Dan had an adventurist spirit, hitchhiking from Ohio to Colorado and back at 15 years of age, funded by taking odd jobs along the way. The next couple of years he hunted game to help feed his family during the Depression. Dan became an expert marksman, which served him well as a sniper and machine gunner while being a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne during WWII.

He left England about 10 pm on June 5 and jumped about midnight. The planes carrying all the paratroopers were all in line- in formation. But when we flew over Normandy the German anti-aircraft fire began and Dan could hear bullets from machine guns and shrapnel from the 20 millimeter shells hitting our plane. See more of Dan McBride firsthand account of his 1944 - in attached documents.( Courtesy of Silver City Daily Press and Roger Lanse)