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| Captain Buddy McMahan was the company commander of Company A, 17th Armored Engineer Battalion. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78276511/cecil-e.-mcmahan/photo https://www.pinterest.com/pin/538672805415568860/?lp=true |
Cecil E. "Buddy" McMahan never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on July 17, 1918 in Alabama. His parents Sam and Cecil (yes, it seems he was named after his mom) were also both born in Alabama. His father worked as a railroad engineer. Buddy had three older brothers, one older sister, one younger brother, and one younger sister. By 1940 Cecil had completed three years of college at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) where he was quarterback of the football team and participated in ROTC.
He enlisted in the army on May 20, 1941. He reached the rank of Captain in Company A (where he was the company commander), 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, 2nd Armored Division. Captain McMahan's unit fought in North Africa and Sicily. It landed in Normandy three days after D-Day. The engineers bulldozed roads from the beaches and used the blades on the front of their tanks to break through hedgerows.
After a week off of the line, the 2nd AD was assigned to break through the St Lo - Vire River line on July 25, 1944. Two days later Captain McMahan and five other men from his unit were killed by an enemy artillery barrage.
Captain McMahan was awarded the Silver Star at some point between November 1942 and July 1944. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any details about how he earned the medal.
His grave is at Oakwood Cemetery in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
Last year on this date I profiled B-17 pilot John Reeve. You can read about John here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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