Edward Tipper

Sergeant Edward Joseph Tipper (born August 3, 1921) is a former non-commissioned officer of the Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division, United States Army during the Second World War. He is one of the 140 original Toccoa men of Easy Company. Tipper was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Bart Ruspoli. Tipper's life story was featured in the 2009 book We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from Band of Brothers

Youth
Tipper was born in Detroit, Michigan,in 1921 to an Irish couple. The family moved back to Ireland when Tipper was 3, but returned to the States later. Tipper graduated from school in 1939 in Detroit He worked for a department store.

Military Service
After the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Tipper signed up for the marines, but was rejected because his teeth could not bite together. He therefore volunteered for paratroopers and was sent to Toccoa, Georgia for training under Captain Herbert Sobel. During the training in Camp Mackall, Tipper was made Sobel's runner. With his help, "Sobel was able to mislay his maps, compass, and other items when he most needed them." Tipper received further training with Easy Company in Aldbourne, United Kingdom. Tipper made his first combat jump into Normandy on D-Day. He met with fellow Easy Company member Frank Mellet and some other paratroopers and had a firefight with one German patrol. Later the men were attacking the Marmion Farm. Other Easy Company members, including Floyd Talbert, Forrest Guth and Walter Gordon, were also involved in the attack, albeit they were in another group of American soldiers. They held the place before joining their own units.

Tipper fought in Carentan. After clearing a house, a mortar shell exploded near him when he was standing in the doorway. His right eye was destroyed and his legs were broken. Joseph Liebgott reached him and helped him sit down. Liebgott and Harry Welsh dragged Tipper to an aid station nearby. Tipper was sent to a hospital in England, where his right eye was removed. He was sent back to the United States.

Later life
Several months after the attack, Tipper visited good friend Floyd Talbert's family. Talbert told his family that the visitor could only be someone else, because he thought Tipper must have died from his injury in Carentan. After the war, the two met and had a great reunion. Tipper was discharged in August 1945 after one year in army hospitals. At first, Tipper needed to walk with a cane and wore an eye patch. Tipper remembered how everybody would want to do something to show support for the returning veterans. For instance, someone would pay his bill for him at a restaurant, or there would not be a bill at all.

Tipper attended the University of Michigan and completed a master degree in English at the University of Northern Colorado. He became a teacher. In 1961 he won the John Hay Fellowship. When Tipper was sixty one, he met with Rosie, who was then thirty four, and they got married despite strong oppositions in February 12, 1983. Their daughter Kerry was born ten months later.