Huntingdon in West Virginia was the location and 30 January 1920 was the day. The world became a brighter place as C.Carwood Lipton came to join the world. His entry to life was not easy. At the age of 10, he faced something far more tragic than someone of his tender years should be dealing with. A car crash, left his father fatally wounded and his mother paralysed. Being the eldest sibling, responsibility and provision for the family now fell on his shoulders. Lipton cut short his education at Marshall University in Huntington owing to paucity of funds, and he took up a job in an arms production plant. But life would soon change for him.
Lipton came across a report in Life magazine, one of the two above I would imagine. A report that inspired him. That report was about paratrooper training. This was his first introduction to what was to be his new way of life. Lipton was selected to train in the paratroop force under 101st Airborne Division of the US Army at Fort Thomas (Newport), Kentucky in 1942.
Lipton rose through the ranks of the company, eventually becoming company First Sergeant. Lipton always kept the men’s spirits high and pushed them to their full potential, an act recognised by the officers of Easy Company.
Normandy:
Lipton was the jumpmaster on one of the C-47 Skytrains during the American airborne landings in Normandy in the early-morning hours of 6 June 1944. Parachuting in, he managed to rendezvous with several others from the 101st and 82nd Airborne Division. As they worked their way towards Carentan, their military objective, they were reunited with further more Easy Company members. During the Battle of Normandy, Lipton was lightly wounded by German 88 mm shrapnel.
Easy Company were also given the task to silence an artillery battery at the estate of Brécourt Manor. The success of this particular task enables the U.S. 4th Infantry Division to move further inland from the position they had been pinned down at.
Lipton also played a significant role in the Battle of Carentan . During the battle, he was wounded in the face and groin by shrapnel from a nearby impact of a German 88 mm artillery shell. His wounds were minor and earned him his first Purple Heart.
Market Garden:
Easy Company were suffering from depleting numbers which began to cause an issue leading up to Operation Market Garden. Replacements were brought in. Lipton accepted them as fellow soldiers. That was not forgotten.
Eindhoven:
Lipton was with Easy Company when they liberated Eindhoven, a city in the southern Netherlands. He was part of a team that scouted ahead of the rest of the company. In October 1944, he took part in the rescue of a large detachment of scattered remains of the British 1st Parachute Division who had successfully managed to evade capture after the battle of Arnhem
Ardennes:
After Easy Company’s assault on the town of Foy, Lipton was told he would be awarded a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant, receiving his official commission in Haguenau. Lipton also witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust at Kaufering concentration camp, something that no-one could ever forget
Berchtesgaden:
Lipton assisted Easy Company in the capture of Hitler’s Eagles’ Nest at Berchtesgaden. Lipton remained with Easy Company through the end of the war, until the unit was disbanded after the official surrender of the Japanese forces. He remained in the Army Reserve through the Korean War, but would never be deployed overseas again.
When he returned home, Lipton went back to Marshall University to complete what he had started all those years ago. The Degree in Engineering was finally his. With the degree in hand, and a job at Owens Illinois Inc, he set out to get back to a way of life. Lipton worked hard and rapidly advanced in the company. By 1952 had become chief operator.
Lipton moved to Bridgeton, New Jersey, in 1966, where he became an administrative manager. In 1967, C Carwood Lipton became General Manager of Owens Illinois.
In 1971, he and his wife moved to London, where he was the Director of Manufacturing for eight different glass companies in England and Scotland for several years. In 1982, he moved to Toledo, Ohio, and retired a year later from his post as Director of International Development.
Lipton spent his retirement years in the town of Southern Pines, North Carolina.
Those retirement years also brought him to two television shows. He provided commentary in the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers and an accompanying documentary, We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company.
Carwood Lipton died on 16 December 2001, of pulmonary fibrosis in Southern Pines, North Carolina. The world, a sadder place for his loss. Not just for those who knew him, but also for those hearts and minds he touched with his story in Band of Brothers.
C. Carwood Lipton was portrayed as courageous throughout the campaigns. An extremely dependable company man.
C. Carwood Lipton – Thank you for your service.
Currahee
