Reflecting on The "Band of Brothers" from Echo Company 5 - 83!

By Paul McBride, Captain, USMC (1983 - 1989)

We few, we happy few… we BAND OF BROTHERS! Henry V, Act IV Scene iii, St. Crispin’s Day Speech at Agincourt

Last week, August 14-16, 2020 members of Echo Company 5-83, USMC, attended our Company Reunion (37th Anniversary).

As we prepared for our 35th reunion two years ago, many of us shared bios and updates of where we've been and what we've done since we graduated from Quantico in 1983...

Here's a short story that I've shared many times as I've opened up about my time in the “Old Corps”. It uniquely demonstrates the "WE" not "ME" ethic that the Marine Corps instills in all Marines.

Just before "Tank" week - (August of '83) - my dad C.J. McBride passed away suddenly. I highlight that it was "tank" week because it ties in closely to my relationship with my dad.

He and my mom were high school sweethearts who met in 1938... They were both members of the "Greatest Generation." He was with the Army’s 710th "Tank" Battalion attached to the 1st Marine Division on Peleliu, while she did "war work" at the old Land Title Building in downtown Philadelphia.

C.J. "Mac" McBride and his fiance' Miriam McGill. This picture is from 1943, just before he shipped out to the Pacific.

Peleliu is not a battle we hear a whole lot about as over 1300 men were lost and after it was taken - it was decided that it wasn't needed as an airbase after all! Five years after the War, Marine Commandant, General Clifton B. Cates, wrote that the assault on Peleliu was one of the most vicious, stubbornly contested and least understood battles of the war. This was significant coming from a six-time wounded veteran of Belleau Wood and Soissons during WWI and later Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.

Below is a picture from Ken Burns' book "The War" An Intimate History 1941 - 1945, (page 265). My dad is in the lead tank at "Bloody Nose" Ridge.

Tanks from Alpha Company , 710th Tank Battalion, advance on Bloody Nose Ridge in support of Marine infantry

WW II Marine, Eugene Sledge wrote about the battle in his memoir "With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa" - a tough, but historically significant read. HBO’S “The Pacific” devoted an episode to the battle as well. Sledge wrote that it was a "nether world of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning; life had no meaning. The fierce struggle made savages of us all." Leon Uris states "the Marine battle for Peleliu was one of the most savage of the Second World War." Tom Bartlett (Managing Editor, Leatherneck) said "Peleliu . . . shows perhaps more than any other World War II invasion, the true mettle of the Marines and their devotion to each other, their units, and the Corps."

39 years after the battle, members of Echo Company displayed the devotion Tom Bartlett referred to in Leatherneck.

My dad died on Sunday evening - August 21, 1983 - 37 years ago today! On Monday the 22nd, at zero dark thirty, I was called to our Company Commander, Captain Mike Reep's office. My roommates all looked at me quizzically as none of us had any idea why I was being called to the CO's office. One of them humorously said - "Bake... did you park in Reep's spot last night!"

After an emotional meeting with Captain Reep and the Chaplain, where I was told of my dad’s passing, I was granted 10 days emergency leave. As I packed up and began driving back to Philly, I realized that I was not going to be able to share any "tank" stories with my dad. 

Fast forward a few days to Thursday evening - (25 August),.. While standing in the receiving line at the funeral in a civilian suit and tie, 2nd Lt.'s Preston McLaughlin, Rich Regan and Fran Rosato showed up in their Alpha’s - (Dress Green’s) - with mine in a dry cleaning package! They had gotten them out of the tailors as they were being altered when I left on Monday. 

I'm one of seven, and most of my siblings spouses are from large families as well – over 70 immediate family members. In addition, ALL of our collective friends were paying their respects. (A couple of hundred people were waiting in line).

When my three "BROTHERS" from Echo Company arrived and hustled me out of the receiving line and down stairs to change... EVERYONE took notice. In less than 10 minutes I was back in the line in my perfectly tailored and pressed Alphas!

2nd Lt. P.M. McBride, USMC Alpha (Dress Green) Uniform, 1983

When word spread that they had driven three hours north, helped get me "squared away", paid their respects and then drove three hours south back to Quantico it caused quite a stir.

Having my uniform made a huge impact the next day when I was handed the folded flag from the funeral detail and had the privilege of saluting it as I presented it to my mom.

One of my younger cousins who witnessed the Marines "taking care of their own" decided to join up a year later when he graduated from high school.

It's still talked about at family get-togethers 37 years later! 

We few, we happy few… we BAND OF BROTHERS!

About the author... Paul McBride is a former Marine Officer and the Founder and President of American Military Society Press. You can contact him at [email protected].

An earlier version of this article originally appeared in the July, 2018 issue of Leatherneck, The Magazine of the Marines.