By Brett Regan ~ Junction City Post

FORT RILEY – In his three-year long deployment during World War II, Retired Staff Sergeant Earl McClung parachuted into France on D-Day, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and climbed up to Hitler’s Eagle Nest retreat.

And today, the 89-year-old McClung still lives to tell his stories.

McClung was at Fort Riley on Wednesday to speak with Warrior Transition Battalion soldiers. McClung answered various questions for about an hour on his experiences during the war, the importance of getting help upon returning home from war and his character on the HBO documentary, “Band of Brothers.”

In talking about parachuting into France on D-Day, McClung told the JC Post that the whole situation in Normandy was a fiasco from the start. He said he landed 13 miles from where he was supposed to go and it took him about a week to get back with his outfit.

McClung believes the goof was the reason why it was a success.

McClung was assigned to Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division from 1943 to 1947.