{"id":46899,"date":"2019-05-09T15:35:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T15:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/05\/09\/army-upgrades-officers-silver-star-for-throwing-a-live-grenade-back-at-the-enemy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:53:16","slug":"army-upgrades-officers-silver-star-for-throwing-a-live-grenade-back-at-the-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2019\/05\/09\/army-upgrades-officers-silver-star-for-throwing-a-live-grenade-back-at-the-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Army upgrades officer\u2019s Silver Star for throwing a live grenade back at the enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maj. Nicholas Eslinger was a second lieutenant in October 2008 when he earned a Silver Star<\/a> in Iraq. On Friday, he saw that award bumped up to the Distinguished Service Cross<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eslinger\u2019s award was pinned on by Army Training and Doctrine Command<\/a> boss Gen. Stephen Townsend in a ceremony at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 1, 2008, Eslinger and his platoon were in the middle of a dismounted patrol in Samarra, Iraq, when an enemy combatant chucked a grenade at the unit, according to his original citation. But it didn\u2019t detonate right away, so the lieutenant scooped it up and tossed it back at the enemy, telling his guys to take cover just as it went off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI originally thought that the Silver Star was too much recognition for just doing what my soldiers expected me to do as a platoon leader,\u201d Eslinger, now a CGSC student, said in a Tuesday release from the Army. \u201cIt was just action. There was no thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The officer moved on from that job, with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, soon after, but in 2017, according to the release, his award came up for review in a Pentagon-wide audit of Global War on Terror valor awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can count on our Army to do the right thing sometimes, after we exhausted every other possibility,\u201d Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eslinger is one of more than a dozen who have or will have their Silver Stars upgraded this year. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley signed off on the award Feb. 25, the release said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t