The name Nicholas Irving might not ring a bell to many people. However, he is a man who has led a truly fascinating and unorthodox life. So who is this interesting man? He started his career by joining the military when he was still just a teenager. After this, he quickly became a New York Times bestselling author. How do these two career moves connect? What were the personal and mental health impacts on Nicholas after his time in the military? How did these effects end up impacting his career as an author? What does Nicholas do to support other veterans?
Read on to learn all of this and more. Here is everything you need to know about the famous author, Nicholas Irving.
Nicholas Irving’s Early Life And Personal Life
Nicholas Irving was born on November 28th in the year 1986. This would currently make him thirty-five years old. He was born in Fort Meade, Maryland. Both of his parents were actually in the military when he was born. This explains why he was so interested in joining the military at such a young age. He was raised in Maryland by two Cold War Army Veterans. Both of his parents worked multiple jobs in order to pay the bills.
At one point in his life, Nicholas’ mom was a janitor at his high school. He, unfortunately, got bullied a lot for this. Nicholas Irving also played a lot of football throughout his childhood. He loved playing football but did not particularly enjoy going to school. He graduated from high school with a low 1.7-grade point average.
After graduating, he immediately joined the military. He originally wanted to become a Navy SEAL. Sadly, he failed a colorblindness test so he could not become one. Instead, he became a United States, Army Ranger. In 2007, he married his wife, Jessica Irving. The couple welcomed a child into the world in 2016.
His Time In The Military
Nicholas Irving’s time in the military was intense, to say the least. Nicholas was deployed several times throughout his military career. While he was in his active duty service, he would be deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. During one of his deployments to Afghanistan, he ended up setting a new military record. He was serving as a sniper and machine gun operator when he set it. Nicholas Irving ended up with 33 confirmed kills during one deployment alone.
This record made him one of the deadliest snipers in American Army Rangers history. Many have posited that his unconfirmed kill count could be far higher. This led to his fellow soldiers nicknaming him “The Reaper”. In addition to his incredibly high kill count, Nicholas Irving was also the very first African American sniper to serve in his battalion.
His Career As A Successful Author
Becoming an author is an incredibly complicated process. This happens to be a process that Nicholas Irving is intimately aware of. After leaving the military, Nicholas pursued a career in entertainment. He started this career by writing an autobiography about his time in the military. This book was titled The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers.
The book was released in 2016. This book meant a lot to many fellow veterans. There have been talks about creating a movie based on this book. For many civilians who have read the book it made them realize that veterans are normal and approachable people.
Nicholas Irving Supports His Fellow Veterans
Nicholas Irving has been very open about the different ways he has struggled since leaving the military. Initially, he had a large problem with alcoholism. He quickly blew through lots of savings he had on purchasing alcohol to feed this addiction. Nicholas also struggled with many suicidal thoughts. This is not uncommon for soldiers who are readjusting to civilian life.
Nicholas Irving struggled a lot with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to his time in the military. PTSD is an incredibly common problem that many veterans end up facing. He has had many nightmares about his time in the military. Killing people never became an easy thing for him to do emotionally speaking.
Nicholas Irving has had a very interesting life. It is no secret that taking as many lives as he has can have an effect on people. Despite this, he has managed to take his experiences and write a book based on them as a way to help process things. He is a prominent advocate for mental health support for veterans.
Many veterans look up to him for how open he has been about his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as how he has felt since re-entering civilian life. It is really incredible to see a strong example of a veteran opening up about the ramifications of war on one’s mental health. It will be interesting to see what Nicholas Irving ends up doing next.
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