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Watch VideoLocal Band of Brothers member shares experience with middle school students
Story By: Andy Koen
Source: KOAA
It's fourth period at Pleasant View Middle School in Pueblo County. The sixth graders in Randy Sandoval's American History class have been studying World War II, and today they're getting a special lesson from one of the men who fought in it.
Earl McClung was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne, Easy Company. Yes, that Easy Company, the one Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg featured in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. From the invasion of Normandy on D-day, to the Battle of the Bulge, to Berchtesgaden, Germany and Hitler's exclusive Eagle's Nest retreat; the men of Easy Company fought through nearly every stage of the European war.
"I never thought it was anything special," McClung says. "I thought that's what everybody did."
McClung answers questions from children like who his friends were during the war and did his parachute ever have holes in it from being shot at. He even adds a few jokes, like telling them the only reason he decided joined the paratroopers in the first place was for the extra $50 a month in pay.
"I'm hoping that they will learn all about this stuff, what it's all about, and maybe they can do something," McClung said.
Despite rubbing elbows with Hollywood heavyweights like Hanks and Spielberg, old "One lung" is humble about his military past. But to people like Randy Sandoval, the accomplishments of McClung and the other men of Easy Company are something special. Sandoval has studied the Band of Brothers story so much that he now teaches history lessons on it.
"I read the book way before the movie and I was so interested in the Airborne that I was fortunate enough to find out that Earl lives in our town," Sandoval said.
After the two met, Sandoval decided to expand his Band of Brothers curriculum. He went with McClung to an Easy Company reunion last year, and the guys now want to take him with them to Europe this summer for a tour of the battlefields.
"I've always felt it was my duty, as I served in the service myself, that I should preserve the histories of these special people from the greatest generation," Sandoval said.
It's Sandoval's dream to have the Band of Brothers story taught in classrooms across the country. McClung, meanwhile, simply hopes that another generation will benefit from his sharing of his story. "Maybe they're the ones that has to step up one day," he said. "Maybe they can do a better job than we did."
