2/1/2024 0 Comments Buck comptonCommissioned as a second lieutenant, he trained as a paratrooper before shipping out to Europe. Shortly after, Compton, an ROTC member, headed to Fort Benning, Ga., for Officer Candidate School. Compton noted in his memoir that “getting to play in the game as a college senior was an exceptional thrill for me.” He played alongside Jackie Robinson in both sports, and with future pro quarterback Bob Waterfield ’45 on the 1942 pigskin squad that was the first to beat USC and the first to compete in the Rose Bowl (a 9–0 loss to the University of Georgia). Prior to the war, Compton did battle on other fields - as a UCLA football and baseball player. … We were like, ‘Wow, Daddy, we had no idea that you ever went through any of that.’” She and her sister, Syndee, “didn’t really understand the significance of it until this miniseries came out. “What we knew is that he’d been hit in the rear end with one bullet and it made four holes, and to us, that was really funny,” says daughter Tracy Compton. But he was a reluctant hero who downplayed his experience. Based on Stephen Ambrose’s book, the small-screen adaptation made larger-than-life heroes of Compton and the other men of World War II’s elite Easy Company.įor his part - helping destroy German artillery on D-Day, taking a bullet during action in Holland and braving the winter siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge - Compton was awarded numerous medals, including the Purple Heart and Silver Star. Some of those amazing things were immortalized in the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. “A very humble man, and paradoxically so, because he had done so many amazing things in his life.” “He was absolutely fabulous,” says Marcus Brotherton, co-writer of Compton’s memoir, Call of Duty: My Life Before, During, and After the Band of Brothers. With his passing, the Bruin community not only lost one of its most accomplished members, but an exemplar of the enduring legacy left to us by The Greatest Generation. Just days later, Compton took ill and passed away on Feb. In 1947 he joined the Air Force Reserve serving in the Office of Special Investigations and eventually Judge Advocate General Corps before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1970.In early January, a few hundred people gathered in Burlington, Wash., to celebrate the 90th birthday of UCLA alumnus Lynn “Buck” Compton. In real life, while I was hollering for the medic, trying to figure out what to do, I remember two distinct thoughts: How are we going to help the wounded guys?.Maybe this is the time the Germans are really going to get us all." Compton wrote in his autobiography, ".although I was affected by the horrors of Bastogne, I do not believe I was clinically shell shocked, as the series portrays me. In January 1945, Compton left Easy Company for another assignment.Īccording to Band of Brothers, though ostensibly evacuated for severe trench foot, his transfer was due in part to combat fatigue, culminating when Compton witnessed two of his closest friends, Joseph Toye and William Guarnere, being badly maimed by artillery fire resulting in each losing a leg. After a partial recovery, he returned to Easy Company in time for the siege in the frozen Ardennes that became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Later in 1944, Compton was shot through the buttocks while participating in Operation Market Garden, the Allies' ill-fated attempt to seize a number of bridges in the Netherlands and cross the Rhine River into Germany. Episode two ("Day of Days") of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers depicts this assault. Compton was awarded the Silver Star for his action in disabling the guns. During the company's action at Brécourt Manor, Compton and others, under the leadership of Lieutenant Richard Winters, assaulted a German battery of four 105 mm howitzers firing on Utah Beach, disabling the guns and routing the enemy. In December 1943, he joined the Army and was assigned to Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division prior to Operation Overlord. ![]() Lieutenant Colonel Buck Compton of the famous Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division.Īt UCLA, Compton participated in ROTC under Cadet Commander John Singlaub.
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