Earl McClung

Earl Ervin “One Lung” McClung (April 27, 1923 – November 27, 2013) was an American Army non-commissioned officer and World War II veteran. He served with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, and was one of the original members of the company trained at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Born on the Colville Indian Reservation in northeastern Washington, McClung grew up in Inchelium and was a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in February 1943 and volunteered for the airborne forces. After completing basic training at Fort Wolters, Texas, and paratrooper training at Fort Benning, Georgia, he joined Easy Company at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. McClung made his combat jump into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, landing near Sainte-Mère-Église. Separated from much of Easy Company after the jump, he fought alongside paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division before rejoining his unit during the Battle of Normandy. He subsequently participated in Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands and the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. During the fighting near Haguenau, he was selected as a lead scout for a patrol across the Moder River to capture German prisoners. He remained with Easy Company through the end of the war and was among the first American soldiers to reach the Berchtesgaden area in May 1945. After returning to the United States in December 1945, McClung briefly reenlisted in the Army before returning to civilian life. He worked in a trucking garage and later spent 17 years as a mail carrier. He subsequently worked in law enforcement and eventually retired in 1988 as a game warden for the Colville Confederated Tribes. McClung's wartime experiences were featured in Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 book Band of Brothers and in Marcus Brotherton's 2009 book We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers. He also appeared in the HBO documentary We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company. McClung was portrayed by Rocky Marshall in the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. McClung died on November 27, 2013, at his home in Pueblo West, Colorado, at the age of 90. His ashes were later interred at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.