Photo By Sgt. Danielle Rodrigues | Sgt. Paul Lipscomb (right) and his father pose for a photo after his wedding 2009....... read more read more
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FORT DRUM, N.Y. - When Danielle Lipscomb and her 18-month-old daughter Scarlett started putting ice cubes in a bucket of water, it was more than eight months after last year’s ALS ice bucket challenges that took over social media pages, but for her husband, Sgt. Paul Lipscomb, it was exactly the way he would have wanted it.
So, in 20-something-degree, North Country weather and in two feet of snow, she and Scarlett held freezing water over Lipscomb’s head Friday in front of their house.
Lipscomb started the video like many others have with the following:
“I’m here doing the ALS ice bucket challenge. It comes a little late. I wasn’t nominated, per se, but I was in Afghanistan when all of this was going on. So, I just want to make up for it and doing it in memory of dad. It’s obviously very cold out here. So, it just kinda adds to the joy and the fun of it. So, babe … whenever you’re ready …”
And with that, Danielle Lipscomb got to help her husband honor his father in a way that would have made him proud.
When millions of people took to social media and helped raise money and awareness for the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association, the Department of Defense reminded service members that, although it was for a good cause, that they could not take the challenge while in uniform. It caused a conundrum for Lipscomb, who was deployed and wore his military uniform around the clock as a security team leader for the Combined Joint Task Force 10 and Regional Command-East Joint Operations Center at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.
“This is the way Dad would have wanted me to do this,” Lipscomb said. “He was an honorable man and would have wanted me to uphold my commitments. Doing it (in Afghanistan) would have been disrespectful to Dad.”
His father, Dr. Wayne Lipscomb, who served as a Southern Baptist minister in Georgetown, Ky., succumbed to the neurodegenerative disease May 15, 2014, at 54.
Paul Lipscomb received the American Red Cross message and was rushed on emergency leave out of Afghanistan, but unfortunately, he did not make it in time to be there before his father died.
Lipscomb spent the first few days helping his mother, Paula Lipscomb, and his older sister, Ashlee McCullough, with the funeral services. His wife and their daughter were there to meet him as well.
“He was just thrown into it; I think he was on autopilot because he had to be,” Danielle Lipscomb said about her husband’s arrival in Kentucky last May. “His mother was dealing with legal matters, and so he had to be strong for everyone.”
For Lipscomb, the hardest part of the process was at the beginning of his travel back home to see his father for the last time. In a packed outbound terminal, he had to hold back his tears and “deal with it.”
“Not dealing with it with others around was tough, and I was dealing with it by myself,” he recalled.
It’s the kind of man his father raised though. Lipscomb, with his strong faith in God, family and country, was a newly promoted noncommissioned officer, and he would suppress his grief long enough to take care of his Family and the community around Georgetown who had cared for his father toward the end of his life.
Lipscomb, who had always wanted to serve his country, made the decision to enlist four years after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University. His future bride was enamored with him immediately after seeing him playing a guitar at a church social event. Year after year, as Lipscomb mentioned his desire to enlist, it just didn’t seem as though the timing was right for their relationship.
“I wanted to make sure it was the best thing for the both of us. … I mean, I married her first, and I wanted to make sure she was on board with it,” he said.
Lipscomb worked several jobs and was successful in them. He even became the fourth generation of Lipscomb men who would become a minister. Yet, in 2012, it became apparent that becoming a Soldier was going to happen. He would follow in the footsteps of both his paternal grandfather, who spent time as a B-17 bomber gunner, and his maternal grandfather, who was a tanker in the 3rd Infantry Division.
Paul Lipscomb enlisted in the 18X option – the Special Forces option; however, an injury during U.S. Army Basic Airborne Course derailed his plans. Somehow, it was still a path he embraced.
“I wanted infantry,” he said. “If I was going to come in, I wanted boots on the ground … I wanted to be in the fight. I mean, all (military occupational specialties) have their purpose, but I wanted to be in the fight.”
Lipscomb’s parents traveled to Fort Benning, Ga., to see his transition from basic training into the “blue” during his One-Station, Unit Training as an infantryman, and Wayne Lipscomb proudly pinned his son’s infantry shoulder cord weeks after being diagnosed with the crippling disease.
“That’s when it struck me,” Lipscomb said of his father’s condition. “He couldn’t walk 100 feet without a lot of discomfort.”
Through the years, Lipscomb would see his father from time to time, and he would notice his deteriorating health more than others near him who saw the process gradually. Despite his condition, Lipscomb said that his father was always there for him. Their relationship was bonded by their love for military history that included trips to Civil War battle sites and looking through photo albums of his grandfather in World War II.
Wayne Lipscomb served, not only as a minister, but also as the Georgetown chaplain, basketball coach and numerous other positions throughout Kentucky, but as busy as he was, Paul Lipscomb remembered him always picking up the phone to be his son’s sounding board.
“I want the kind of relationship eventually that he had with me and my sister … with my kids,” Lipscomb said. “He always put us first.”
During his deployment, Lipscomb had put the mission and his Soldiers first. A fellow NCO, Sgt. Brian Smith, who was challenged by his wife, had asked Lipscomb if he heard about the challenge. Lipscomb, who had not known anything about it, started researching online and was excited about participating.
“Just something silly as dumping water on my head seems small,” he said. “I think the biggest tribute is in the way I treat my Family as my dad did.”
Although the ice bucket challenge global craze has ended for the most part, Lipscomb was quick to remind others that there are families out there who can’t leave it behind.
“Just because it’s left the news, there are people, at the end of the day, who can’t turn off the TV – caretakers like my mom who live with this disease.”
| Date Taken: | 01.23.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.02.2015 17:11 |
| Story ID: | 153316 |
| Location: | FORT DRUM, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 105 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Soldier takes ALS bucket challenge after deployment to honor dad’s memory, by MSG Kap Kim, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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