Carwood Lipton First Lieutenant Clifford Carwood Lipton ( January 30 , 1920 - December 16 , 2001 ) was a commissioned officer with Easy Company , 2nd Battalion , 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment , in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II . Lipton was portrayed by Donnie Wahlberg in the HBO miniseries " Band of Brothers " . On the battlefields of Europe he was promoted to Company First Sergeant and ultimately was awarded a battlefield commission to Second Lieutenant . He said " it was the greatest honor ever awarded " to him . He eventually earned a promotion to First Lieutenant before leaving the Army . Lipton ' s life story was featured in the 2010 book " A Company of Heroes : Personal Memories about the Real Band of Brothers and the Legacy They Left Us . " Youth . Carwood Lipton was born and raised in Huntington , West Virginia . His father was killed in an automobile accident when he was ten . His mother was involved in the same accident and was paralyzed . Since Carwood was the eldest child , she told him to be the " man of the family " . After completing one year at Huntington ' s Marshall University , he left school due to financial troubles at home and went to work in war - related production . After reading an article in " Life Magazine " on the difficulty of paratrooper training , and how the airborne was one of the most highly - trained branches of the army , Lipton enlisted and joined the paratroops on August 15 , 1942 at Fort Thomas ( Newport ) , Kentucky . Military service . Carwood Lipton shot through the ranks of the company eventually becoming Company First Sergeant after the acting Company First Sergeant , James Diel , was given a battlefield commission and transferred within the 506th PIR . Lipton was always keeping the men ' s spirits high , and pushed them to their full potential . This was recognized by the officers of Easy , the 101st , and the 506th . He was also known as " The Man " . Carwood Lipton was the jumpmaster of one of the C - 47 Skytrain s that the paratroopers used to jump into Normandy . Lipton jumped into Normandy and was able to rendezvous with then First Lieutenant Richard Winters and several other men from the 101st , and two more from the 82nd Airborne Division . They were later joined by several more Easy Company members , and worked their way just south of their objective of Carentan . During the Invasion of Normandy , Lipton was hit by German 88mm shrapnel . A medic patched him up and Lipton resumed fighting . Lipton was teamed with Sergeant Mike Ranney during the Brécourt Manor Assault , where Easy Company was assigned the task of destroying four 105 mm howitzer s ( originally thought to be 88 mm ) that were firing down on Utah Beach . Lipton and Ranney climbed up a tree and shot some Germans from a distance . Easy Company managed to destroy the four howitzers , and Lipton was awarded the Bronze Star . as a result of this action . Lipton was involved in the assault on Carentan and was injured by shrapnel in the face and groin ; He was awarded the Purple Heart as a result of wounds suffered in this action . Easy Company ' s slowly depleting ranks became a problem during the run - up to Operation Market Garden ; the vacancies were filled by replacement soldiers . Carwood Lipton is remembered by many of the " replacement " veterans as being one of the very few men who immediately accepted them as true soldiers . Lipton was with Easy Company when they liberated Eindhoven , and was part of an advanced scout team that scouted the route ( bridge ) ahead of the rest of the Company . A small team of scouts were on the crossroads in the Netherlands when a member of their squad was badly wounded by a German Model 24 Stielhandgranate and Easy Company was called to action . They were assigned the task of destroying any remaining German resistance at the crossroads . Lipton was not among the original assault team of around ten men , but joined up the next morning with the rest of the Company . Easy Company managed to destroy over two Companies of SS situated at the Crossroads as a result of a surprise attack on their position . Operation Pegasus was a small operation where Easy Company was to cross the river on boats supplied by Royal Canadian Engineers , and bring back over 140 British Paratroopers who were trapped when they pulled back from Arnhem . Lipton and First Lieutenant Heyliger oversaw the Operation , ensuring its success . During an artillery barrage in the woods near Foy , Lipton confessed about laughing as he saw the shells burst , reminding him of his childhood watching fireworks on the 4th of July . Lipton said he wouldn ' t have laughed if he knew what happened to Joe Toye , who was wounded , eventually losing his right leg . While under the newly appointed command of First Lieutenant Norman Dike during the siege of Bastogne in the Ardennes Forest , Lipton ' s calm resolve , mentorship and leadership gave the men hope as he became the " de facto " commanding officer due to Dike ' s incompetent leadership . After Easy Company ' s assault on the town of Foy , Lipton was told he would be awarded a battlefield commission as a Second Lieutenant . Carwood Lipton received his official commission in Haguenau . Lipton later witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust at Landsberg , where he and the rest of Easy Company liberated the camp . Lipton assisted Easy Company in the capture of the Hitler ' s winter retreat at , Berchtesgaden . While there , Lipton became acquainted with Ferdinand Porsche ( partially responsible for the Panther and Tiger tanks ) , who spoke English very well . They ate their meals together while Porsche was at the POW camp L . A . G . A . R . Lipton remained with Easy Company through the end of the war , until the Unit was disbanded ( after the official surrender of the Japanese and the Germans ) . He remained in the Army Reserve through the Korean War , but was not deployed overseas again . Later years . Upon Lipton ' s return to the United States , he enrolled at Marshall University and completed his final three years graduating with a degree in Engineering . Fresh with his degree , Lipton got a job with Owens Illinois Inc . , a manufacturer of glass products and plastics packaging . He rapidly advanced in the company and by 1952 he had become Chief Operator . In 1966 , he moved to Bridgeton , New Jersey where he became an Administrative Manager , and 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 . C . Carwood Lipton died on December 16 , 2001 of pulmonary fibrosis in Southern Pines , North Carolina . He is survived by his wife Marie and his three sons ; Clifford Carwood III , Thomas , Robert Dulaine , five grandchildren , and one great - grandchild . In the media . Carwood Lipton has appeared on two separate television shows , providing his own commentary in the HBO mini - series " Band of Brothers " and the inspirational true story of Easy Company , " " .