As the green light suddenly glowed the young second lieutenant shuffled up to the door of the C-47 and leapt out into the darkness.  Other troopers tumbled out behind him.  Parachutes unfurled and clapped open.  The young, green pilots flying the C-47s were attempting to avoid the barrage of German flak and machinegun tracers filling the air, and in so doing, sped up and took evasive action.  As a result, the US paratroopers were jumping way too low and at too high a speed.  The force of the prop blast was so great that the chin strap on Lieutenant Buck Compton’s helmet snapped, the rope on his leg bag broke, and he lost all his equipment.  As he landed in a Normandy field in the early hours of the Allied Invasion of June 6, 1944, Lt. Buck Compton had only a jump knife as a weapon and was miles from his assigned landing zone.  By day’s end, Lt. Compton would engage dug-in German paratroopers, superior in number and equipment, defeat them and assist in destroying four 105 mm cannons which were firing on the American infantry landing of Utah beach.  For his bravery and leadership under fire that day he was awarded the Silver Star. 

 

    I met Buck as a result of producing a documentary on the battle which occurred at Brecourt Manor in Normandy.  The story amazed me and seemed to be a significant D-Day event of which little had been written.  Twelve “green” American paratroopers pitted against an estimated 70 dug-in German veterans of the Eastern Front.  The assignment:  capture and destroy the four artillery emplacements hammering the landing craft on Utah Beach.  I interviewed Buck and found him to have an impressive legal career in addition to an honorable military background.  He’s about as down to earth as any hero I had ever met.  I have felt privileged to call him my friend.

 

    Born in Los Angeles, California, Lynn D. “Buck” Compton, grew up playing sports and having the dream of being signed as a major league baseball catcher.  In the fall of 1939 Buck attended UCLA and earned a starting position on the varsity football squad and played in the 1940 Rose Bowl game.  Baseball was his first love and he dove into the sport with abandon.  He played catcher and assisted UCLA to several winning seasons.  Of course, having Jackie Robinson as a teammate helped the team along.

 

    Like all UCLA men at the time, Buck Compton was required to take four years of  ROTC.  When the war broke out Buck was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and by the fall of 1943 he had made his way through jump school at Fort Benning in Georgia, and was on his way to England.  He was assigned to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment as Assistant Second Platoon leader in Company E.  He got to know his men well, too well in the estimation of some, as he enjoyed gambling and having a good time with the enlisted. “I didn’t like the contrived separation between enlisted and the officers” said Compton.  He was young, in an elite outfit, and was about to partake in the largest military invasion in modern history.

 

     One of the men in Lt. Compton’s platoon was an Oregonian named Don Malarkey.  Buck and “Malark” became fast and enduring friends, a bond forged in the caldron of conflict provided by E Company’s combat assignments.  “He is one of the greatest guys I’ve ever known”, says Don Malarkey of Compton.  Their friendship has spanned the years and provided great memories and fodder for discussion.  Don was one of the twelve who attacked the German artillery at Brecourt Manor with Lt. Compton, winning the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Clusters.  They fought together in Holland, that is until Buck took a German round in the buttocks.  Don led the effort to drag Buck to the back of a tank and off the battlefield.  Buck rejoined the Company just before the Battle of the Bulge and he and Sgt. Malarkey went into Bastogne in the dead of winter without proper clothing or equipment in order to face a juggernaut of German armor and men. 

 

    For those familiar with the history of the Battle of the Bulge, you will recall that Hitler made a last great attempt to forestall the allied advance by launching a surprise attack through the Ardennes forest at a weak point in the American lines.  The German had to take Bastogne, a Belgian city which controlled the road network in and throughout the Ardennes region.  On December 16, 1944, the German army rolled over the American front line units causing horrific causalties. The American’s broke and retreated.  The German armor and infantry stormed through the Belgian countryside with little to stop them.  Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had only two divisions in reserve which he could possibly throw into the fray in hopes of blunting the German advance long enough for other units to be moved to the battle from other sectors.  

 

The 101st Airborne Division was being rested and refitted in Mourmalone, France, after fighting a grueling 78 days in the muck and mud of Holland.  Lt. Compton, Sgt. Malarkey, and the rest of “E” Company had turned in their equipment and ammunition and were waiting a total refitting of combat gear and winter clothing when the German divisions hit the American lines.  Despite their depleted number and the lack of sufficient equipment and supplies, Eisenhower deployed the 101st to Bastogne and gave orders that the city had to be held at all costs.  As Buck Compton and Don Malarkey were trucked in an overnight express to Bastogne and dumped out to the west of the city in their summer issue clothing, with essentially no ammunition, and in weather that would soon dip below zero.  Malarkey recalls Buck asking “do you have any ammo for that carbine?”  Don, like many of the other men in this unit, didn’t.  Buck returned with a clip and handed it to Don, saying “here this may come in handy.”  Off they went to stop the Germans who out-numbered the 101st (fifteen to one, by some estimates), out-gunned the Americans, and were rolling toward them with tanks.

 

Judge Compton does not recall the siege of Bastogne with any great fondness.  “We were outnumbered, surrounded and without proper equipment.  We lost a lot of men – good men.”  He and his platoon endured the rain of fire dropped on them during the 9 days they were surrounded.  He saw his men killed and two of his closest friends lost a leg each.  After the 101st was re-supplied by air and the siege was broken, Buck got trench foot was shipped to the rear.  Stephen E. Ambrose recounts the remainder of “E” Company’s service in his book “Band of Brothers”.   After his recovery, Lt. Compton was put in charge of all Army athletic events in the European Theater.  His service days ended with an office in Paris before being discharged stateside as a First Lieutenant.

 

Frankly, it is rather difficult to summarize the full and varied life of Lynn D. “Buck” Compton.  He does not consider himself war hero.  “I did my duty and came home – that was it.”  After the war Buck went on to finish his degree at UCLA and while working as an officer for the LAPD he completed law school and passed the California Bar.  He was hired as a prosecutor for Los Angeles County and eventually worked his way up to Chief Deputy Prosecutor under Irving Younger.  One of his last convictions was that of Sir Han Sir Han for the assassination of Robert Kennedy.  In 1970, then Governor Reagan appointed Buck to the California Court of Appeals for the Second Judicial District.  Judge Compton served on the bench until his retirement in 1990.  He now lives in Mt. Vernon, Washington near his two daughters and their families and provides weekly policy and political commentary on local radio.  “I’ve lived a full life and have no regrets.  I’m just glad to be around” quips Compton.

The exploits and tragedies of E Company’s service in the European Theater were recently captured in the epic miniseries by HBO entitled “Band of Brothers”.  Based on the book by the late Stephen Ambrose, the miniseries features both Buck Compton (Neil McDounough) and Don Malarkey (Scott Grimes) as central figures in E Company.  “Band of Brothers” cost over 120 million to complete, making it the most expensive mini-series in the history of television.  It was recently nominated for 20 Emmy’s and took home six, including best mini-series.  If you talk to Buck today, he’d probably pull a long draw on his corncob pipe and say he is just glad to have had an opportunity to serve his country with a “bunch of great guys.”  He is proud to have been a part of an American legend – the 101st Airborne Division.