"I was a leader but I never threw my weight around," said Carwood Lipton in an interview.
Carwood Lipton was born the son of a successful contractor in Huntington, West Virginia. His father was killed in an auto accident when Mr. Lipton was ten, leaving the family in a tight financial spot that his mother eased by running a boarding house. He worked jobs all through high school and was able to complete a year and a half at Marshall College in Huntington before his money ran out. Mr. Lipton was working as a machinist's apprentice at International Nickel when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
After a Life magazine article about the paratroops captured his imagination, Mr. Lipton enlisted in the U.S. Army in August 1942 and was assigned to Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, then being formed at Camp Tocca, Ga. He trained at Tocca and Fort. Benning, Ga., Camp McKall and Fort Bragg. Mr. Lipton jumped into Normandy as plane jumpmaster and platoon sergeant of 3rd platoon of E Company the night before D-Day. He returned to E Company after six weeks in the hospital and jumped into Holland on Sept. 17 as plane jumpmaster and first sergeant of the E Company. After 72 days in combat in Holland, he moved with the E. Company to a new base at Mourmelon, France and from there, on Dec. 19, 1944 to Bastogne, Belgium to help contain a German break-through there. He was given the command of the 2nd platoon of the E Company during the Bastogne fighting and was awarded Battlefield Commission at Haguenau, France on Feb. 16, 1945. In late April 1945, the 506th moved to Austria to clear the last SS troops from there and from Berchtesgaden.
"When I went into the army, I was...I call myself a loner. I accomplished things on my own. I felt that I...I was quite confident that I could accomplish many things, but I did it on my own. In the army I saw Captain Winters, Captain Speirs and the other officers were able to motivate a group of men and inspire a group of men, get those men to work together as a team and accomplish much more than the men could do individually. I was very impressed by their ability to organize men and motivate those men so I taught myself to do it in the army and I've done it all my life after that. Instead of trying to accomplish things on my own, I've organized groups of people to accomplish it. I've done that the rest of my life since the army. That's the biggest change, I think, that the army had on me." [ From Donnie-Wahlberg.com]
After the war, Mr. Lipton attended Marshall University and in 1948 graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering science, majoring in physics. Mr. Lipton retired from Owens-Illinois as a director of development international technical assistance after 36 years of service. Sixteen of those years were in the international division. After his retirement on Nov. 1, 1983, he moved to Southern Pines. Carwood Lipton died on December 16th, 2001 at the age of 81, leaving his wife and three sons.
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Donnie Wahlberg is the actor who portrays Mr. Lipton in the HBO Mini-series Band of Brothers. Many of you will remember Donnie from his bad boy teen-idol days in the boy band New Kids on the Block. However, many did not recognize Donnie when he lost 43 lbs to play the role of Vincent Gray in The Sixth Sense. He got his big break as an actor when he played a sympathetic kidnapper in 1996's Ransom. Since then he has slowly but surely built a reputation as a talented actor. Recently, Donnie starred opposite his Band of Brothers cast-mate Neal McDonough in NBC's Boomtown which was cancelled after less than 2 seasons on the air despite it's critical success. He also appeared in 2003's Dreamcatcher. Donnie is currently married to wife Kim and they have two sons, Xavier and Elijah.
Donnie Wahlberg and Carwood Lipton at the Normandy, France Premiere of Band of Brothers.
Photo from Tircuit.com
Sources: Tircuit.com, Donnie-Wahlberg.com, The History Channel, IMDb.com
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