The nickname "One Lung" was bestowed upon him in Normandy by fellow E Company soldier Paul Rogers. McClung was sleeping when a lieutenant arrived and asked Rogers who their machine gunner was; Rogers pointed at McClung (who to that point was actually NOT a machine gunner), so the lieutenant left the gun beside the sleeping trooper. Upon waking, McClung was not happy to learn that he had been made the gunner; Rogers made up a rhyming poem about the incident that included the line, "who hung the gun on One Lung McClung?".