After Pearl Harbor, Malarkey tried enlisting in the Marines, but was rejected because of dental problems. He then tried the Army Air Corps, but lacked the requisite mathematics background. As such, when he was drafted in July 1942, he volunteered for the paratroops of the United States Army, after reading a Life magazine article about them being the best.[3]: 29–30, 281 He trained at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Of the enlisted men who trained at Toccoa, only one man in six received certification as a member of the fledgling paratroops. He received his jump certification in 1942.[3]: 36
Malarkey became a member of E ("Easy") Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. He went to England in 1944 to participate in Mission Albany, the airborne landing portion of Operation Neptune, the largest amphibious invasion in history, which was the assault portion of Operation Overlord.[3]: 64 Malarkey parachuted into France with his unit. Later that day, in a pitched battle, he helped knock out four German 105 mm artillery battery, an action now called the Brécourt Manor Assault, for which he received the Bronze Star for his heroism.
Malarkey returned to the University of Oregon in 1946 to complete his degree. He was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity (Gamma Zeta).[3]: 234 While attending the university, he met and became engaged to Irene Moor (1926–2006) of Portland.[3]: 234–236 They married on 19 June 1948.[3]: 236 Malarkey graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in business.[3]: 26 The couple lived in Astoria, Oregon, where Malarkey became the sales manager for Lovell Auto Company. During this time, he ran for the position of County Commissioner of Clatsop County, Oregon, and was elected in 1954.[3]: 237 The family moved to Portland, Oregon, where Malarkey worked as an insurance and real estate agent.[3]: 237
Donald Malarkey in 2008
Malarkey and his wife Irene had four children, a son, Michael and three daughters, Martha, Sharon, and Marianne.[3]: 237 Irene died in April 2006 of breast cancer.[3]: 251
In 1987, Malarkey was introduced to author and University of New Orleans Professor of History Stephen Ambrose at an Easy Company reunion in New Orleans. In 1989, Malarkey traveled with Ambrose and other members of Easy Company, including Richard Winters and Carwood Lipton, to various sites where they had fought in Europe.[3]: 252 The oral history and first-person recollections that Malarkey and the others provided became the basis for Ambrose's book Band of Brothers, which was published in 1992. During Ambrose's collection of anecdotal information for the book, Malarkey told of the saga of the Niland brothers of Tonawanda, New York, how two had died on D-Day and another was presumed killed.[3]: 250 Fritz, one of the four Niland brothers, was close friends with Malarkey's best friend and fellow Easy Company member Sergeant Warren H. "Skip" Muck who was from the same town as the Nilands. This episode was the impetus for the screenplay of Saving Private Ryan.[3]: 110
Malarkey lived in Salem, Oregon, and formerly spoke extensively to high school and college students and other groups on his Easy Company experiences. He traveled with the USO to Army posts and hospitals in the United States and Europe, where he met with soldiers wounded in the Iraq War. In 2005, he appeared in an advertisement urging repeal of the estate tax. In 2012, Malarkey retired from public speaking events.
Following the death of Sergeant Paul Rogers on March 16, 2015, Malarkey became the oldest surviving member of Easy Company. Malarkey died on September 30, 2017, of age-related causes.[2] He was interred at Willamette National Cemetery.[1]
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