Few lasting friendships were made during this period, but I made one which was destined to be one of the strongest of my life, one which ended only with the death of my first “Army buddy” in a foxhole near Bastogne in January, 1945. His name was Warren “Skippy” Muck, an upstate New Yorker of great charm and wit, who drew people to him like a magnet. Quiet, unassuming, totally “real,” his strength was revealed in combat, where his 2nd Platoon mortar section earned a fearsome reputation as Easy Company’s most effective heavy weapons element. Skippy was a happy guy, and those who knew him basked in the warmth of that happiness and were happy too.
His closest friend, and, inevitably, one of mine, was Don Malarkey, another warm, friendly and happy-go-lucky individual who likewise rose to the top of my list of personal heroes like cream to the top of the old-fashioned glass milk bottle.
~ Robert Burr Smith
