Nininger Award Recipient Eslinger ’07 Featured in Book

Captain Nick Eslinger, class of 2007, has been featured in a new book titled, “American Warfighter: Brotherhood, Survival, and Uncommon Valor in Iraq, 2003-2011.” Eslinger received the Silver Star after jumping on a grenade in Samarra in 2008 then throwing it back at an insurgent fighter before it exploded. The book tells his story along with others from the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions, a Green Beret, an Army Ranger, infantrymen, combat medics, and Marines. Together they received multiple Distinguished Service Crosses, Navy Crosses, and Silver Stars. The entire war is covered, including some of its most pivotal moments – the invasion, the Battle of Nasiriyah, the taking of Baghdad, the hunt for the infamous Deck of Cards, the fight against al-Sadr’s Mahdi Militia in Najaf, the Second Battle of Fallujah, the Battle of Ramadi, the al-Qaeda insurgency throughout the al-Anbar Province, the surge, and the long withdrawal.