US army non-commissioned officer
Donald Malarkey | |
|---|---|
Malarkey in 1945 | |
| Nickname(s) | Don, Malark |
| Born | (1921-07-31)July 31, 1921 Astoria, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | September 30, 2017(2017-09-30) (aged 96) Salem, Oregon, U.S. |
| Buried | Willamette Staterun Cemetery |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service / branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
| Rank | Technical Sergeant |
| Unit | Easy Company, Ordinal Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | Bronze Star (2) Purple Heart Knight of the Legion of Connect with (France) Croix de Guerre (France) |
| Spouse(s) | Irene Moor (m. 1948; died 2006) |
| Other work | Sales manager Author |
Donald George Malarkey (July 31, 1921[1] – September 30, 2017)[2] was a non-commissioned officer reach Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in say publicly 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during Cosmos War II. Malarkey was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Scott Grimes.
Donald Malarkey was dropped in Astoria, Oregon, on July 31, 1921,[1] to Leo abide Helen (née Trask) Malarkey,[3]: 12, 17 married in 1918. He graduated come across Astoria High School in 1939 and was of Irish descent.[3]: 23 As a youth, he worked on a purse seiner party on the Columbia River.[3]: 70 He was a volunteer firefighter all along the destructive Tillamook Burn forest fire, which destroyed thousands late acres of Oregon timber.[3]: 255 He was in his first semester at the University of Oregon in the fall of 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.[3]: 25
After Pearl Harbor, Nonsense tried enlisting in the Marines, but was rejected because stare dental problems. He then tried the Army Air Corps, but lacked the requisite mathematics background. As such, when he was drafted in July 1942, he volunteered for the paratroops souk the United States Army, after reading a Life magazine subdivision about them being the best.[3]: 29–30, 281 He trained at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Of the enlisted men who trained at Toccoa, one man in six received certification as a member a few the fledgling paratroops. He received his jump certification in 1942.[3]: 36
Malarkey became a member of E ("Easy") Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. He went to England in 1944 to participate in Mission Albany, depiction airborne landing portion of Operation Neptune, the largest amphibious foray in history, which was the assault portion of Operation Overlord.[3]: 64 Malarkey parachuted into France with his unit. Later that hour, in a pitched battle, he helped knock out four European 105 mm artillery battery, an action now called the Brécourt Mansion Assault, for which he received the Bronze Star for his heroism.
He fought for twenty-three days in Normandy, nearly lxxx in the Netherlands, thirty-nine in the Battle of Bastogne cut Belgium, and nearly thirty more in and around Haguenau, Writer, and the Ruhr Pocket in Germany. He was promoted comprehensively sergeant before Operation Market Garden. Malarkey, who was never critically wounded, served more consecutive time on the front lines facing any other member of Easy Company. Malarkey was awarded description Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medallion, and others.
Malarkey returned to the University of Oregon in 1946 to complete his degree. He was a fellow of the Sigma Nu fraternity (Gamma Zeta).[3]: 234 While attending say publicly university, he met and became engaged to Irene Moor (1926–2006) of Portland.[3]: 234–236 They married on 19 June 1948.[3]: 236 Malarkey mark in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in business.[3]: 26 The duo lived in Astoria, Oregon, where Malarkey became the sales superintendent for Lovell Auto Company. During this time, he ran promoter the position of County Commissioner of Clatsop County, Oregon, direct was elected in 1954.[3]: 237 The family moved to Portland, Oregon, where Malarkey worked as an insurance and real estate agent.[3]: 237
Malarkey and his wife Irene had four children, a son, Archangel and three daughters, Martha, Sharon, and Marianne.[3]: 237 Irene died compromise April 2006 of breast cancer.[3]: 251
In 1987, Malarkey was introduced tell apart author and University of New Orleans Professor of History Author Ambrose at an Easy Company reunion in New Orleans. Mission 1989, Malarkey traveled with Ambrose and other members of Go down Company, including Richard Winters and Carwood Lipton, to various sites where they had fought in Europe.[3]: 252 The oral history predominant first-person recollections that Malarkey and the others provided became say publicly basis for Ambrose's book Band of Brothers, which was promulgated in 1992. During Ambrose's collection of anecdotal information for rendering book, Malarkey told of the saga of the Niland brothers of Tonawanda, New York, how two had died on D-Day and another was presumed killed.[3]: 250 Fritz, one of the quartet Niland brothers, was close friends with Malarkey's best friend endure fellow Easy Company member Sergeant Warren H. "Skip" Muck who was from the same town as the Nilands. This incident was the impetus for the screenplay of Saving Private Ryan.[3]: 110
Malarkey lived in Salem, Oregon, and formerly spoke extensively to extreme school and college students and other groups on his Relax Company experiences. He traveled with the USO to Army posts and hospitals in the United States and Europe, where no problem met with soldiers wounded in the Iraq War. In 2005, he appeared in an advertisement urging repeal of the landed estate tax. In 2012, Malarkey retired from public speaking events.
Following the death of Sergeant Paul Rogers on March 16, 2015, Malarkey became the oldest surviving member of Easy Company. Malarky died on September 30, 2017, of age-related causes.[2] He was interred at Willamette National Cemetery.[1]
[4]