Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.
This week Bruce told us about Second Lt. Nicholas Eslinger,
“As I was pulling security, I saw out of the corner of my eye in the back left corner of the open lot a hand come over the wall with some sort of a projectile,” he said.
Based on recent attacks, Eslinger knew it was a grenade.
“The grenade landed, I’d say six to eight feet to my right front," Eslinger said. “I was on a knee at the time, and it landed and started to roll into the middle of our formation towards the far wall where our soldiers were positioned.”
Eslinger has thought about that moment several times and he remembers his only thought was that if he didn’t do anything, the grenade was going to hit his troops.
By the time the grenade hit the ground, Eslinger was already moving.
“As it hit and continued to roll, I dove right on my right side, and the grenade rolled into me kind of simultaneously as I landed. It was pinned in between, kind of, my right torso and the ground,” he said.
Once he was on top of the grenade, he braced for it to go off.
“There was no preparation,” he said. “It was complete adrenaline and focus on covering that thing so that if it went off, it wasn’t going to hit my RTO or my medic or my SAW gunner that was right around me.”
But after a split second, the grenade had still not gone off — much to Eslinger’s relief.
“My right hand was already off my weapon, reaching for the grenade,” he said. “I quickly grabbed it and from kind of just laying on my side there kind of just did a side throw towards the wall it came from."
Eslinger had just enough time to get the grenade out of his hand and yell “grenade!”
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
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On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 8-10pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.