A Soldier's Story: Cpl. Nick Edinger

A Soldier's Story

Nothing's going to slow Cpl. Nick Edinger down, not even losing his foot in Afghanistan

By Paul Fattig
Mail Tribune
When Army Cpl. Nickolas "Nick" Edinger looks down at where his left foot used to be, the 2005 Crater High School graduate doesn't give it much thought.

"I am not going to let this slow me down at all," stresses Edinger, 22, of Central Point, in a telephone interview from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"If I let the fact a bomb took away my foot beat me in any way, shape or form, then that is letting the guy who put that bomb there beat me," he adds. "And I'm not going to let that happen. Never. I've got a life to live."

Yet the son of Scott and Liz Edinger of Central Point realizes he is exceedingly lucky. He knows full well the powerful improvised explosive device he stepped on early in the afternoon of March 30 in a remote village in southern Afghanistan easily could have taken the life he intends to live.

"Hey, I'm real fortunate," he says. "There are people here missing a piece of every limb. There is a kid who has half of both thighs, missing one arm at the elbow and the other at the wrist. He is figuring out how to make it.

"You got someone like that, well, who am I to say my problems are big?"

Edinger joined the Army two years ago next month to earn GI Bill benefits for college. He planned to pursue a medical career after completing his hitch. Before donning a military uniform, he worked for two years at Rogue Valley Medical Center, helping move patients in the emergency room as well as the critical care unit, an experience that would help him keep his cool March 30.

A member of Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C., the corporal was deployed to Afghanistan last September as part of an effort to take the fight to the Taliban strongholds in remote areas of that country.
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A Soldiers Story