.

"He's a very, very articulate young man," Wardle said. "I was very impressed with this kid. He's very sincere, very well spoken. Obviously his mother and father raised him correctly. When I was his age, I couldn't figure out what I was going to be doing tomorrow. This kid's talking about joining the JAG (judge advocate general) Corps to be a lawyer."

Wardle said that Dangaran won't just represent the current generation of 25th Infantry soldiers when he marches in Washington.

"We talked about all of the past soldiers going back to World War II, Korea and Vietnam up through our current operations," Wardle said. "Some have paid the ultimate price and some have come back injured, like Sgt. Ryker. We're talking hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the 25th."

Wardle said that his words affected Daniel.

"This kid was the right kid," Wardle said. "You could see he was starting to be overwhelmed by the significance. He understands that when he marches, he marches with the pride of the 25th."