Don Malarkey’s story of growing up in Astoria, Washington, during the Depression is unforgettable. Donnie was one of the most famous fighting groups in World War II, a member of Easy Company, the group Stephen Ambrose chronicled in Band of Brothers. Donnie made it and ended up in England as part of the D-Day forces that would begin to drive the Germans out of France. He wheezed like an old man on his first three-mile run up and down Currahee, the mountain in the midst of the camp that was the make or break point for every man aspiring to be one of the Screaming Eagles. When he got to Toccoa, Georgia, in the first wave of paratroopers assigned to the newly formed 101st Airborne, Donnie found he was not as fit as he thought. He was also a “hell-raiser” and an athletic young man. Donnie was also a scholar with a love of poetry and geography at which he excelled. Growing up in Astoria, Donnie loved camping and hunting in the outdoors, skills that would stand him in good stead when he became a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne. Donnie seemed destined to follow in his uncles’ footsteps.

One uncle died during the war at the age of nineteen and the other as a result of his injuries at the age of thirty-one. Although his father didn’t serve in World War I, his uncles were soldiers and both died. '.a gritty and often humorous memoir of a soldier.'Įasy Company Soldier : Up close and personal with a member of the Band of Brothers.ĭonnie Malarkey was born and raised in Astoria, Washington.

Easy company soldier don malarkey