Bill Carpenter William " Bill " Stanley Carpenter , Jr . , LTG , U . S . Army ( Retired ) ( born November 30 , 1937 ) is an American former Army officer and college football player . While playing college football , he gained national prominence as the " Lonesome End " of the Army football team . During his military service in Vietnam , he again achieved fame when he saved his company by directing airstrikes on his own position . For the action , he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross . Personal life . William Carpenter , Jr . was born to William Stanley Carpenter , Sr . ( 1907 – 1945 ) and Helen Carpenter ( née Sparks ) . Private First Class Carpenter , Sr . served in the U . S . Army as an ammunition bearer in the 393rd Infantry Regiment , 99th Infantry Division and was killed in action in the Ruhr Pocket . He is interred in Margraten , Netherlands at the Netherlands American Cemetery . Helen remarried and relocated the family to the Philadelphia area . Carpenter married Toni M . Vigliotti in 1961 and had three children : William S . Carpenter III ( 1962 ) , Kenneth Carpenter ( 1964 ) , and Stephen Carpenter ( 1965 ) . College football career . While attending the United States Military Academy at West Point , Carpenter played as a split end on the football team , alongside Heisman Trophy - winning halfback and fellow combat infantryman Pete Dawkins . Carpenter earned the nickname the " Lonesome End " as a result of the team ' s tactic of aligning him near the far sideline and leaving him outside of huddles . He played on the undefeated 1958 West Point team , and in 1959 , while team captain , was named an All - American . Legendary Army head coach Earl Blaik , who spent twenty years on the Army coaching staff , called Carpenter " the greatest end I ever coached at West Point . " In 1982 , Carpenter was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . Military career . Upon graduation , Carpenter was commissioned as an infantry officer and went on to serve at least two tours in Vietnam . In 1964 , he was an adviser assigned to an airborne brigade of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam . That unit came under heavy enemy fire immediately after being inserted by helicopter into a sugar cane field . Bill Carpenter was wounded by a gunshot through the arm while changing rifle magazines . His radio set was hit with another bullet and he was spun around and knocked to the ground . He proceeded to eliminate the source of the enemy fire , by knocking out a bunker with a hand grenade . For his actions he was awarded the Silver Star , the U . S . Army ' s third highest award for valor in combat . In 1966 , then Captain Carpenter ' s C Company , 2 / 502nd Parachute Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division took part in a battle with North Vietnamese forces near Dak To on the Kontum plateau in the Central Highlands . As it maneuvered in an attempt to relieve Major David Hackworth ' s engaged 1 / 327th Infantry , C Company became isolated and in danger of being overrun . As the situation grew desperate , Carpenter radioed the battalion air traffic controller for a napalm airstrike on his own position : " We ' re overrun , they ' re right in among us . I need an air strike on my position . " Several of his soldiers were wounded by the close air support , but it blunted the enemy attack and prevented the envelopment of his company . C Company was then able to re - consolidate and eventually break out . For his actions , he was again awarded the Silver Star , which was later upgraded to the U . S . Army ' s second highest wartime medal , the Distinguished Service Cross . In 1984 , Carpenter went on to take command of the newly - activated 10th Mountain Division and , finally , the Combined Field Army in Korea . He eventually retired as a lieutenant general and settled in Montana .