MARSHALL L. MCBRIDE
Age: 87
Born: Nov. 11, 1922
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Residence: Bermuda Dunes
Military branch: U.S. Army Air Corps; 10th Air Force, 3rd Combat Cargo Group; 11th Combat Cargo Squadron
Years served: 1942-1945
Rank: First lieutenant; captain in the Ready Reserve
Family: Wife Jan; two children (by previous marriage) Patricia Makos of Yorba Linda and Marsha Whitehill of Corona del Mar; one grandson; two great-grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming Wednesday
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Morton Gollin of Cathedral City.
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at mydesert.com/wwii.
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Marshall McBride, a U.S. Army Air Corps C-47 cargo pilot, flew more than 800 hours over The Hump — a treacherous stretch of air space in the eastern Himalayan Mountains — delivering supplies to Allied ground troops in Burma during World War II.
McBride, who spent nine months traversing The Hump, had to navigate the C-47 through adverse weather, especially during the five to six months of monsoon season.
“There was a low ceiling, and it rained every day,” he said.
McBride flew from India to Burma through a pass in the Himalayas called “devil's gate” — where the visibility was often zero and he had to rely on the aircraft's instruments to guide the way.
“If you didn't know how to fly instruments, you'd go home in a box — if they could find you” after the plane crashed into a mountain, he said.
McBride, who joined the National Guard at the age of 17, opted for the Air Corps over the Army because he had no interest in becoming an infantryman.
“I didn't want to die in a foxhole,” he said. “I wanted to die with a clean shirt. I knew what it was like stomping around in the mud.”
During flight training, McBride was assigned to fly C-47 transports — which were converted Douglas Aircraft DC-3 passenger planes.
“They just ripped everything out of the inside, and we used it to carry cargo,” he said.
The 21-year-old second lieutenant was assigned to a combat cargo group that was mobilizing at Morrison Field in Palm Beach, Fla.
“The code name was ‘bond project' — we thought we were going around selling war bonds,” he said, laughing.
One-hundred brand new C-47s — destination Dinjan, India — were sitting at Morrison Field when McBride arrived.
The combat group flew to Dinjan by way of Ascension Island and Karachi, India — now Karachi, Afghanistan.
“The group was divided into four squadrons with 25 airplanes in each squadron,” he said. “My unit, the 11th squadron, was housed in bamboo bashas (dirt-floor shelters covered with palm leaves) in a weed field.
“Our principal duty was flying food, medical supplies and gasoline to Allied military bases in Burma,” he said.
McBride operated as a co-pilot during his first flights.
“I was fresh out of flying school,” he said. “I didn't know anything. I learned quickly.”
McBride's main assignment was at Myitkyina (pronounced Mishanaw), Burma — a small city situated on the edge of the Irrawady River.
“It had one gravel runway full of small rocks and chuckholes,” he said.
The Japanese occupied one side of the river, and the Americans occupied the other side, he said.
“My other duty was flying tree-top level, dropping supplies to American and British soldiers fighting the Japanese in the Burma jungles,” he said.
They were shot at daily from Japanese ground troops while dropping supplies over the targets.
“Japanese Zeros only attacked a couple of times,” he said. “I'd put the plane down in the clouds,” to hide from the fighter planes.
The drop loads were kicked out of the large cargo door by two Quartermaster Corps enlisted men, McBride said.
“I used to call them ‘kickers,' because they would lie on their backs and shove the drop loads with their feet after I gave the signal,” he said.
Some packages were parachuted down, and other loads were free-dropped in burlap sacks.
“Targets were prepared by Allied soldiers from old, cut-up parachutes used in previous drop loads,” McBride said. “If we overshot the ground target, the Japanese would steal the supply drops for themselves and shoot at us at the same time.”
For the fighting men on the ground, the food and supplies dropped by the combat group were the lifeline of their existence. They had to survive on whatever could be dropped down to them.
“Many times after our C-47 was unloaded at Myitkyina we flew badly wounded soldiers back to a hospital located on the India border next to the Himalayan Mountains,” he said. “The flight nurses would usually fly back with the wounded to try to keep them alive until we landed at Ledo Hospital.”
The C-47s and their crews took a heavy beating during the grueling transport operation.
“Our total losses were over 60 percent due to the adverse flying weather over The Hump,” he said.
McBride was awarded four Air Medals and was twice awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, “for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flights over enemy-held territory in an unarmed aircraft was highly instrumental in the success of the Allied Forces in this sector. This display of devotion to duty was beyond that normally expected and reflects great credit on himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.”
“A few years ago I received a letter from one of our pilots who stayed in the Air Force and retired as a colonel,” McBride said. “His last sentence to me was, ‘Marshall, it was a miracle that any of us returned alive' — truer words were never spoken.”
